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Dec
14
2009
Predictions for the Joomla World in 2010
Written by Steve Burge   
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1) Mobile-Ready Templates and Extensions

Probably 50% of the articles and news I read now are on my phone. Morph from Prothemer.com is the first product I've seen to produce a really high-quality display of a Joomla site on the iPhone but expect more templates and extensions to follow their lead in 2010.

2) Venture Capital

With the money to be made in Joomla and other CMSs, I'd be shocked if more companies didn't start accepting and growing with Venture Capital funds. Artisteer is one example of what VC money can do:

Predictions for the Joomla World in 2010

3) Conferences Take Off

CMS ExpoThe CMS Expo in Chicago is going to be bigger and better than ever this year. There's also talk of Joomla's first ever International Event to be held in Germany and for major events on each continent. The SEO and domain name industries each support multiple conferences each year - there's no reason that the CMS industry can't do the same.

4) Projects Become Gatekeepers

Increasingly projects such as Drupal, Joomla and Wordpress want to approve what is done in their name. I only see that trend growing next year.  For example, Acquia / Drupal is already preparing certification for developers. Expect to see many more of these official seals of approval.

5) Template Frameworks

At the moment template frameworks are used entirely within template companies to allow them to churn out complex templates each month. With the release of Morph and the news that Rockettheme's Gantry is going GPL, the pressure will be on for other design firms to open up thier platforms and encourage other developers to get on board. Frameworks will become similar to APIs ... a way to develop ecoystems around your product.

6) Small Joomla Businesses Become Small-Mid Joomla Businesses

For me, one of the major trends in 2009 was hobby developers finding it increasingly difficult to support their products. sh404SEF, AEC, Community Builder, jFusion and many more hit the Open Source Wall and looked for revenue streams. In 2010 the pressure may be to keep on moving forward. In order to guarantee survival these new businesses will need to keep on growing by diversifying and adding new products.

7) Joomla, Wordpress, Drupal CMS Template Providers

The "Joomla Template Club" or the "Wordpress Theme Designer" will become the minority. By the end of 2010, a clear majority of designers will be producing for more than one platform.

8) Joomla 1.6 Will Be Out On ... ?

Hee hee! I'm brave, but not that brave ...

Over to You

What are your predictions for the Joomla world in 2010?

 

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Comments  

 
#1 Rick Blalock 2009-12-14 08:59
Joomla will enter more of the enterprise arena
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#2 James Friesen 2009-12-14 09:16
Interesting article... and I agree the mentioned trends are pretty clear.

I would also add that bolt-on web app frameworks for Joomla, like Nooku and jXtended are also on the rise and will continue to stay ahead of the core framework for Joomla.

Finally, a trend that I am noticing is clients *looking specifically* for Joomla developers and solutions instead of being guided to these solutions by Joomla shops.
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#3 Helio Alves 2009-12-14 09:17
Very good post.

Artisteer seems to be very promising and I'm wondering how major template developers plan to compete with this new player. Of course they have template frameworks but which one is more flexible and easy to use? Artisteer or template frameworks?

Joomla is fairly easy to use and anyone who reads a book about how to build a website with Joomla will be able to offer Joomla Services and the competition will only be growing. In my point of view actual players will have to offer far more than Joomla services, they'll have to offer services such as project management (for outsourcing, which is growing every day), Online Marketing, Social Networks, and SEO.

Joomla 1.6 will, in my point of view, bring Joomla to a higher level. ACL will allow Joomla to be implemented in other projects reserved so far to enterprise solutions.

Another big happening will be the release, I hope, of Nooku framework V 1.0, this frameworks seems to be very promising and will simplify and speed up Joomla development.
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#4 Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos 2009-12-14 09:27
I really liked point #6. It's very true, but often untold. Joomla! began as a small market and there was a lot of room for experimentation . As those "experiments" gradually grew into solid "products" and the market became immense, a clear need of dedicated businesses to develop, support and bring them forward has sprung.

IMHO we should be getting accustomed to Commercial GPL as a natural form of distribution dominating the high-end of the Joomla! extensions market over the next two years.
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#5 Andrew Eddie 2009-12-14 10:35
Actually I predict two new releases of Joomla. 1.6 early in the year and 1.7 late in the year, approximately 6 months apart.
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#6 David-Andrew 2009-12-14 11:11
The shift of Joomla! to the enterprise world is ongoing, yes, and it will be interesting to see how this develops in 2010. I for one dont see Commercial GPL as a bad thing (get over it people!). Commercial GPL will probably mean more quality, dedication and support. And those elements are essential for the shift to the enterprise world.

Acquia/Drupal are already acting on this.

We already have tons of professional web developers, template developers, and now are getting really professional extension developers (JXtended, JoomlaTools, Dioscouri), its just part of our ecosystem. An ecosystem evolves, most of the time independently of what others want. The Joomla! ecosystem is evolving.

I will be especially curious to see how the current "discussions" around the Joomla! project leadership will end/be solved. In what way will the Joomla! leadership embrace the projects evolution, or just wrk against it?

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#7 David-Andrew 2009-12-14 11:12
He Andrew, you know we are gonna keep you accountable for that ;-)
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#8 Andrew Eddie 2009-12-14 11:26
It's only my "prediction" :-) But you guys have to help :P
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#9 Robert Douglass 2009-12-14 11:33
With regards to point #4, "Projects become gatekeepers", I want to clarify the Drupal policy a bit. ANYBODY can prepare a Drupal certification program, but they're required to avoid naming it or marketing it as "The Official" certification program (because there isn't one, and won't be one). So we might see the "ACME Inc. Certified Drupal Module Builder" program, but we might also see the "FOOBAR Inc. Certified Drupal Module Builder" program as well, by a different company/group, and that's all fine.

So to react to the title of the prediction, the Drupal community is NOT becoming a gatekeeper, and we don't want one, either. It's an open marketplace with trademark guidelines and professional etiquette to guide us all.

-Robert
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#10 Amy Stephen 2009-12-14 11:42
Steve -

Let me share a better link from Dries on the Accreditation (buytaert.net/on-drupal-certification-programs).

As you can see from Dries's post, the community can create certification programs, like "Acme Drupal Certification" mentioned in his post. The market will decide, not the project, as it should be.

Read in his post how he uses the Trademark to ensure official certification is not suggested, but allows everyone to participate provided it's clear.

From my perspective, what is making Drupal grow like a field of weeds is that Dries, and other leaders in that community, work very hard to get *out* of the way of the community and try *not* to be gatekeepers.

There is room for Drupal and Joomla! and WordPress (and other free software) to continue to grow like crazy in 2010. My prediction is - those projects who know how to empower their community will grow, just like Drupal.

Thanks for your post!
Amy
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