Design vs. Develop

The PHP/QA team has announced TestFest. I’m trying to organize an event in the DC area, any takers? Post to the list or add a comment here if you’re interested.

…and signed up for Twitter. Suivez-moi, if you’re so inclined.

Update: evidently, I busted the Twitter FB app:

Quick reminder: the early bird rate for Joomla EXPO 2008 ends tomorrow night; register now as tickets are selling very quickly!

UPDATE: it appears that the early bird rate has been extended through Saturday the 29th.

This morning, I saw one of my friends on Facebook become a fan of SandwichBoard. Intrigued, I followed the link and found a DC area startup created by Patrick Joyce and Ian Lotinsky. It’s a service designed to help restaurants build and maintain their own websites. Congratulations on the launch guys! We’re finally getting more companies at the top of the graph.

With Apple’s recent iPhone SDK release, the local tech scene is planning an event. However, as some of the comments have pointed out, Apple’s licensing arrangement is a tad restrictive. This all sounds vaguely familiar. As it has been told to me, when Apple originally released the Macintosh, the software kit was expensive and exclusive: you could only buy your tools from Apple. This limited the availability of 3rd party Mac software, which in turn limited the adoption of the computer itself.

Fast forward to today with the iPhone kit. While the $99 for a full development license (allowing you to test on your iPhone instead of an emulator) isn’t exorbitant, it’s certainly a hurdle. The biggest offense though is the distribution system. You are required to distribute your application through Apple’s site, have your application blessed by Steve Jobs, and only then do you get to keep 70% of the sales revenue.

Apple is trying to double dip in the upper right hand corner of the software business model map: first by selling the iPhone, then by selling other people’s software products. Perhaps the iFund they’ve arranged will soften the blow. My guess is that iPhone developers will move towards the upper left corner instead so that Apple will have less of a cut of their revenue. Why would an iPhone developer spend large resources on developing a rich iPhone app, only to hand 30% of their revenue to Apple?

In addition to Joomla! Expo, I’ll also be one of the trainers for Joomla University the next day. My specialty will be in writing Joomla! 1.5 extensions from scratch. However, if you’re more interested in security, SEO, templating, tinkering, or just getting your first site up, there are sessions there for you too!

The first JoomlaEXPO will be held in Chicago on May 16th. Speakers include Barrie North (CompassDesigns.net and JoomlaShack.com), Tom Canavan (JoomlaJabber.com podcast), Victor Drover PhD (JCal, Anything-Digital.com), Steve Pignataro (corephp.com), Azrul Rahim (JomComment and MyBlog, azrul.com), Steve Burge (SEO Expert, alledia.com), and some guy named Joseph LeBlanc. The local JoomlaChicago will also be on hand with Mike Carson (online training, itdtraining.com) and John and Linda Coonen (web consulting and marketing, CoffeeGroup.us).

This promises to be the largest gathering of Joomla! professionals to date; you won’t want to miss it! Tickets are $100 at the early bird rate and seating is capped at 200, so register now!

…and Shana feels my pain. If I can get away from my projects, I’ll join you on Thursday!

Recently, I’ve been thinking about the differences between Joomla! and Drupal, as people seem to ask me about this all too frequently. The best analogy I can come up with is this: Drupal is like a model airplane, while Joomla! is like a model train set. Both accomplish the same task: keeping an 8 to 80 year old entertained for several hours by modeling a mode of transportation. However, both accomplish this task in different ways.

When you open the box for a model airplane, you’ll find a lot of little pieces. The fun of putting together a model airplane comes through learning how they all fit together. You see all of the details of the fuselage; the representation is usually highly accurate.

When you start a model railroad, you’ll get a toy train engine with a few cars and some tracks. The engine and cars come preassembled, but you still get to lay out the tracks and experiment with different configurations. Assuming you have things wired correctly and the engine is on the track, your model train will start moving as soon as you flip the switch.

It would be highly contentious (if not flat out false) to claim that one of these toys is inherently better than the other. They are simply different models of real life vehicles. You will learn different things through each, but still end up with scaled models in the end.

I like my “model train” CMS. I’ve tried the “airplane” CMS and simply don’t like it as much. Each time Drupal makes a new release, I download it to see what’s new. I’m particularly pleased with the installation process: it’s much smoother than what it was a few years ago. If you like Drupal and it serves your needs, don’t let me stop you from using it: it’s good software. But I’m sticking with Joomla! because I prefer its approach over Drupal’s.