Steve’s Blog

We’re delighted to welcome Anthony Olsen from JoomlaBamboo.com to the interview hot seat.

Although it may not look like it, Joomla is a only one of the strings to Anthony’s bow, as he told us last week….

1) Could you tell us a little about yourself? How did you come to Joomla? What’s your background?

I have a fairly mixed background actually – with a few different areas of interest. My main focus (read day job – although web design is fast becoming my other day job!) is in alternative medicine specifically Chinese Medicine and Feng Shui (Ive been an Acupuncturist for three years and Feng Shui practitioner for ten). But the creative side of my life has always been in making music and soundtracks for theatre and some tv.

Its only recently that I’ve switched from my ears to my eyes to do my creative work. My music has always been pretty minimal and I guess that Ive tried to recreate that aesthetic in my web design. A few years ago I started making the web sites for the theatre productions I was involved with – at that stage using Photoshop, Quark Xpress and Fireworks and getting a bit of a buzz out of it so I kept going. The sites were pretty reliant on images and mostly used slicing and dicing and sticking them in tables – pretty ugly as a process really.

It wasn’t until I joined a server which had fantastico and Joomla installed that came I across the concept of CMS. I’d heard of it but had no real idea about its benefit or simplicity. I tried a few of the scripts on the server and decided I like the way Joomla felt and especially liked the number of extensions available – its pretty mind blowing. So my first few sites were based on the project I had already had going. As I mentioned, I have a focus on alternative medicine and as a sideline I have a range of audio CDs and software for students that focus on learning technical information.

The product range is called Creative Memory Tools and Joomla really gave me a fresh more professional outlook for the site – streaming audio, download section, online shop etc. I was really blown away by how easy it was to control my content and so I started to adopt Joomla for a few other previously non-web based products. The culmination of this I guess is the Chinese Herbal Desktop Reference; a Chinese herbal formula keyword search. Its pretty simple really but it can really help when your dispensing herbs and trying to cross reference about 100 different formulas.

2) You have a very minimalist design aesthetic. Could you describe your thinking about web design in general? Why do you concentrate so much on uncluttered designs?

Im really inspired by the concept of web 2.0. I think as an aesthetic it just really makes sense – considering the internet can be an overstimulating medium at times. As soon as you visit a site that has some good design elements it changes the way that you read the text and therefore interact with the site. There’s nothing worse than squinting at the screen and trying to find a particular part of text that you’ve searched for, or if you look away from the screen finding it impossible to see where you had just been reading a moment ago. So the Joomla Bamboo range are really trying to nut out providing depth to a site but maintaining its simplicity. I think there is a constant challenge to make something feature rich but still accessible.

3) Do you have any new projects or plans in 2007 we should be looking out for?

This year Joomla Bamboo will continue to expand and add templates to the catalogue, but we also hope to add some more modules and little tweaks to help with the micro aspect of site design and maintenance. This includes our first module hack called "Thin Log in". Its a really simple mod of the core Joomla log in module that reduces it to two boxes and one submit button. The login shouldn’t really take up too much space and so I created this module that has a very small footprint.

There are also plans to:

• stock the download section with lots of SIFR (font replacement) files for download to use with the SIFR bot.
• Add to the Web Elements library with some buttons and textures.
• Continue creating packages for Bamboo Loaded – pre-configured packages for Joomla that just take 5 minutes (or less) to install.
  
• Build on the tutorial section with some screen casts and tutorials for new users.

This week, we’re delighted to welcome Patrick (PK) Gillock from Isara.org to the interview chair. Isara is a charity based in northeastern Thailand that uses Joomla as a platform for their innovative fundraising efforts. Instead of asking for money, they only ask that people use the tools they have online (such as bloghosting, short URLs and more) so that they can raise money from advertising.

You have fun – they raise money for their humanitarian work.

Currently their sites are:

• Isara – Main Portal
• IsaraPIX – Image Hosting
• IsaraBLOG – Blog Hosting
• IsaraURL – Short URLs
• IsaraCards – Free E-cards
• IsaraSMS – Text Messaging

1) Hi Patrick. Could you tell us a little about yourself? Where do you come from? Where are you now and what are you doing?

My name’s Patrick Kirk Gillock (or just PK) and I’m originally from Texas, but for the past 4 years I’ve been volunteering in northeastern Thailand. I originally came to volunteer for just 3 months but I quickly fell in love with the Thai people and their easy-going way of life. The food is pretty good too!

 

2) Isara began offline before creating a web presence. How did the project start and what were its initial goals?

Isara (ee-sa-rah) means "freedom" in Thai and it started as a way to help bridge the gap between the rich and poor. After volunteering in schools and colleges for two years I decided to open a Learning Center, a place where we would teach children and adults for free. During that time I noticed A LOT of students, all over the area, were being injured and killed on motorcycles (80% of Thai people use them). The police weren’t doing much to enforce the helmet law, so Isara decided to educate about safety and donate helmets. Thanks to donations from friends and family, Isara was able to donate more than 1,300 helmets to students around Thailand. But, more importantly, schools have made it mandatory for students to wear helmets on school property and the police started enforcing the helmet law. The only side-effect to this project is that I’m known as "The Helmet Guy" around town.

After the success of the Helmets for Students program we focused our efforts on other areas that needed immediate assistance. But that doesn’t mean we find a poor area, give stuff, and then move on. We try to find long lasting solutions to the problems. Isara gets teachers, students, police, and government officials involved with every aspect of the project. Donating helmets or school supplies is just a quick fix. Isara tries to inspire others to get involved so real change can occur.

3) What was the purpose and the process behind taking Isara online?

When Isara first started we did what most small charities do; we went to friends, family, and web forums to beg for donations. Which is fine, but we didn’t want to beg each time we did a project (I’m sure our friends would agree. lol). There had to be a better way. And there was. We’ve all seen websites become rich by getting a lot of visitors and then selling ads, right? The more web traffic they receive the more money they get. We thought, why can’t a non-profit do the same thing? But, instead of making it rich, we would be making a difference. So in November, 2005 I built a small web portal and invited people to make it their homepage. Just by making that small change in their surfing habits they could make a BIG difference in their world. For free! It slowly started to catch on and by early 2006 we were able to create projects that were paid for by just ad revenue and NOT donations. 100% of everything the site makes goes to the projects. This way visitors know that their clicks matter.

4) Did you consider building Isara.org with any other systems apart from Joomla? If so, why did you choose Joomla? What components did you find particularly useful?

Isara was originally just static html pages, but it quickly became too difficult to update. A database system with dynamic pages was the best solution and Joomla stood out from the rest. It was the easiest to get online and the community support was incredible. In February, 2006 we made the switch to Joomla and have never looked back. We also added Simple Machines Forum, Gallery2, Bookmarks, and a few other modified scripts. We really like that Isara is powered by Open Source software.

5) What can people do to help Isara and the people it assists?

All Isara needs are visitors. So just by making Isara.org your browser’s homepage it will help A LOT! We also ask that you spread the word about Isara. Just tell your friends and family or put a link to us on your website. That’s all it takes.


6) Where does Isara go from here? What ambitions do you have for 2007 and beyond?

2007 is going to be an interesting year for Isara. Our projects will be getting bigger, we’ll be expanding into other countries, and we’ll also have our first volunteers come to join us.

As far as the website, we will continue to develop it and add more features. We’ve also just begun work on our own search engine (Code-name: ACORN). It will hopefully develop into the world’s first non-profit search engine.

Thank you to Alledia for this opportunity to tell your visitors about Isara. Keep surfing and keep making a difference!