Yesterday we installed a trial version of JomSocial on the Arc Technology Group site, and today made it available to a select group of testers (n=25), as the basis for a "Evanston Business & Technology Community."

Initial observations are on my Arc Technology Group blog

Andy Angelos gave an eye-opening talk about Web 2.0 and Social Networking to about 50 members of Joomla Chicago yesterday. The word of the day was "conversation" -- as in, "your website and other web communications should be directed at generating conversation with people -- not just talking at them!"

Instead of doing what I usually do -- writing an exhaustive blog post that tries to cover ever

I'm currently in the process of evaluating Azrul's JomSocial extension. Detailed observations are available on my blog on the Arc Technology Group site.

My question for the Joomla Chicago community: what requirements do we envision for a Joomla Chicago social networking functionality, over, say, the next year?

Please leave your comments about Joomla Chicago's social networking needs, or about

The other day, I posted a list of America's Brainiest Cities with links to their Joomla groups.

Somehow Chicago didn't make it onto that list - ahem! - and that led me to wonder how many cities on the list of America's biggest cities have Joomla groups. My conclusion (see list below) is: about a third of America's biggest cities have active Joomla groups, either their own or in an adjacent

In recognition of the first full year of existence of Joomla Chicago, and in tribute to our fearless leader, John Coonen, I herewith reproduce a recently discovered account of the beginnings of the group.

Friday night had come, and the fall air was clear and crisp, and brimming with life. Anybody with an ounce of sense was down on Rush Street getting the weekend off to a rousing start.

John

I wrote a post yesterday about all the Joomla groups in big brainy cities. Several people pointed out that small brainy cities have Joomla groups, too! Hear, hear!

On that note, the possibility of a Joomla group for suburban Chicago was broached. I want to add two observations to that.

First, we would be delighted to assist in helping to branch towards the northern suburbs. We have a

Joomla Chicago members are in for a treat on Wednesday, November 12, when Andy Angelos addresses the group on the subject of Web 2.0 and Social Networking. Andy gave me a preview of his talk in the email interview reproduced below.

JS: Why should people who care about Joomla also care about Web 2.0 and social networking?

AA: Joomla Chicago members have all decided to participate in Web 2.0

I saw a reference the other day to a list that was compiled a while back of "America's Brainiest Cities." It consists of those cities with over 250,000 people which have the highest concentration of college grads. I'm particularly interested in the adoption curve for new technologies like Joomla, and that list got me thinking . . . "I bet there's a pretty high correlation between having a lot

I'm excited, and I know some great things are going to happen at the CMS Expo in Denver.  This morning I started to think, "It would be worthwhile to try to put into words - what is it that makes the CMS Expo so worthwhile?" I came up with my top three reasons and I begin today by sharing Reason #3: Discover Joomla Trends Nationwide.

Even though Chicago is the center of the known world (ahem!)

If you are going to Denver, have you booked your flight yet?  Thanks to Nick M, I learned about cheap flights on Southwest.com.  They have flights on Wed out and Sat return for $79 / one-way.  On Sunday, they return would be $89 / one-way.  That's still cheap to get a weekend in Denver!

 If you'd prefer something other than Southwest, another cheap flight is Frontier Airlines out of Midway