Sweet Home Chicago

If you, or someone you know is interested in being part of one of the most incredible open source software "movements" on the planet today, this is good stuff. OSM, Joomla!'s non-profit organization, set up to help manage the project, is seeking a few good wo(men). ;)  Over the past year or so, the organization has made some great progress. Here's your chance to get involved...Joomla could USE some Chicago representation! See the Joomla.org site for more.

Did you know that there's a new, additional meeting time now set up for folks who are Joomla! lovers?  It's true!  In addition to the monthly lunch meetings, the "CMS Agencies" Group will meet this month on Monday night, August 30th at Lido's Cafe in Oak Park.

August Topic: "Outsourcing and Subcontractors: Best Practices for Integrating Third-Party Help Into a Project"

Thank you to Justin Kerr and Estelle Carol, along with several other folks who are organizing this group, to give more people a chance to learn and use Joomla! - an amazingly successful Open Source Content Management System built for organizations of all size.

To learn more, sign in to your JoomlaChicago Member account first, so you can participate in the Discussion here, or see the sign-up form here, with all the specifics.

You can sign up today for the September 8th monthly general meeting. Lunch will be served (thanks, Arc Technology Group) and the featured topic will be "Must-Know" techniques which any self-respecting Joomla! website owner should know in order to properly host, administrate and secure their Joomla!-powered website.

Sign up early! We've sold out every month for over two years running now!

Today, the Joomla Project announced the immediate availability of Joomla 1.6 beta 7 (download).  As with all recent releases, it is a beta version and is not intended to run any type of production site. Since the Joomla 1.6 beta 6 release on July 26, the Joomla! team has fixed approximately 85 issues. This progress is directly related to the continued efforts of the Joomla! Bug Squad. The Joomla! Project plans for beta 8 to be released on August 23, 2010.

If you get a minute, pop on over here to the high-traffic Joomla.org website to see one of our very own, Mike Carson, featured in the new Joomla Community Magazine! Mike has been very active with the international Joomla! leadership team, helping with fostering the expansion of Joomla User Groups world wide, along with supporting third party developers, and much, much more. Check it out! Thanks, Mike, for all the hard work!

Link here: Mike Carson

The Joomla Project is proud to announce the immediate availability of Joomla 1.6 beta 6 (download). IMPORTANT NOTE: This is a beta version and is not intended to run any type of production site. It is intended to be used for evaluation purposes only.

Since the Joomla 1.6 beta 5 release on Jun 12, we have fixed approximately 98 issues in the tracker. This progress is directly related to the continued efforts of the Joomla! Bug Squad. Thanks for all your hard work in bringing us one increment closer to stable!

See the CHANGELOG for details of what has been changed in this release.

What's next?

This is the fifth in our series of continuous beta releases. Beta 7 will be released on August 9, 2010.

Download here: http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomla/frs/?action=FrsReleaseBrowse&frs_package_id=5346

We'll be making several site upgrades and updates this week, including improvements to the Community Area, Member Management and Sign-Up process. Thank you to all the folks helping on the Site Squad, taking time out of their busy days (and nights) to help make the JoomlaChicago website rock! If you'd like to join the Site Squad, go ahead and sign in, then join us here, in the Site Squad. Thanks!

The Joomla Project is proud to announce the immediate availability of Joomla 1.6 beta 5 (download). IMPORTANT NOTE: This is a beta version and is not intended to run any type of production site. It is intended to be used for evaluation purposes only.

Since the Joomla 1.6 beta 4 release on Jun 28, we have fixed approximately 65 issues in the tracker. Much of this progress is directly related to the stepped up efforts of the Joomla! Bug Squad. Thanks for all your hard work in bringing us one increment closer to stable!

See the CHANGELOG for details of what has been changed in this release.

What's next?

This is the fifth in our series of continuous beta releases. Beta 6 will be released on July 26, 2010.

There is already another security release of Joomla. You may download version 1.5.20 here. This is available immediately. Thanks Joomla!

The Joomla! Project announced the immediate availability of Joomla! version 1.5.19. This new version is for improved security. Download the full version or upgrade versions here.