This event has been postponed until June 20-21, 2008. The South African Joomla! community (http://www.joomla.org.za/) is pleased to invite you to the first Joomla! Day South Africa - Durban (http://www.joomladay.co.za/), an event to be held May 9 and 10, 2008, at the Varsity College, Durban North (http://www.varsitycollege.co.za/slideshow.aspx?Campus=durbannorth). Durban (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durban) is the third largest city in South Africa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa), a popular destination for tourists, and considered to be the busiest port in the African continent (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa). It is an ideal location for those interested in Joomla! to gather. Joomla! Days offer an excellent opportunity to learn, network with other Joomla! users and...

Joomla! Day Sydney 2008 (http://sydney.joomladay.org.au) is scheduled for Monday, May 19, 2008, in conjunction with CeBIT Australia (http://www.cebit.com.au/). Community members from Sydney, Australia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney) are finalizing plans for a great event to be held at the beautiful and world famous Sydney Conference and Exhibition Centre (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Convention_and_Exhibition_Centre) located in Darling Harbour (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darling_Harbour). The event agenda (http://sydney.joomladay.org.au/) is designed to share a broad range of technologies and ideas with a diverse audience of designers, students, charities, businesses, technical experts, and end users. Topics include: A technical discussion entitled Joomla! 1.5: Under...

The Joomla! community is pleased to announce that Google is sponsoring 15 amazing projects (http://code.google.com/soc/2008/joomla/about.html) in our fourth Google Summer of Code (http://code.google.com/soc/). Students and mentors from all over the world will work together this summer to bring great things to Joomla!. This year, Joomla! is honored that CiviCRM (http://civicrm.org/node/328) is also part of the team. Sincere thanks to Google for their continued support of Joomla! and the 175 other free and open source organizations participating. Congratulations to the Joomla! Google Summer of Code 2008 Students Your proposals were selected from a very competitive pool of nearly 100 applications. Thank you to the mentors willing to share time for this important effort. Projects that...

Credit: Judith Tepper. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Byron_lighthouse.jpg) The Joomla! community in Byron Bay is looking forward to their first ever Joomla! Day event. Joomla! Day Byron Bay 2008 (http://www.joomlabyronbay.com) will be held on Sunday, May 11, from noon until 5:30 PM. Those visiting the area for the Joomla! Day event will want to consider taking time needed to enjoy Byron Bay (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byron_Bay)'s beautiful beaches, parks, and nature reserves. This easternmost tip of Australia is a popular destination for tourists. As event organizer, Greg Cromwell, explains in this invitational video (http://www.joomlabyronbay.com), Joomla! Day events are for a wide variety of people, including developers, site builders, designers, and end users. Not only...

The Thai Joomla! Community is looking forward to their second Joomla! Day Bangkok (http://joomladay.in.th/) in Thailand (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thailand)'s beautiful and thriving capital city (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangkok). The event will be held on Saturday, May 10, 2008, from 9:00 AM until 5:30 PM at the Chaophya Park Hotel (http://www.chaophyapark.com/). JoomlaCorner (http://JoomlaCorner.com) and the National Electronics and Computer Tecknology Center (NECTEC) (http://www.nectec.or.th/english/) invite you to attend Joomla! Day Bangkok 2008 (http://joomladay.in.th/) which promises to be an incredible day of learning, sharing, and networking with others. This year, several key members of the Joomla! community are scheduled to speak: Mr. Samuel Moffatt...

The Joomla! community is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Joomla! 1.5.3 [Vahi]. This release is earlier than scheduled in order to correct a database name validation error introduced in 1.5.2. It has been a month since Joomla! 1.5.2 was released on March 23, 2008. The goal is to provide regular, frequent updates to the Joomla! end user community containing the latest bug fixes and minor enhancements. Instructions New installation (http://help.joomla.org/content/category/48/268/302/) Upgrade from an existing Joomla! 1.5 version (http://docs.joomla.org/Upgrading_1.5_from_an_existing_1.5x_version) Migration from Joomla! 1.0.x (http://docs.joomla.org/Migrating_from_1.0.x_to_1.5_Stable) Download Joomla! 1.5.3 and update packages...

Credit: Daquella manera (http://www.flickr.com/photos/daquellamanera/2231276432/sizes/m/) On Saturday, April 19th, 2008, the Spanish Joomla! community will hold their inaugural Joomla! Day España (http://joomladay.es) event on the beautiful campus of the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (http://www.uc3m.es) in Spain's capital city. This event sold out nearly a month ago, evidence of the strong support and enthusiasm of the Joomla! community from all across Spain. Attendees (http://joomladay.es/registrate/asistiran-al-evento.html) will enjoy a variety of presentations and discussions held all day from 9 AM to 8 PM. During the day, the group will meet in the Assembly Hall. In the evening, smaller break-out sessions are scheduled in parallel to encourage focused discussion and...

The Norwegian Joomla! Community eagerly awaits its second annual Joomla! Day Norway to be held April 26, 2008, at the Papirbredden (http://www.papirbredden.no/) in Drammen. The Papirbredden is not only a beautiful facility, but it is also a fitting venue for a Joomla! Day event. It is the city's center of knowledge, boasting a unique library, career center, and research facilities available to students, researchers, and entrepreneurs. The city of Drammen is also ideal, being only 45 minutes from Oslo. It's an easy commute for those Joomla! Day attendees who wish to also visit Norway's capital city.The program (http://www.joomladay.no/content/view/2/9/) for Joomla! Day Norway 2008 is guaranteed to interest those who wish to learn more about Joomla!. Chris Davenport, Joomla! Core team...

The French Joomla! community is excited to announce their second annual Joomla! Day France (http://www.joomladay.fr) scheduled for Sunday, April 27, 2008, in Paris, France (http://maps.google.fr/maps?hl=fr ie=UTF8 dq=residence+internationale+loc:+Paris daddr=44,+Rue+Louis+Lumi%C3%A8re,+75020+Paris geocode=16560862605809226075,48.860087,2.411319 f=d t=h ll=48.859979,2.411284 spn=0.00247,0.00456 z=17 source=embed), the most beautiful city in the world. Joomla! Days are a great opportunity to learn, share and network with other Joomla! users and developers, and to discover ways to contribute to the Joomla! project. This year's program features Michelle Bisson (content/view/29/85/), Joomla! Core Team Member, who will travel from her Quebec home to discuss the Joomla! project, working group...

Credit: Luc Viatour (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Field_Hamois_Belgium_Luc_Viatour.jpg) The Google Summer of Code 2008 (http://code.google.com/soc/2008/) student application deadline has been extended (http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2008/03/one-more-week-to-apply-to-google-summer.html) to Monday, April 7, 2008 (http://code.google.com/opensource/gsoc/2008/faqs.html#0.1_timeline). GSoC is a great way for talented student developers to do what they love during the summer break and write great code in exchange for a $4,500 USD stipend from Google. This is Joomla!'s fourth year participating and we look forward to welcoming a new set of amazing talent. Calling all Students If you are an eligible student (http://code.google.com/opensource/gsoc/2008/faqs.html#0.1_eligibility)...

IT360 Conference and Expo 2008 (http://www.it360.ca/), April 8-9, 2008 where you can meet members of the Joomla! team and ask questions about Joomla! Plan to attend the evening Joomla! session, as well, to see a full demonstration on how to build a Web site using Joomla!. It's a great opportunity to meet other Joomla! users and ask questions and share ideas. Members from the Joomla! User Group Toronto (http://toronto.joomla.ca/) will help host this session and invite you to join the user group, if you are interested. The time of the evening Birds of a Feather session is 5 pm to 7 pm. Inquire at the Joomla! booth #531 as to the room location. About the IT360 Conference and Expo IT360 Conference and Expo is an interactive experience with 90+ educational sessions by professionals and...

Let's get running! The Google Summer of Code™ 2008 is now underway and students should submit their applications (http://groups.google.com/group/google-summer-of-code-announce/web/guide-to-the-gsoc-web-app-for-student-applicants) before the March 31, 2008 deadline. Visit the Joomla! Wiki for the GSoC (http://docs.joomla.org/Google_Summer_of_Code_2008) or review the Student Guidelines (http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f=528 t=275076) for more details about the program and how to get a running start. The most exciting applications we receive are from students who take time to discuss their ideas (http://forum.joomla.org/viewforum.php?f=525) before submitting. As a student, you can check out the Joomla! Project's proposed ideas...

The Joomla! community is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Joomla! 1.5.2 [Woi]. This is a normal maintenance update. It has been eight weeks since Joomla! 1.5.1 (content/view/4560/74/) was released. The goal is to provide regular, frequent updates to the Joomla! end user community containing the latest bug fixes and minor enhancements. Instructions New installation (http://help.joomla.org/content/category/48/268/302/) Upgrade from an existing Joomla! 1.5 version (http://docs.joomla.org/Upgrading_1.5_from_an_existing_1.5x_version) Migration from Joomla! 1.0.x (http://docs.joomla.org/Migrating_from_1.0.x_to_1.5_Stable) Download Joomla! 1.5.2 and update packages (http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomla/frs/?action=FrsReleaseBrowse frs_package_id=3466) Want to test...

We are pleased to announce Google has accepted Joomla!'s application to participate in the 2008 Google Summer of Code (SoC) (http://code.google.com/soc/2008/) program. This is Joomla!'s fourth season and we are eager to welcome another group of contributors with fresh ideas. With the Summer of Code, Google sets up a win-win situation for students and open source projects. Instead of flipping burgers during summer break, talented student developers can do what they love and write great code in exchange for a $4,500 USD stipend. Even open source projects benefit with improvements to the code base and a $500 USD stipend per participant. Perhaps the most important benefit is the long term involvement that can result. Both Nur Aini Rakhmawati and Hannes Papenberg were invited to join the...

IT360 Conference and Expo 2008 (http://www.it360.ca/), April 8-9, 2008 where you can meet members of the Joomla! team and ask questions about Joomla! We love to meet end users and would very much appreciate meeting you. Plan to attend the evening Joomla! session, as well, to see a full demonstration on how to build a Web site using Joomla!. It's a great opportunity to meet other Joomla! users and ask questions and share ideas. Members from the Joomla! User Group Toronto (http://toronto.joomla.ca/) will help host this session and invite you to join the user group, if you are interested. The time of the evening session is yet to be confirmed. About the IT360 Conference and Expo IT360 Conference and Expo is an interactive experience with 90+ educational sessions by professionals and...

The Joomla! 1.5 Demo Web Site (http://demo.joomla.org/) is now available online. Using the demo site, you can take a closer look at the new Joomla! 1.5 features and changes (http://www.joomla.org/content/view/4483/118/). The demo site content is refreshed every 30 minutes. There are security precautions in effect to protect the privacy of other site users and to better ensure site stability. To test drive the demo site, you need to register and activate your account by clicking the link in the activation email. All user accounts are given Super Administrator access and can perform all functions except those that could be abused. Each demo user account remains active for one month. Feel free to use our new resource and to share it with others interested in exploring Joomla!'s...

The Dutch Joomla! community is pleased to invite you to the third annual Dutch Joomla! Days (Joomladagen) Conference and Expo (http://www.joomladagen.nl/) on April 4 and 5 in historic and beautiful Utrecht (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utrecht_(city)), the Netherlands (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands) at the Meeting Plaza Conference Centre (http://www.meetingplazautrecht.nl/). Joomladagen is a great opportunity to learn, network with other Joomla! users and developers, and to discover ways you can contribute to the Joomla! Project. Joomla! is an international award-winning open source content management system broadly deployed worldwide with more than 3.5 million downloads. The recently released Joomla! 1.5 has already been downloaded over 200,000 times in less than two...

The Dutch Joomla! community is pleased to invite you to the third annual Dutch Joomla! Days (Joomladagen) Conference and Expo (http://www.joomladagen.nl/) on April 4 and 5 in historic and beautiful Utrecht (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utrecht_(city)), the Netherlands (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands) at the Meeting Plaza Conference Centre (http://www.meetingplazautrecht.nl/). Joomladagen is a great opportunity to learn, network with other Joomla! users and developers, and to discover ways you can contribute to the Joomla! Project. Joomla! is an international award-winning open source content management system broadly deployed worldwide with more than 3.5 million downloads. The recently released Joomla! 1.5 has already been downloaded over 200,000 times in less than two...

The Joomla! Project now announces the immediate release of Joomla! 1.0.15 [Daytime]. This release addresses a security vulnerability and it is recommended that you upgrade immediately. Begin by testing on a backup copy of your site. Once you have verified that your site works as expected, backup your live site and upgrade as soon as possible.

Recently there was a highly visible change at joomla.org as we relaunched our forums on phpBB3 (http://www.phpbb.com/about/features/compare.php) . Along with the changes to our sites, we also have a few changes inside the Joomla! project to announce. Please join us in recognising and honouring the work of three core team members who have recently stepped down from the team and in welcoming a new member. Tonie de Wilde has been the wizard behind the curtain for many of our sites and infrastructure projects since he joined the team. Tonie announced his resignation a while ago via a post on our team blogs, but we want to acknowledge his work and efforts and thank him for everything that he has done. He continues to contribute to the community as a global moderator on the...