Soapbox Engage Blog

Jamie Ozimek contributed to this blog post.

Today marks the first dedicated National Day of Service and Remembrance, on the 8th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. We though it fitting to start our PICnet Volunteer Series today. Every few weeks, we'll be featuring another PICnet Team Member and his or her service efforts. To read more President Obama's call for service and the introduction to this series, click here.

Who: Developer Kevin Devine
How he serves: Joomla Bug Squad, maintains release series

When he's not helping to develop websites for PICnet clients, Kevin takes even more hours out of his day (and night) to volunteer with the Joomla project, as a member of their Development Team. Currently, he is on their Joomla Bug Squad as the co-maintainer of the current release series. To break it down for you, Kevin tests for bugs reported by the community, writes patches, and reviews and commits patches added to the releases. He also serves as a member of the Joomla Security Team, for which he tests for security vulnerabilities in new releases of the open-source CMS and adds the appropriate patches.

Kevin developed an interest in Joomla because of his work at PICnet (Non-Profit Soapbox is Joomla-based), but decided to devote even more time to the platform for several reasons: He believes strongly in open source and the freedom of that type of software, and he enjoys the community he found in Joomla users. "People using Joomla are all contributing their time to build something that for anyone who wants or needs to take advantage of it, it is available."

Kevin's involvement in the Joomla community has led to other opportunities as well. He recently collaborated on a SXSW-sponsored "competition" that pitted three major Content Management Systems (Joomla, Drupal and Wordpress) against each other in an effort to develop a model, fully-packaged, and installable site meeting specific requirements of a theoretical non-profit organization. Kevin says it was really satisfying to see members of the larger open source software community devoting time to make an offering to the non-profit community.

And of course, that's what PICnet is all about too - we love spending our time figuring out how to help non-profits better serve their constituents and communities through the power of the web. Kevin is a great example of how he is applying his skills and interests for a greater cause, and fulfilling a mission to serve. Read more about Kevin.