Joomla's newest addition to the Core Development team, Marko Schmuck, is a recognised leader in Open Source Software.

Marko, who lives in Berlin, Germany, is known for his work as a former core member at XOOPS. He was responsible for dev.xoops.org, the XOOPS Forge. He also had his own open source project called RCP (Reseller Control Panel).

Marko will be a Joomla project leader, creating Standards and Guidelines for Third Party Developers (3PDs). Marko hopes his involvement with Joomla! will raise the level of code standards and help developers improve their skills.

"Creating standards and guidelines are a must for higher quality 3PD addons (components, modules and bots) to take the project to a new level," he said.

Marko wants to see 3PDs tapping into the power of the Core API to:

• make it easier for 3PD addons to be used in new version and not break due to an update
• means the latest security level for addons will be ensured and keep the system secure
• means more efficient, compact code

"Reading a lot of posts, I also had the feeling most developers don't know the words "less queries" means "less load" and were creating modules which create 60 queries on the frontpage for only showing a calendar," Marko said. "So the goal must be to keep the whole system fast, secure and using less load — hence the quality of 3PD addons must rise."

Peter Russell did a quick question and answer with Marko today:

1. Marko, what interests do you have outside of the technical web world?

Due to my job, my second interest beside the computer is watching movies.  I'm a big movie fan speciality science fiction and horror movies — I have nearly 1000 DVDs at home. Watching a good horror movie keeps me relaxed.

2. Are you married? Any kids?

Married to Open Source. My projects are my kids.

3. What's your occupation (how do you earn a living)?

I'm a sales manager of a great video rental company (biggest in Berlin, with 60 stores).

4. What got you interested in Mambo / Joomla!?

Simpler to use but with higher quality, better teamwork and also after weeks of studying the code of Mambo/Joomla, I found it an easier way to build addons.

5. You are bringing many skills to the team, where do you see yourself helping most?

To be an advocate for good coding and to educate why this is needed (security, performance, compatibility etc) and to share the experience of building integrations with the Forge.

6. You worked with XOOPS. Why did you move over?

I've been part of the open source community for a long time and believe in teamwork and the community as a pool of resources and sharing. Sharing is the engine of open source. It is the spirit of open source. Joomla is more professionally organised — Joomla! was the only choice.

7. What's your take on the split from Miro. Is this a good thing?

To keep the spirit of open source and to avoid "commercial interests" this move by the team was the only choice. I'm happy the core team decided to go this way to keep the project free. The idea to create a foundation is in itself a good idea but the way this has taken place was absolutely wrong and a split was inevitable.

8. How do you bring hobby developers up to speed?

Mostly with patience and persistence. Also with well thought out standards and guidelines and, of course, with good arguments about why it will raise the quality of the whole project.

9. What are the benefits of doing this?

To further the aims of the Joomla project and addons for me  the team and the community. The project as a whole will benefit and the project will be taken seriously by business people because of its quality and standards. This, hopefully, will encourage others to give something back by sponsoring the project.