Question Kunena 2.0 a new communications platform for Joomla

I am not a developer, I'm just a user, but I take a keen interest in helping the Kunena project and the community that supports it.  This is my first "'blog" about Kunena and I thought you might be interested to know some of the exciting news in tandem with the hard work put into the project by the team of hard-working developers.

Joomla and Beyond 2011

I did not have the pleasure of being able to attend this very important event that took place in Amsterdam between 5-7 May 2011.  The benefit of internet technology has delivered a way for all of us to share some of that experience courtesy of the efforts of the Joomla and Beyond team, captured on video, edited and published for all of us to see.

Like most people, I have always looked at Kunena as a text-oriented, web-based discussion forum - a product that has the same kinds of features that you would normally expect in many other web-based discussion forums and bulletin boards that have existed on the 'net for the last 15 years or more.  Indeed, Kunena did not just appear on the scene as "Kunena" - the project was itself a fork of earlier generations of forum software that have existed for several years even before Joomla was first conceived.  The major difference, however, between Kunena and other forum software is that it integrates seamlessly with Joomla and that has always been its main appeal.  But, unlike other forum software, the project is not content to leave things like that.  There is an ongoing need in the world of web apps to have a robust and scalable communications platform that can adapted to emerging technologies (e.g. mobile apps) and the needs of games, 'blogging, e-commerce, etc.

The most telling part of this tale, for me, was summarised by what Oliver Ratzesberger had to say at JAB11:

I was recently asked, by the members of my local Joomla Users Group, to give a presentation; I chose as my subject, Web-based discussion forums: using an old idea to energise and grow your Joomla website.  To address that subject, it irrelevant about what you choose as your forum.  It's also not a question of whether Kunena should be a strategic choice:  the strategic goal is to achieve a high-yield return on your investment of time to increase user participation in your site.  In that sense, Joomla and Kunena together make an ideal tactical solution to address those needs.