TYPO3 Talk Jochen Weiland - Past & Future of TYPO3

Welcome to the TYPO3 Interview Series - 2! We are excited to launch the TYPO3 initiative for business executives, marketers, decision-makers etc. The ultimate goal, Inspiring people to communicate about TYPO3 eco-system by keeping the philosophy of OpenSource.

TYPO3 Talk Jochen Weiland - Past & Future of TYPO3

Welcome to the TYPO3 Interview Series - 2! We are excited to launch the TYPO3 initiative for business executives, marketers, decision-makers etc. The ultimate goal, Inspiring people to communicate about TYPO3 eco-system by keeping the philosophy of OpenSource.

We have been interviewing and inviting TYPO3 business people to share their views to build a better TYPO3 eco-system for a better TYPO3 tomorrow. T3Planet has been developed and is focusing on having a "Fruitful TYPO3 Eco-System".

This week we have been honored by Jochen Weiland, the TYPO3 Certified Consultant, Editor, Integrator, and CEO of Jweiland.net.

Jochen shares his views about history and potential of TYPO3 and open-source community, and how we can build a better TYPO3 Eco-system together!

Let’s hear about his life in time, journey with TYPO3, and a lot more. Thanks Jochen for your ideas.

Interview with Jochen Weiland
  • Interviewee : Jochen Weiland
  • Company : Jweiland.net
  • Designation : CEO
  • Topic : Together Building a Better TYPO3 Eco-system
Q1
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Hey Jochen, Tell something about yourself to our audience.

Interview with Jochen Weiland

I'm the owner of a web agency located near Stuttgart in Germany.

Q2
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First question, How did you initially get involved with TYPO3?

Interview with Jochen Weiland

In the mid 90s, when the Internet started to become popular, I created my first web pages, writing raw HTML with a text editor.  In 2002 a magazine published an article about "CMS are the future of web sites". Since commercial systems where far to expensive, I tried several Open Source CMS and TYPO3 caught my attention. I tried to install it on my hosting account and failed - there was very little documentation available at that time. I tried again, and finally got it to work. I then wrote a tutorial on how to install TYPO3 at one of the large hosting companies in Germany. This was my first contribution (although not through coding) to Open Source software. 

Q3
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How do you contribute to TYPO3? How does your company encourage open source business practices?

Interview with Jochen Weiland

Our goal is to make TYPO3 easier to use and to lower the entry barrier for new users. In addition to tips and tricks on our website we have published over 450 free video tutorials.

In most cases, when we develop TYPO3 extensions for our customers, we publish them on the TYPO3 Extension Repository or on Github. This allows others not only to use, but also to contribute to the code. This way our customers benefit from new features added by others.  

Q4
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As a TYPO3 business executive, When you look back, Are you surprised or feel lucky with the overall success of TYPO3?

Interview with Jochen Weiland

Since our company is built on TYPO3 we feel very lucky with the success of TYPO3.

Q5
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Over the years, the TYPO3 business ecosystem has evolved. Where do you see it going in the future?

Interview with Jochen Weiland

In the past years there have been a lot of technical improvements to TYPO3. Many of them happened “under the hood”, so they are not immediately visible to the editor. In the future we need to make sure to balance development so that we do not forget about the user experience for editors. Every new major version of TYPO3 should bring new features that editors love, so that they are anxious to get their site upgraded. 

Q6
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TYPO3 is 20+ years old OpenSource CMS, Although we have very little CMS Marketshare. eg., At present, TYPO3 0.6%, WordPress 63.6%. In your personal opinion, What do you think about what we majorly missed in the TYPO3 journey?

Interview with Jochen Weiland

The market share varies a lot by country. According to cmscrawler.com there is a 14% market share in Austria, 11% in Germany and even 43% in Rwanda. In terms of marketing we should have more visibility for which projects TYPO3 has been chosen and why. 
Many of the larger companies that have decided to use TYPO3 made a thorough investigation about the CMS market and looked at different options. In those cases where they decided to use TYPO3, they had very good reasons. 

Other users might just follow the masses and use what everyone else is using. On the first look, most CMS appear similar, as a tool to create websites. But once you think deeply about your goals and requirements, you find big differences between them. 

Let’s just take one example: your company might need a new website, perhaps 100 pages of content and one language. You have one editor for this. Any CMS could probably handle this. 

But think 3-5 years into the future: your company might be very successful and has grown significantly. You may have 1,000 pages of content in three languages and 5 editors. For TYPO3 this is very easy to handle. Multi-languages have been built in from the start and not added on later. The page tree can handle thousands of pages in a way that users are familiar with, since they are organized similar to Windows Explorer. Rights management for editors down to the individual form field lets you assign fine granular access rights for editors.  
If you have chosen a simple CMS in the beginning you might need to switch and do the website over again. But TYPO3 has all the features for growing projects built-in. 

There are a number of huge TYPO3 installations with 50,000+ pages, hundreds of websites and domains in one installation managed by 1,000 editors. 

Q7
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Unlike other CMS' where do you think the TYPO3 business ecosystem lags behind?

Interview with Jochen Weiland

TYPO3 needs an easier start and onboarding process. Some users have the perception that TYPO3 is difficult to use and implement. 

Q8
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If you could change one thing about TYPO3 Eco-system, what would it be?

Interview with Jochen Weiland

Making TYPO3 easier to understand and try out, like an up-to-date Quick Start Guide.

Q9
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For people, it’s challenging to understand the philosophy of OpenSource and Business together. What’s your opinion on making a successful OpenSource Eco-system by maintaining the ethics of OpenSource?

Interview with Jochen Weiland

People need to understand OpenSource beyond “it’s free software”. Using OpenSource has many benefits that some people don’t consider. You are not locked to one vendor, each agency with programming skills can add features, fix bugs and improve the software. 

Q10
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What do you think of the global expansion of TYPO3? What do you feel the TYPO3 Business Eco-system needs most?

Interview with Jochen Weiland

TYPO3 deserves more visibility in the market, especially outside of Europe. There should be more case studies, white papers, websites and presentations that communicate the benefits. Simply: more and better marketing.  

Q11
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As we are managing T3Planet, TYPO3 Marketplace, what are some key factors that would attract you? What do you think about the t3planet.com?

Interview with Jochen Weiland

Since many years there was the idea for a TYPO3 Market Place. The initial plan was, that this would be provided by the TYPO3 Association. However, the introduction was delayed for a long time and so I am happy, that Nitsan took the initiative of offering a solution. I like the idea of such a platform and I would like to see more support of this project by the official TYPO3 bodies.

Q12
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What characteristics do you look for in a reliable TYPO3 Marketplace must-have?

Interview with Jochen Weiland

A market place can be a central hub for bringing programmers, customers and agencies together. Products, services and manpower can be offered and found by those who need it. Challenges are the quality of the services being offered and an easy way to do business. Challenges like taxes, invoicing, payment, support and communication must be solved.

Q13
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In your opinion, What’s the #1 mistake that you see TYPO3 businesses/agencies make?

Interview with Jochen Weiland

Some agencies don’t live up to the TYPO3 slogan “Inspiring people to share”. They don’t share their knowledge, extensions or advice. They just use OpenSource in one - the wrong - way: they benefit from the work of others and not give back to the community or the project. 

Q14
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Who is your open source mentor/hero? Can you name some people (at least 5) whom you follow to get knowledge and updates of the TYPO3?

Interview with Jochen Weiland

My personal hero is Kasper Skårhøj, the inventor of TYPO3. Although he is not actively working on the project since many years, it was his vision that makes it stand out. Many of the concepts that he introduced over 20 years ago are still valid.

Other people that come into mind (in no particular order) are Christian Kuhn, Benni Mack, Oliver Hader, Susanne Moog, Olivier Dobberkau and Mathias Schreiber.

Q15
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What are some places, blogs, and online communities you would recommend to our readers that you think are the best places to get help about TYPO3?

Interview with Jochen Weiland

Help for TYPO3 is often just a Google search away. You should join the TYPO3 slack channel, attend user group meetings or go to stackoverflow.com. 
Our agency published some 450 free video tutorials, you can find them on YouTube, Vimeo or our website. They are narrated in German, but nowadays the video platforms provide translated captions for almost any language.

Q16
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Do you have any special tips & tricks for TYPO3 business people?

Interview with Jochen Weiland

Share your enthusiasm for TYPO3!

Q17
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Would you suggest some ideas on how TYPO3 could be expanded globally?

Interview with Jochen Weiland

We could use more translations of some documentation.

Q18
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Do you think TYPO3 still needs more active contributors? Especially in awareness, branding and marketing.

Interview with Jochen Weiland

Yes, there is always room for more contributors. There are also many areas where non-programmers can contribute to TYPO3, be it with documentation, translation, graphics, training etc.  

Q19
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Last but not least, Apart from TYPO3, What're the things you love to do?

Interview with Jochen Weiland

I like to travel and eat good food. Also I’m an advocate of life-long learning and spend many hours learning new things.

We heartily thank Jochen enough for taking the efforts and time to conduct these interviews and sharing your views. 

One more thing, if you want to share your views regarding the TYPO3 Eco-system, you are more than welcome. Feel free to reach us or drop us a message in the comment section below.
 
Also, thanks to all Post Status readers, we will see you at the next interview. Till then stay tuned :)

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