2017 was good to MODX with lots of meetups, bug hunts, a MODXpo, hackathons, hundreds of bug fixes, various improvements, exciting new community initiatives and regular MODX releases. 2018 will produce the results with the launch of MODX3.

New to the MODX Advisory Board (MAB)? Read the announcement of the first MAB here.

What has this to do with the MODX Advisory Board? Well, let us take a step back and analyze the primary goals of the MAB for 2017:

  1. More community involvement
  2. Better communication
  3. A clear roadmap

All three are very much interconnected and dependent on each other. We can have an amazing roadmap, but without proper communication, you will not have any community involvement.

One way of better communicating community efforts is a community site (modx.org), but without a plan, there will not be any community involvement. Let alone communicating plans without a communication platform.

Inception? Not really, we just need to get some work done before we can continue with the next MAB. Where are we right now?

  • Community involvement is at a good level, but it's not very structured yet regarding who is doing what.
  • We have a clear roadmap for 3, which comes with a real plan (modx3.org). There are a lot of ideas for post-MODX3, but nothing on paper yet.
  • Communication is okay, but not through a central site yet (if you exclude MODX3 progress on modx3.org, which has a weekly update). Currently, we're using modx3.org, socials, slack and modx.today/modx.pro and modx.com for bigger announcements.

The new modx.org is being worked on right now, after creating sitemaps, wireframes, programming foundation and content at several community events in the last 12 months. That will really help to share Community and MAB efforts.

MODX3 is also coming along nicely and will be released in June 2018. Community focus will probably be on improving MODX3 after the release. But what will happen after that?

That's the MAB's job: guide the project to a bright future with a clear roadmap. The MAB will probably look different in 2018. The first MAB did some amazing things, but there are three changes we want to introduce in the second term:

  • Always have a one-year roadmap up and running;
  • Only have meetings when they are needed;
  • Equal time investment from all members.

That being said: a new MAB has to be formed and we're looking for committed MODX community members, with enough time on their hands (10+ hours every month) to join the MAB and bring MODX forward after MODX3. You can apply here until the end of May 2018.