Please welcome Tom Warwick for the second edition of Friends of TYPO3. He is the first British person, I know, who is using TYPO3. So let us see, what he tells us. :-)
Hi Tom, what was your first TYPO3 version?
4.2
How did you get in contact with TYPO3?
TYPO3 was the preferred CMS in my very first role as a web developer, I was very lucky. I remember the initial learning curve being quite steep, however it paid dividends very quickly. TYPO3 does so many things very well, multi language support being one of them.
How do you contribute to the community? In which areas are you active?
I produced a handful of screencasts in 2012, including this one which became quite popular.
I am now in the process of developing a new series of official screencasts to accompany version 8.
We are aiming these screencasts at two groups of people. Those that have never used TYPO3 before and also users who may have used the CMS back in the 4.X days but haven’t used it since.
A lot has changed and we want to show people how easy it is to use and highlight some of the major improvements that have been made.
My other role is to help promote TYPO3 in the UK. I’m confident that in 2017 we will see the first, official UK TYPO3 event take place. I’m also looking at ways in which we can have a presence at developer conferences and meetups.
Is there a possibility to support your activities? If yes, how to do it?
I’m always looking for feedback and people I can bounce ideas off.
Explaining features like typoscript or Fluid templating to someone for the first time can be difficult, so I’m always keen to find out from other people better ways in which we can talk about and explain these topics.
Do you have any TYPO3 events on your agenda, where it will be possible to meet you in person?
I’m heading to T3 Camp (Vienna) in March. I’ve also promised myself that I will finally attend T3CON this year.
What was your last TYPO3 event? What was special about this?
I attended a marketing sprint in Frankfurt last month. It was great to finally meet other members of the community in person – I sometimes feel quite isolated in the UK.
I also have to thank Natalie Klinke who arranged for me to fly over.
Do you remember a nice and / or funny episode (anecdote), which you would like to share?
Two things really stood out for me. German hospitality is second to none and as a relative outsider everyone took the time to make me feel welcome and help me out as my German is very poor.
The marketing team also introduced me to Jägermeister for the first time. Whilst I enjoyed trying to keep up with everyone that night, the flight home the following day was quite difficult but it was a great trip! :-)
What other activities and hobbies do you have besides TYPO3?
Outside of work I really enjoying swimming and running and I hope to take part in my first duathlon next year.
I’m also a big fan of FreeBSD, it’s something I use extensively both inside and outside of work – they also have a fantastic community.
Finally
Thank you, Tom!
Thank you Tom for taking the time to answer the questions. I hope, you get more contacts within the TYPO3 community and find more fellows in the UK, who are also using and developing TYPO3.
Thank you, readers!
Thanks to all who were reading until here. I hope you enjoyed the this issue of “Friends of TYPO3”. If you have got more questions, I should ask, please drop me a note. Also if you know somebody, who should be interviewed. You can contact me via Twitter (@MarcusSchwemer), e-mail (marcus@typo3worx.eu) or TYPO3 slack (@mschwemer).
Last, but not least: Here is Tomas “Steckbrief”
- Name: Tom Warwick
- Age: 29
- Nationality: British
- Current location: South Wales
- Socialmedia:
- Twitter: @tomsdongle
- Twitter: @t3_screencast
