State of the Mahara 
Nation, 2014 
Presented by Aaron Wells, Catalyst IT // Mahara UK 2014
Aaron Wells (Me) 
@AaronTheMad on Twitter
Lead Mahara Developer 
at Catalyst IT
About Catalyst
What's it like at Mahara HQ?
Wellington on a fine day
Wellington on a normal day
Wellington Botanic Gardens
My good friend Gandalf
Stonehenge New Zealand
Earthquakes
7 sheep to every human
As seen on Google Street View
Brighton 
Hong Kong Phoenix 
Riyadh Sydney 
New York 
Chicago 
Wellington 
Christchurch 
Kaikoura 
Pukerua Bay
There's a nicer one on Level 3
What I see all day
What I should be looking at
What I should be looking at
Programming (PHP) 
Code review 
(http://reviews.mahara.org)
1.10: It's coming! 
1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.10 
Version Bugs Commits Files changed Lines added 
1.10 (so far) 75 174 2,650 190,875 
1.9 294 389 933 42,332 
1.8 179 299 2,112 114,292 
1.7 54 217 520 17,618 
1.6 129 400 648 17,084
Invisible behind-the-scene 
changes pictured here:
Perks for plugins
Loca for /htdocs/local
Custom sideblocks in /local 
(These are sideblocks)
Trust me this makes sense 
/blocktype/clippy/theme/aaron 
/blocktype/inbox/theme/aaron 
/blocktype/comments/theme/aaron 
/theme/aaron/blocktype/clippy 
/theme/aaron/blocktype/comments 
/theme/aaron/blocktype/inbox
… and a few things you can 
actually see!
Editable new user page templates
TinyMCE (before)
TinyMCE (after)
Report objectionable forum posts
Drag pages into collections
What's on the 1.11 roadmap?
Feature creep
Every change breaks someone's 
workflow.
How you can contribute to Mahara 
19 ways to get involved in 
Even if you don't know the difference between 
& 
Based on a presentation by Kristina D.C. Hoeppner, Catalyst IT
1. Use the software 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pgoyette/2819175465
2. Ask questions 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21496790@N06/5065834411
3. Answer questions 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nhuisman/3168683736/
4. Report bugs 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34120957@N04/4199675334/
5. Give feedback 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/henryfaber/230444653
6. Spread the word 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21551833@N00/4345518893/
7. Translate 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/86931652@N00/2067945645
8. Write tutorials 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laffy4k/441037582 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laffy4k/441037582
9. Create screencasts 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/photochiel/83361761
10. Provide training 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/95492938@N00/5181464194/
11. Squash bugs 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/82606279@N00/299991298/
12. Test features 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35723892@N00/4090782772/
13. Design themes 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fiduz/5592241473
14. Write books 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zitona/4053097146
15. Create plugins 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mroach/4095648200
16. Code review 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jantjesmit/95705255
17. Develop cool features 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hildeengwenverbouwen/3309575919
18. Sponsor features 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13519089@N03/4626960661/
19. Make a contributor smile 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/srboisvert/728444428
Your gateway to the magical world 
of getting involved with Mahara: 
The Mahara community website: 
https://mahara.org 
The Mahara wiki: 
https://wiki.mahara.org 
The Mahara Launchpad project: 
http://bugs.launchpad.net/mahara 
(but it's usually easier to just link there from mahara.org)
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State of the Mahara Nation 2014