Niko Kotiniemi has a background the service sector, Union and Unemployment Fund related work as well as the travel sector. In 2004 he turned his lifelong computer hobby to into a living, starting with custom web projects and open-source CMS systems. Since the very beginning of his computer related career he has worked with Mambo and later with Joomla!. In 2006, at the age of 30 he decided to obtain the academic qualifications and entered Software Engineering studies at the Helsinki Polytechnic Stadia, Information Technology department.
During the course of his studies he is constantly working on different web-projects to both finance his studies as well as out of professional interest. Most of his free time is spent with family and in studying new trends and technologies and ways in which they can be integrated to real-life situations such as those faced by private entrepreneurs and small companies. Currently his main technological interests lie in Joomla!, wiki's, all of the Google labs products, Ajax, Gadgets/Widgets, databases and specialized websites for niche groups.
You can reach him through his personal website http://www.kotiniemi.fi or through e-mail: <niko@kotiniemi.fi>
Joseph L. LeBlanc started with computers at a very young age. His independent education gave him the flexibility to experiment and learn computer science. Joseph holds a bachelor's degree in Management Information Systems from Oral Roberts University.
Joseph is currently a freelance Joomla! extension developer. He released a popular component tutorial in May 2004, then later authored the book, Learning Joomla! 1.5 Extension Development: Creating Modules, Components, and Plugins with PHP. Work samples and open-source extensions are available at www.jlleblanc.com. In addition to freelancing, he is a board member of the DC PHP Conference. He has also worked as a programmer for a web communications firm in Washington, DC.
