It is not a fork. It is not a spoon. It is a distribution, extending the power of the core Joomla! installation. A new project is breaking ground as we speak, and it's worth a close watch.

Molajo made a major announcement last week, that it's assembling a new leadership team of Joomla! folks who are bound and determined - come hell or highwater - to push Joomla's capabilities further than ever before, with improved usability, ACL features, administrative tools, built-in commenting its own templating system, and more.

See Molajo's new site (and spiffy new branding) here, at www.Molajo.com.  Consider joining their team! Pronounced "moe-lah-joe," the project is lead by the prolific Amy Stephen, of All Together As A Whole fame.  Amy's been a long-time Joomla! fan(atic).  

Watch for more updates on Molajo, as they have just accepted our invitation to train on Molajo at the 2011 CMS Expo Learning and Business Conference, May 2-4, in Evanston. Speaking on behalf of the Molajo team will be Amy Stephen and Jen Kramer. We're very pleased to welcome Molajo here at CMS Expo's "home chapter," JoomlaChicago!

From the Molajo website:

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The first Molajo Joomla! 1.6 distribution includes the following features:

• Usability improvements, including ACL simplifications;
• JAdminTools, a single-click administrative solutions, such as permissions modification and database maintenance and backup;
• Construct, a frontend Template framework;
• Minima, an Administrator Template;
• Comments, ratings, social bookmarking, activity logs for Joomla! 1.6 Components;
• Sample extensions for Joomla developers.

A development road map details these, and other, plans. All code used in Molajo will be available for consideration for inclusion in the official Joomla! releases.

Molajo Website