Meet Jana Höffner: The TYPO3 Association's New Vice President
This year's TYPO3 board elections brought new leadership to the table, including Jana Höffner as Vice President. Jana isn't an agency owner, nor a developer, but someone who works diligently in the TYPO3 backend on a daily basis. She saw the need for an editor's point of view and acknowledged how this user group often gets overlooked in the grand scheme of things. That was the platform she ran on.
Jana trained as a journalist before landing a communications job within the Ministry of the State of Baden-Württemberg — aka "THE LÄND." It was there, over 12 years in Stuttgart and across three legislative periods, that she helped reinvent governmental digital communications, experimenting early with social media and steering the government's critical communications through the pandemic. Most notably, she's recognized for translating "Politik des Gehörtwerdens" (policy of being heard) — the new green-led government's guiding philosophy — into digital practice. Baden-Württemberg's work during this period became a leading example for governmental digital communication.
It was also during this time that the state's new government website, built on TYPO3, gave Jana her first real exposure to the CMS. As an editor and product owner, she experienced firsthand how much communication could improve because of what the platform made possible and it was through that lens, as an editor and communication expert rather than a developer, that she fell for TYPO3, and later for open source and digital sovereignty more broadly.
"I became one of the loudest voices promoting the mobility transition"
Alongside her government work, Jana built a public voice of her own. She started one of the first German-language blogs “ZoePionierin” (depublished) on electric mobility back in 2012, becoming one of the earliest and loudest advocates for the mobility transition. In 2015, she took that advocacy institutional, co-founding the NGO Electrify-BW, vice president, and spokesperson — a pattern that's defined her career: using her voice to push for change at an institutional level.
In 2023, she made the jump from government to agency, joining ressourcenmangel, which serves mostly public-sector clients. It's where her TYPO3 and digital sovereignty work deepened from firsthand editor experience into something closer to a specialty, driven by the same question she's asked throughout her career: "What does the user need? How can I optimize the site and its contents so people like you and me can find what they're looking for?"
She actively pushes back against "we've always done it this way" as a justification for anything.
"It is not just an open source software coded by some geeks in their basement — no offense, I like geeks and basements, and have my own geek's basement."
Dedication to Open Source, Community, and Sustainable Development
The deeper she got into the TYPO3 community, the more she noticed a gap: end users weren't well represented in the broader ecosystem, and long-term participation was hard to sustain. That gap is what she's focused on closing in her new role, including finding ways to bring more people into the community and keep them there.
In 2024, Jana, already an unofficial ambassador for TYPO3 and open source CMS, was asked to run for the TYPO3 Association board, seeing it as a chance to bring an editor's and consultant's perspective to the table. An unforeseen accident forced her to step back and heal before she could take the seat. In 2026 she started working with Dataport as a TYPO3 Consultant. With her new appointment, and with support from her current employer, Dataport, she now has more time to dedicate to the role.
What’s ahead of her? Setting the course for a sustainable future for TYPO3, its community, and its users.
Jana is candid that not every editor loves the TYPO3 backend, but she also can't think of anything the CMS can't do. Where proprietary competitors can put money into a shiny backend UI, she sees that polish as often masking a lack of real features and flexibility — plus the cost of having your data locked into a database only the vendor understands. Her hope is for future TYPO3 versions to let the backend be customized for an easier click-based workflow. She applauds TYPO3 version 14 for already moving in that direction, and it's that kind of improvement she plans to keep pushing for.
“The board is always just a (video-)call away”
Day to day, board life looks like biweekly meetings, reviews, and topic discussions in between. Right now, Jana's focus is improving communication with its members and putting the new governance structure into action. She's looking forward to meeting community members at TYPO3 camps and events, and she's keeping up the weekly open-hour tradition started by former Vice President Boris Hinzer.
Asked what the most unglamorous part of the job is, she didn't hesitate: "Is there a glamorous part?" It's the kind of candor that says a lot about the time and sacrifice board members put in to keep TYPO3 moving.
“Fighting against bugs and not paper tigers”
Looking Towards The Future
Looking ahead, Jana wants to build a future where "we cannot afford..." is no longer a valid argument, where the Association and Company have the financial freedom to back the community properly. Her main goal as Vice President is making sure TYPO3 doesn't become obsolete, which means keeping the community cohesive and cutting down on endless decision loops. Ultimately, she wants to clear the bureaucracy out of the way so people can focus on the work that actually matters — coding, copywriting, negotiating, presenting, caring, and everything else people give their free time to for this project.
Get to know Jana at a TYPO3 event, or by dropping by her weekly open hour.
Welcome to the board, Jana!
