April 27th, 2013
I owe much of my career to WordPress and it’s use of use. However, none of it would have been possible without the community. Contributing to WordPress is a great way to become better with WordPress as a developer, designer, teacher, writer… there are contributing opportunities for everyone.
During my talk at WordCamp Ottawa I’ll be sharing info on how you can get started.
In the meantime, here are my slides for the presentation:
April 12th, 2013
The first ever WordCamp Ottawa is happening in a few weeks on April 27. It will be held at the University in the MonPetit Hall. I graduated from University in 1991 and haven’t been back since. I’m a little apprehensive about going back, but excited as well.
I’ll give a talk in the developer track and discuss ways to become a better developer by contributing to WordPress and joining the community.
The title of my talk might be a bit misleading though. I probably shouldn’t have said developer.
Designers, teachers, writers and organizers are also needed and welcomed in the WordPress community. I hope that all types of WordPress enthusiasts will join me and get to know the many ways in which one can participate.
See you there.
November 03rd, 2012
In my last post, I mentioned that many action items were made following numerous discussions and conversations. I myself had the opportunity to speak to various members of the Theme Review Team and came up with my own set of personal action items.
My theme Mon Cahier was quite popular when it came out, but of course, now that’s it’s not as new it’s no longer as popular. One thing that one can do to make a more popular theme is by offering right to left language support. WordPress itself is very good at providing right to left support for countries in the Middle east and Persia but only a small percentage of themes offer it. Providing RTL is quite easy, since it’s only a matter of adding a stylesheet, so I thought I would update my theme. I took care of that task this weekend and will be submitting it to the WordPress repo. Fingers crossed it will be updated soon.
I also plan on making it responsive and need to make better use of the theme customizer, but these two action items will need to be put on the back burner for now.
I’ve been teaching WordPress for a few years now and my efforts have not gone unnoticed. One of the great things to come out of the WordPress Community Summit is the handbooks that are currently in the works. I’ve been asked to be the lead of setting up a curriculum for teachers. This material will consist of teaching materials, videos and tutorials. This task is quite big, but I’ve already chatted to a few people who have offered to help. Similarly to the other handbooks, a website will be put in place allowing people to contribute, edit and share information. The website and plan of action should be put in place in a few weeks. I’m very excited about this project and look forward to see how it progresses and evolves.
November 01st, 2012
The first ever WordPress community summit (wpcs) took place last Monday in gorgeous Tybee Island. The weather was a bit chilly thanks to Sandy, but that didn’t keep anyone from enjoying themselves and taking part in amazing discussions. Attendees, each there by invitation, was composed of Automatticians, core contributors, WordPress based companies, hosting companies, plugin developers, designers who have contributed to the community somehow.
The unconference started with everyone wishing to discuss a certain topic giving a 2 minute presentation detailing what they wanted to discuss and who they would like to have at their table. Discussion topics ranged from how to recognize non-code contributors to WordPress, reducing the pain of Plugin and Theme reviews, the future of Multisite and much more. Altogether, there were four time slots for these discussions which lasted 45 minutes. So we all got a chance to participate to 4 sessions and join in on stimulating conversations.
Each session had a note taker and the group needed to come up with one action item. You can view all of these notes on the wpcs website if you wish to read them in more detail.
October 04th, 2012
Time is almost running out, WordCamp Vancouver 2012 is next Saturday, Oct 13th!
We have a jam packed day in store with 16 sessions, spread over 3 tracks. Talks from how to make your WordPress site mobile, to demystifying SEO, to building member sites, to developing properly with jQuery, to caching, to BuddyPress, and so much more! I’ll be giving a presentation about the WordPress community. If you want to learn how to get jobs, make friends and get involved, come check it out.
The whole day will be filled with talks for every level from beginner to advanced. So check out the schedule, and then grab your tickets.
May 07th, 2012
One of the best thing about WordPress is the online community and the many ways one can learn how to use WordPress as a blogging platform or as a CMS. WordCamps are always a lot of fun and a great way to meet other developers and bloggers. This year, I’ve been fortunate to have been selected as one of the speakers at WordCamp Seattle. Check out the schedule and come and say hi.
My slides used for the presentation can be found here.
The theme created for this presentation can be viewed here.
June 04th, 2010
With only a week away from the sold out WordCamp Vancouver, Cameron Cavers, Dave Zille and I have been preparing our slides and questions for our upcoming panel. As you’ve probably heard me say before, WordPress is not only for blogs and we hope to demonstrate what can be achieved during our panel.
Having said that, we’d like to make sure that our presentation meets the audience’s needs. If you have your ticket for WordCamp Vancouver, are interested in learning more about how to use WordPress as a CMS and have a question, please leave a comment below or on the WordCamp blog post.
See you next weekend.
September 23rd, 2009
I had the pleasure of attending my first WordCamp conference this weekend in Portland. Yes, I know, first WordCamp, how is that possible for a WordPress focused web developer like you? I guess I just wasn’t organized enough to attend previous ones.
I was also not expecting much. As the saying goes, you get what you pay for, so how good can a $20 conference be? WordCamp PDX proved to be exceptional and went beyond my expectations.
February 14th, 2009
Earlier this year the folks at Automattic launched www.WordPress.tv, which is a new website to learn about all things WordPress. I just had a quick look and it looks like the list of videos is quite extensive (Click the how-to link for the list of videos. Personally I’m not sure this tab is appropriately labeled, but hey, I found the list.) The site also has a WordCampTV section where you can watch videos, slides and listen to audio clips.
This site is definitely worth bookmarking and investigating further.
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