Contributing to the WordPress Community

When Holly and I formed Shiny New Toy earlier this year, we talked a lot about all the people we have learned from over the years.  Included in that discussion was the community of people involved with WordPress.  Holly and easily agree that our favorite online community are the developers, designers, hackers, and evangelists involved with the WordPress software.  That community has shared so much knowledge and has never hesitated to share their knowledge with anyone interested.  It’s a big factor (in fact it’s probably the biggest factor) in making WordPress one of the best solutions for publishing content onto the web.  Holly and I felt a desire to do more to participate in this community and so, we came up with the idea of WP Screencasts. It’s another effort in our continuing meme of  ”giving back.”

Another reason we love WordPress so much is how much thought has been put into the user interface of the WordPress dashboard.  We’ve encountered many web-based content management systems over the years and the usability of the WordPress admin screens outshines that of competing CMS packages.  However, we continue to run into challenges with teaching content managers how to use WordPress to add, edit, and manage online content.  It’s not that training users on WordPress is impossible, we’ve just found that different people learn in different ways.  Some folks require a significant amount of hands-on training and we’re happy to provide that.  Other folks do well with reading the information found in resources such as the WordPress Codex and books like WordPress for Dummies by Lisa Sabin-Wilson.

What we found missing for WordPress users was a comprehensive set of video based training content for learning how to use administer content in a self-hosted WordPress based websites.  WP Screencasts aims to fill that gap and complement WordPress learning resources already available on the web and in print.

A Living Resource

Our initial set of videos that we are launching with is just the beginning.  We’ll continue to expand by adding additional screencasts over time.  If there is a task that isn’t covered in a video here, let us know and we’ll do our best to include it in the future.

WP Screencasts can be found by visiting http://wpscreencasts.com

To play a little six degrees of WordPress separation…

1. The WordPress Charity Scavenger Hunt benefits 826 Valencia
2. 826 Valencia was founded by Dave Eggers
3. Dave Eggers won the 2008 TED Prize and had his wish granted as part of winning the prize
4. Dave Eggers wishes that everyone get involved with a public school and to chronicle the involvements, the web site Once Upon A School was created
5. Once Upon A School was designed and developed built by Holly (while working for Hot Studio)
6. Holly used WordPress to get it done

This isn’t a list of the best plugins out there.  It is simply a list of plugins which are installed every time we deploy a WordPress site.  Actually, most of them are plugins that help out WordPress admins and editors. 

Customizable Post Listings
I’ve heard more than one WordPress ninja refer to this plugin as the Swiss Army knife of WP plugins.  What it does it allow you to quickly include lists of recent posts, recent comments, random posts, and other types of lists.  It’s inevitable that somewhere in your site design that you’ll want to include a list like this.

Dublin Core for WordPress
Another plugin that easily optimizes your site for search engines by inserting the Dublin Core metadata as meta tags in your posts and pages. 

The Excerpt Reloaded
Expands the options in using content excerpts in your themes. 

Feedburner FeedSmith
Priceless if you are using Feedburner to monitor your RSS feeds.  Which you should be. 

Google XML Sitemaps
Help optimize your web site for search engines.  The plugins I love most provide a ton of useful functionality without actually having to do a lot, if any, configuration.  Just install and you’re done.

One Click Plugin Updater
Keeping WordPress sites updated used to be a nightmare.  Seemed like every time I logged into the WordPress dashboard, I was informed that I had out of date plugins.  While that still seems to be the case, the One Click Plugin Updater actually makes the process of keeping plugins up to date painless.  Does what it says it does - updates all your plugins with a single mouse click. Eliminates the painfully repetitive process of downloading, unzipping, and uploading updates of your installed plugins one by one.

Search Everything
Expands the search functionality of WordPress to include more than just search of blog posts.  If you are utilizing WordPress as a a CMS, this plugin is an absolute must.

WordPress Database Backup
Does exactly what you think it does.  The beauty of this plugin is that you can use it to configure automated weekly backups of your DB.  Quite honestly, this plugin is mission critical.

What are your essential WordPress plugins?

WordCamp returns to San Francisco next Saturday, August 16 at Mission Bay Conference Center.  WordCamp is one of my favorite tech events of the year mainly because of the wonderful folks in the WordPress community that attend it.  If you are interested in blogging and all the other possiblities of the WordPress platform, WordCamp is an event not to be missed.

Unfortunately, due to some recent happenings in my family life, I’m not sure I’ll be able to attend.  But Holly will be there, so definitely connect with her to if you want to hear more about Shiny New Toy, some of our recent work with WordPress, and what you should do with half a cow.  

We’re also hoping to have a relevant announcement in advance of WordCamp.  Something we hope will be warmly received by our friends and colleagues in the WordPress community.  Stay tuned. 

Other evidence of this trend lies with the WP-Remix theme and the upcoming features of WordPress 2.7.  A good article on WordPress CMS issues can be read at Devlounge.

MeltingSpot, a free email newsletter and website, is an Internet version of the American “melting pot” society - a place where Americans and immigrants come together to close the culture gap. Read MeltingSpot for advice on how to survive and thrive in the U.S., at work and in the community!

Not being a web programmer or developer, Danielle was interested in a simple way to manage her web content without having to resort to using Dreamweaver or reading HTML.  WordPress to the rescue!  But at the same time, she wasn’t interested in having MeltingSpot appear as a blog.  In addition to developing a custom WordPress theme, we showed Danielle you how to  use WordPress features, such as excerpts and category templates, to have her magazine style website content appear exactly how she wishes.  We also included some banner ad management utilities so that she can insert and set ad rotations from within the WordPress admin dashboard. Finally, we integrated email newsletter subscription utilities.

MeltingSpot is located at http://www.meltingspot.com

Holly and I continue to enjoy working together because we have very complementary skillsets and because we have achieved a mutual trust over the years.  But we also enjoy working together because we have similar tastes, senses of humor, and pop culture sensibilities.  Simply put, this makes working together a lot more fun.  We also fully believe that it makes working WITH us a lot more fun.

So when we started working on our own web site, and subsequently our blog, we began exploring what exactly should we be blogging about?  What is the content that would demonstrate a  high degree of knowledge about the type of work we do, but also allow people to truly get to know us.  After all, we’re pretty convinced that solid relationships are what matters most in doing business.  I’ve heard on more than one occasion, "Good business is all about who you drink beer with."  So while we required a platform that would allow you to get our thoughts on various online trends, social media evolutions, and wonderful interface designs, we also desired a platform to allows us to share the items that are inspiring us or just making us laugh until we belly-ache. 

Mixing these goals can be a challenge.  It’s one that I’ve encountered before on my personal blog.  I first started blogging to keep my friends and family up-to-date with what was happening in my life.  When I started including posts about my thoughts regarding the web and technology, I found the blog to be without direction.  Attempting to appease a couple of different audiences in a single blog wasn’t making sense. 

But back to how Holly and I tackled this problem.  Like many others involved in technology, we’re big fans of the movie The Matrix.  As we were brainstorming Shiny New Toy’s online presence, the Red Pill vs Blue Pill dichotomy became a  metaphor we often referenced.  So we decided to play with that overall theme and apply it to ourselves.  In the end, what we offer you is choice.

You have to see it for yourself. This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back.

You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.

Remember — all I am offering is the truth.

 

Take the Red Pill

You’re here, so you’ve already taken the Red Pill.  The Red Pill represents a careful (and sometimes painful) examination of the truth.  That may sound dramatic, but it is our goal with the blog we call Red Pill.  This is the blog where we will post our technology related thoughts. It is where we will inform you of our professional activities.  It is where we will share, listen, and learn along with you. 

Opt for the Blue Pill

If you prefer to find out the bliss of finding out about us via the things we are spotting around the web that are inspiring and/or amusing us, you should take the Blue Pill.  It’s our tumblelog - basically a scrapbook of items and snippets we encounter as we cruise around the web.  It’s equally important to finding out all about Shiny New Toy.  Perhaps  you aren’t ready to dive in and absorb the entire truth.  Perhaps easing in slow in what’s right for you.  If you are aren’t seeking answers, but would prefer to lean back in your chair and relax, then opt for the Blue Pill.

To find out more about us

Blue Pill or Red Pill.  You’re invited to utilize either method or both.  But the choice is yours.

Would I want my mother to know that I did this?

It’s an excellent question to ask and, as a rule of thumb, I do think it works.  But the minor flaw it in is that our mothers have the full, complete context of who we are.  I can drop an F-bomb at the dinner table with my mother sitting across from me with little repercussion other than a quick, disapproving sneer.  But drop an F-bomb at a new business pitch with people who you’ve known for less than 30 minutes and it could mean the loss of a new client. 

It doesn’t stop with the language we use.  With Social Media tools, the content that we choose to publish and share represents who we are.  If you visited my Flickr stream and saw that my photostream was full of amputee dogs trapped in fishing nets, you’d probably have some serious character questions about me.  (And rightfully so, by the way.)

In the many years that I’ve been maintaining a blog and publishing photos, I’ve realized that there’s a challenging to representing your professional self in addition to the true “social you.”  The “professional you” is the you that leaves the baseball cap sitting at home, tucks in his shirt, and generally presents an image of professionalism so that people want to work with you, to trust you, and to look to you as a subject matter expert.  But does this help people really KNOW you? 

The “social you” are things like the movies you’ve seen 20 times, your favorite beer, and the music you can’t live without.  Not to mention the subtle little nuances of everyday life that you, and perhaps only you, truly appreciate.  But you continue to share with others if only for that remote chance that you will connect with someone around it.  Like the time you found the free parking downtown.  You share these things because they complete you.  Without them you are only a shallow representation of who you are.

The key to truly participating online is to figure out the correct mix of all aspects of you.  In a manner that achieve your goals and, most importantly, allows you to be yourself.

A closing thought from the film High Fidelity:

What really matters is what you like, not what you are like… Books, records, films — these things matter. Call me shallow but it’s the f—-n’ truth,

Of all the social networks I am a part of, Twitter is the one that is most compatible with my workflow.  I’m a short attention span kind of guy and feel like participating with my friends on Facebook involves me dedicating an hour here and there.  That’s not happening.  With Twitter, I can drop in for 5 minutes at at time, write a tweet or two and catch up on recent activity of the folks I’m following.  It’s the new “smoke break”.

It helps me get to know people faster

It’s amazing what you can learn about people in short bursts.  There are many people that I’ve yet to meet in person that I know so much in person.  Like they listen to Pavement or Sam Cooke.  Or are as obsessed with the Boston Red Sox as I am.

It allows me to spend less time in Google Reader

Instead of opening up Google Reader to read feeds of my favorite blogs, I’m using the folk I follow in Twitter to alert me to things I should view and read.  My Twitter friends have become my trusted sources.

Everyone else loves it, too

Admit it.  You love Twitter.  Sure, it may make you crazy and piss you off whenever it presents you with a picture of a whale.  But every significant relationship you’ve ever had has parts to it that you can’t stand.  We all put up with it and we’ll all continue to put up with it for the foreseeable future. Divorce is not imminent, no matter what some people may think. In fact, we all seem to be rooting for Twitter to exceed beyond our wildest imagination.  In that fashion, using Twitter is like going to a casino and joining a craps table.  While the other casino games are very individual affairs, playing craps is a communal activity where everyone roots for the person with the dice to throw the perfect roll.  On Twitter, we’re all just standing around the table rooting for Twitter.