Today’s post is brought to you live from the WordCamp event in Portland, Oregon. Stay tuned throughout the day for updates!
9:00am And it begins … welcome to the second annual WordCamp Portland, hosted in the downtown offices of WebTrends right next to Pioneer Courthouse Square.
9:15am The first door prize giveaway. They’re giving out web hosting, premium subscriptions to the WP E-Commerce suite via raffle tickets.
9:30am Communication breakdowns already. “Why is the wall up,” everyone asks when they start dividing the room before the first so-called “general” session. Unfortunately, my power outlet is now on the other side of the wall … so my live blogging might be short-lived.
10:00am Wow, I never realized how un-optimized my website was. Now I get to learn how to use gzip compression for all my Javascript and CSS to make things run more smoothly. I also need to work on reducing the number of files I’m sending to the browser.
10:25am Next up, learning about podcasting. I’ve wanted to start a podcast on this site for some time … maybe now I’ll know how! 🙂
10:55am I’m sure the speakers have good things to say, particularly since they’re speaking from their own experience. Unfortunately … we have yet to hear it. I’m not nearly as jazzed about this presentation as I was the last one. Sad. 🙁
11:20am So podcasting is like blogging. Same rules. Hard work. Hard work. And it’s really hard, but fun. Yeah, this didn’t really help me learn much more about podcasting than I knew when I came in here today. Hopefully the next session will be more engaging and educational.
11:22am Time for lunch, followed by a Q&A with the creator of WordPress. Looks good! Laptop will be off for a while, but I should be able to start the live stuff back up very soon!
12:45pm Now presenting … the creator of WordPress … Matt Mullenweg!!!
1:00pm And now we get to ask Matt anything and everything about WordPress. First question: can we make money using the hosted WordPress repository?
1:20pm They want to remove the under-used multiple roles feature in WordPress. I didn’t even know they had a multiple roles feature. Now I want to use it!
1:30pm Is WordPress just for bloggers? Apparently not any more. Even SitePoint is powered by WordPress!
1:48pm Are there resources for teachers and students to help them use WordPress? There are a few … but I personally think there should be more. Not just events, but maybe a free-ish hosting and instructional service.
2:15pm Learning about using WordPress Multi User with the WP E-commerce plug-in.
2:30pm Yay for over-taxed Internet and live online demonstrations … makes everything work just that much more slowly.
2:45pm They’re already setting up for our ice cream break. That is really distracting …
3:05pm Two sessions left today and I’m already tired. A couple of my friends ducked out early, but I’m committed to staying for the whole day. The question now is: am I more interested in mobile blogging or using WordPress as a CMS? I should probably make up my mind here pretty quickly.
3:20pm Mobile it is. More because I’m too lazy to move and it’ll be in this room than for any other reason 🙂
3:52pm I didn’t realize just how many iPhone users there were. I’m really out of the loop and behind the times …
4:02pm Learning iPhone specific meta-tags for web development. Apparently “Viewport” will make the site look better on the iPhone’s Safari browser. I should probably learn this on behalf of some of my clients …
4:30pm Building a WordPress-powered portfolio. I’m looking forward to this chat!
4:50pm Great conference and fantastic closing talk. Unfortunately, my battery is just about shot and I need to shut things down before my laptop goes on strike. Take care, and have a great weekend!