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Weekend Roundup #138

Jaypee Habaradas — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 19:05:42 +0000

Hi everyone and welcome to the 138th edition of the Weekend Roundup! How did your weekend go? Hope you all had fun and enjoyed spending time with loved ones and friends. I’ll be going out to the park later today with my family and some friends so I made sure that I prepared and published this edition of the Weekend Roundup early. Lots of cool and interesting stories and articles so feel free to go over each one and share it if you want. Enjoy!

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What Is A WordCamp? [Infographic]

Jaypee Habaradas — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 14:56:53 +0000

A few days ago, I shared with you the list of upcoming 2011 Summer WordCamps. For those of you who’ve been able to attend WordCamp before, you know what it’s all about. However, for those who haven’t been to one, WordCamps might not seem interesting. Some of you might just know it as a WordPress-related event but you don’t have an idea on what goes on during the event – what it is about or what and who’s it for, what to expect (activities) and what the benefits are of attending it.

I can try to explain about WordCamp but that could take me a long time and I’m not sure if I’ll do a good job. Fortunately, the guys at WPBeginner have made it easy by creating an infographic entitled “What is a WordCamp and Why You Should Attend?“. As the name suggests, this infographic explains what a WordCamp is, what it is about, what to expect from it and why you should attend one especially if you’re a WordPress user.

[click here to view the large version of the infographic]

It’s a simple infographic but provides the information a person needs in order to know more or get a better idea about WordCamps. Kudos to the folks of WPBeginner for creating and sharing this nice and informative infographic about WordCamps.

WordCamps are a really fun and learning experience. I hope I can attend another one this year but based on the schedule, I might have to wait until next year. If you plan on attending one, make sure to check WordCamp Central for the complete and official list of scheduled WordCamps. Anyone else planning on attending a WordCamp this year?

2011 Summer WordCamps

Jaypee Habaradas — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 19:39:51 +0000

I haven’t attended a WordCamp since WordCamp Las Vegas two years ago. I planned to attend a couple WordCamps scheduled in California (WordCamp LA & WordCamp Orange County) but due to some conflicts in schedule, I wasn’t able to make it.

If you’re looking to attend a blogging event this year or simply looking for something fun to do and keep you busy this summer, then you should definitely attend a WordCamp. There are several WordCamps scheduled this summer all around the globe so check out the list below and see if there’s one scheduled on your area or somewhere near you.

April 16: WordCamp Seattle in Seattle, WA
May 5: WordCamp Vancouver (Developer Edition) in Vancouver, BC
May 7: WordCamp Switzerland in Brugg, Switzerland
May 14: WordCamp Orange County in Orange, CA
May 14: WordCamp Paris in Paris, France
May 21–22: WordCamp Raleigh in Raleigh, NC
June 4–5: WordCamp Reno-Lake Tahoe in Reno, NV
June 11–12: WordCamp Kansas City in Overland Park, KS
June 17–19: WordCamp Columbus in Columbus, OH
July 9–10: WordCamp Montreal in Montreal, Quebec
July 16: WordCamp San Diego in San Diego, CA
July 16-17: WordCamp Portsmouth in Portsmouth, UK
July 23–24: WordCamp Boston in Boston, MA

I was hoping that there was gonna be a WordCamp this year here in the Maryland-Washington DC (WordCamp Mid-Atlantic) area but so far there’s no word about any plans for 2011. The closest ones would be WordCamp Raleigh and WordCamp Boston which are both several hours drive away so I’m not really sure I’ll be able to attend them.

For those who are in the Chicago and Portland area, the organizers for the local WordCamps are still working on getting a venue for the event (WordCamp Chicago – late July, WordCamp Portland – September) so make sure to check out the official websites for further announcements.

To get the complete list of upcoming WordCamps in your country or location, check out the WordCamp Central. If you don’t have or never had a WordCamp scheduled in your area, why don’t you organize one?

Anyone organizing/attending a WordCamp this year? Which WordCamp are you attending?

WordPress Board Game

Jaypee Habaradas — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 03:43:07 +0000

Usually, people attend WordCamps to listen to talks about blogging and other WordPress related stuff and at the same time meet not only popular and respected people in the blogging, social network and social media scene but also get to meet other WordPress users. During this year’s WordCamp Indonesia, not only did the attendees get to learn new stuff and get to meet people but they also got to have some fun with the first ever WordPress Board Game.

The WordPress Board Game was designed Eko Nugroho and developed by WordCamp Indonesia in cooperation with Kummara, a board game developer from Bandung, Indonesia. I haven’t played with the game yet but WordCamp Indonesia has a short description on their site and DailySocial has a demo video* of the game.

The WordPress Board Game can be played by 2 to 4 players within an estimated playing time of 45 minutes. Each player takes on the role of a web developer and the objective of the game is to successfully do a fresh install of WordPress on a new blog/website using the right combination of plugins (there are a total of 70 plugins in the game). A game starts with 3 boards with 1 framework each where players work on and install the plugins. A “plugin connector” in the middle of the framework determines the right plugin combination and guides the player where plugins can be installed. Each plugin is assigned a number of points which is credited to a player when he/she installs that plugin. Player scores are tallied on a scorecard with different tokens representing each player. The game becomes challenging with each roll of the dice. Each die contains specific commands/requests from their “boss” which the player needs to follow like “download/install new plugin” or “rotate plugin connector“. A framework gets completed when the required set of plugins have been installed on it and once that happens, a new framework is installed on the board (game has a total of 18 frameworks). The game ends when there are less than 3 frameworks left and the player with the most number of points wins.

The person in the video was talking quite fast so I wasn’t able to understand some of the things he said so I apologize if the game summary/explanation I gave above is incomplete or contains errors. I did my best and tried to combine the short description and translate what was on the demo video. If you find any errors, please feel free to point them out via the comment section below.

Based on what I read and what I saw from the video, it sounds like a cool and fun game for WordPress users and a good ice breaker for WordCamps or any WordPress related events/meetups. I wonder if WordPress Indonesia or Kummara have any plans of making a commercial/international version of the game and sell it to the public. If they did, I would definitely get one and I’m sure other WordPress users would do too. If I was a part of the WordPress team, I would collaborate with the game makers and sell the WordPress Board Game at the WordPress Swag Store. I would even probably make an iPad app version of the game considering that the original game boards were designed after the iPad.

What do you think of the first ever WordPress Board Game? Would you consider buying it and playing with it?

[image source: DailySocial]

*The demo video on DailySocial is in Bahasa Indonesia

WordCamp Philippines 2010 Breakaway Talks

Jaypee Habaradas — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:46:28 +0000

WordCamp Philippines 2010 which is scheduled on October 2nd at the College of Saint Benilde, Manila, Philippines re-opened its registration yesterday, August 16th. If you’re a WordPress user, developer, fan, advocate based in the Philippines or someone who would like to know more about WordPress then this is THE EVENT that you wouldn’t want to miss.

With that said, the organizers of WordCamp Philippines 2010 also recently released the list of speakers and topics for the Breakaway Talks which will be divided into three tracks: Basic, Advanced and Developer. Below is the complete list of speakers and topics for each track:

Basic Track

WordPress Setup and Maintenance by Winston Almendras
930AM-1025AM
Thinking of starting your first WordPress blog? Bring your laptop and we’ll make sure you have a blog up and running before lunch time.

Anatomy of a WordPress Blog by Micaela Rodriguez
1030AM-1125AM
Posts vs Pages, Categories vs Tags. Can’t tell the difference? This talk is for you and as a bonus, we’ll teach you how to upload a plugin.

WordPress in the Wild by Jonel Uy
1130AM-1225PM
The Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines, The Wall Street Journal Magazine, The PlayStation Blog, Best Buy, Mashable.. What do all these heavyweight sites have in common? They’re all powered by WordPress. See real world examples of WordPress sites and how easy it is to set one up.

Advanced Track

Integrating Social Media by Misty Belardo
930AM-1025AM
A talk on blogging and how you can integrate social media into the mix. Includes strategies on how to get people to leave comments and interact on your blog.

Plugin Must-Haves by Hans Koch
930AM-1025AM
Find out the most essential plugins your blog will ever need to succeed.

Corporate Blogging with WordPress by Regnard Raquedan
930AM-1025AM
Learn the importance of blogging in the corporate culture and how it can help your business.

SEO, Optimizing Ads, and Blog Flipping by Rocky Tayaban
930AM-1025AM
Essential SEO strategies that matter with discussions on SEO techniques that don’t work. Plus ads optimization and blog flipping.

The Internet is not just for Porn (Videos can be wholesome, too!) by Kring Elenzano
1030AM-1125AM
A step-by-step tutorial on how to do a simple video blog but make it kick-ass at the same time.

WordPress as CMS by Kevin Codamon
1030AM-1125AM
A case study on how Level Up!, the country’s first and biggest online games publisher, started using WordPress as a content management system (CMS) during a time when local companies still relied on proprietary software.

Stats, Hits, Likes: Semantics and Sentiment in WordPress by Marck Ronald Rimorin
1030AM-1125AM
Leverage your blog’s traffic with social media, hits and statistics analysis.

Add Muscle to your WordPress Site by Gail Villanueva
1130AM-1225PM
Take your WordPress site to the next level by adding options to post templates. Learn techniques on utilizing WordPress as a powerful CMS for jobsites, e-commerce sites or portfolio blogs.

Photoblogging with WordPress by Juned Sonido
1130AM-1225PM
Includes the who, what, where, when and why of photoblogging via WordPress. Technical and fun at the same time.

Blogging with Passion by Jayvee Fernandez
1130AM-1225PM
Learn how Jayvee Fernandez evolved and turned blogging into a medium for things he is passionate about.

Developer Track

WordPress Theming and CSS Techniques by Elaine Poh
930AM-1025AM
A talk on theme design. See real examples and learn how to achieve the same effect with CSS techniques and plugins.

Customizing a WordPress Blog with Themes and Plugins by Jonas Roque
1030AM-1125AM
Case study of Facebuko.com. Learn from Jonas on how to transform a default WordPress installation into a niche site.

Optimizing WordPress Webserver Performance by Eric Malloy
1130AM-1225PM
Optimizing WordPress webserver performance with PHP-fpm nginx and memcached with discussions on common security exploits and how to protect against them.

If you’re planning to attend or have already registered for this year’s WordCamp Philippines, the sign-ups for these scheduled breakaway talks will open really soon so watch out for it. Please take note that once you’ve signed up and finalized, you won’t be able to change schedules. Talks have limited slots so make sure to book your preferred topics/talks ASAP.

Aside from these breakaway talks, there will also be a few talks scheduled for the Plenary Session. Last but not least, WordCamp Philippines 2010 attendees will also get to hear Mr WordPress himself – Matt Mullenweg.

The organizers have prepared a very interesting and exciting lineup of speakers and topics for WordCamp Philippines 2010. I really wish I could attend, but I guess I’ll have to wait again til next year.

Anyone here planning to attend, have already registered or who’s speaking at WordCamp Philippines 2010? Which topic or topics would you want to listen to if you had the chance to attend the event?