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Archive for January, 2010
Although the 95 Theses of the Cluetrain Manifesto first appeared a decade ago, they still resonate just as much today as they did then. The quiet success of the book has been such that concepts like “markets are conversations,” “To speak with a human voice, companies must share the concerns of their communities” and “hyperlinks subvert hierarchy” seem commonplaces today, though they are concepts more often cited than practiced. Many bloggers owe a significant debt to Cluetrain, and far too many don’t even know it!
In this panel, two of the original authors of Cluetrain, Doc Searls and David Weinberger, will have a discussion with Scott Kirsner about the decade since the publication of Cluetrain.
What do they think Cluetrain got right, and what did it miss? Has blogging been hopelessly co-opted by exactly the forces of marketing against which the “people of earth” were said to be uniting? If the rest of the world is finally catching up to Cluetrain, what will the next steps in the evolution of commerce and conversation look like?
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With BuddyPress, you can build your own social network on top of WordPress in just a few minutes. But every community is unique (freakish?) in its own ways, and BuddyPress’s default setup won’t work for everyone. Sometimes you want more than the standard BuddyPress, sometimes you want less, and sometimes you want something that doesn’t look social networkish at all. In this session I’ll talk about the structure of BuddyPress and how the parts work together. Then I’ll demonstrate a few examples of how you can use plugins, config files, and child themes to make BuddyPress work for your unique and freakish purposes.
Presented by Boone Gorges
Presented at WordCamp Boston 2010
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You’re flirting with WordPress, now meet some entrepreneurs who made a commitment. This panel features startup and small business leaders for whom WordPress is a critical part of their business operation. Why did they settle on WordPress? What challenges does that decision present? If they could start over, would they pick WordPress again?
Locals Juliet DeVries of Audissey Guides and Amy Katz of Nine Lives Media join m62 visualcommunication’s Joby Blume, stopping in on the way back to the UK. Moderated by Jake Goldman.
Presented at WordCamp Boston 2010
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The makers of WP-eCommerce and Shopp introduce their e-commerce solutions, share examples of their plug-ins in practice, and take questions on eCommerce implementation from the audience. The session is split evenly between these two popular solutions.
Presented by Shayne Sanderson and Jonathan Davis.
Presented at WordCamp Boston 2010
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WordPress is taking off in Boston academia. Why are higher education institutions choosing it? What does it need to expand adoption in academia?
Bill Dennen of Wheaton College, Sean Brown from MIT Sloan Review, and Chris Traganos of Harvard University mull lessons learned from rolling out WP and WPMU in academia. Moderated by Scott Dasse of Boston University.
Presented at WordCamp Boston 2010
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You’re sold on WordPress as a solution for the lone blogger and small businesses. But does it work for big media organizations? Ned Watson of 1080d.com has set up both internal and VIP hosting for companies like MTV and Time Inc. He’ll review big media use cases, hosting alternatives, integration with external platforms, and other lessons learned from rolling out WordPress at scale.
Presented by Ned Watson
Presented at WordCamp Boston 2010
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There are 7,500+ free and open plug-ins and 1,000+ free/open themes on the official repository, all running on free and open WordPress. Is there real money to be made building plug-ins and templates?
Jane Wells of Automattic, Jousha Strebel of Page.ly, Carl Hancock of Gravity Forms (RocketGenius), and Brian Gardner of StudioPress explore (non-consulting) business models in a world of free, open, and GPL. Moderated by Jeff Chandler of WordPress Tavern.
Presented at WordCamp Boston 2010
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Over my lifetime I have been exposed to different technologies that have either expanded my state of being or have made my life a little easier. I have come up with five technologies that really stand out.
1. Modems
Prior to the days of the internet if you had a computer you would use it to play some games or type a book report. It wasn’t until I bought my first US Robotics 9600baud modem that I fully appreciated a connected word. XModem, YModem, and ZModem; ProComm Plus and Telex. I would spend hours connecting to BBS’ around the area; King’s Castle, Ye Olde Cookie Shoppe; FirePlug; and who could forget Dirty Dortio. This was done all in cover of night as I would have to use the family phone line. Of course the game of choice was TradeWars 2002.
2. The Internet
For me and everyone else, as soon as America Online and ICI came to town, we all abandoned BBS’ for a much larger world. I was witness to the formation of the WWW and Netscape. It is amazing how far the internet has come in 15 short years and by many accounts is only in its infancy.
3. Digital Cameras
I was always an avid photographer when I was younger. Taking pictures here and there with a family camera. The only problem came when it was time to develop the film. Money was tight and it would take sometimes 6 months to get the pictures developed. Then one day I was introduced to the Sony Mavica, I was in heaven. Instant results that I could email around haphazardly. Shortly thereafter I purchased a Nikon 990 with all the bells and whistles. From there it was the Fuji S2 and a number of camera clubs. I was hooked.
4. GPS
I can’t tell you how many atlases I had in the back of my car. I had one for every state just in case I need to get around somewhere. This was even with the advent of MapQuest (which I still don’t trust). But this all changed with a $100 invested into a device called a TomTom. For the first time I didn’t have to plan routes, consult my atlases, or any other gyrations I would have to go through to get somewhere. All I had to do was punch in and address and I was off. Perfect directions everytime, except in Boston.
5. Internet Enable Cell Phones
For the longest time I avoided this technology. A phone was used to make phone called not play music, surf the web, or play games. About a year ago I bought an iPod Touch and was addicted. Facebook, Twitter, Email, Texting, and the Web all on the same device. It was wonderful, as long as you had a WiFi connection. If you didn’t have a WiFi connection, you just had a glorified MP3 player. I longed for the iPhone but I could never abandon my Verizon account. So the next best thing was the Droid. While it has its short comings, a whole new world has opened up for me. I can go online where ever I want, whenever I want.