Coming Up: WordCamp Seattle & InfoCamp
My two favorite conferences are often near each other and that’s the case again this year.
WordCamp Seattle
WordCamp Seattle will be two full days this year: October 29-30. I’ve been helping a little as an organizer (not much) and will do a lot of volunteering. This year’s conference will feature some great new [for Seattle] events that are suitable for users of all levels!
- A half-day beginner workshop led by Bob Dunn.
- A “Kids Camp” afternoon workshop for kids wanting to learn about WordPress!
- As always, both days will be packed with sessions.
If you or nonprofits you know would benefit from expanding your WordPress knowledge, please come and spread the word. Tickets are only $40 for both days (including a voucher for lunch at nearby restaurants) and there are going to be a ton of good sessions.
InfoCamp Seattle
InfoCamp Seattle will be on October 22. I’m not sure I’ll be able to attend this year, but you should go if you’ve ever considered it. InfoCamp is a beautiful mix of academics, students, librarians, coders, designs, user experiencers(?), content strategists, and more. It’s an unconference, so you just need to show up and then follow what sounds interesting!
Talks
On August 18, Mike Brogan and I gave a reprise of our earlier talk, “So you have a WordPress Website, Now What?” as part of 501 Talks Tech from 501 Commons. We had a great turnout and offered an hour of 1-on-1 consulting after the presentation to all in attendance.
We’ve continued doing a WordPress-related talk at 501 Commons a little more than once every 6 months, and these are always a blast to do! Keep your eye out for another one in early 2017!
NTEN Leadership
In August, I also signed on to help facilitate the NTEN WordPress online community group. I’ve been a long-time member of the forum and so agreed to help out when they asked. So far it’s been a lot of fun! If you work with WordPress and nonprofits, please sign up for the community’s forum which is open to the public.
New Site Launch: ECOSS
A big congratulations to ECOSS for their new website. With an awesome new design from Noise Without Sound, we worked to get them onto WordPress where they could manage their own content. Due to the incredibly diverse communities they work with, we built in the ability for ECOSS staff to manage translations of page content on their site. New forms will help them manage their online donations, volunteer signups, and workshop registrations.
Overall, the site gives ECOSS a big online face lift and focuses site visitors on the amazing programs ECOSS supports to make the Puget Sound region cleaner and healthier.
Open Source Contributions
As I try to do with most projects, the work for ECOSS spun off some software improvements for others! The website uses a “child theme” of Ampersand. In the process of creating that child theme, I discovered and documented a host of small bugs and places for improvement in the theme. Much credit goes to Array Themes, which quickly responded to and implemented many of the issues I highlighted. Future users of the theme will find it more accessible and slightly more polished.
Nonprofit WP
Nonprofit WP has chugged along quite nicely! In some ways, it’s been hard to balance having a new blog, but I like having an outlet for the posts that are really focused on nonprofit WordPress websites. (At first, I wasn’t sure if I’d have a blog on that site, but the specific content and SEO benefits seemed worth it.)
Here are three of the recent posts:
Make a Social Timeline on Your Nonprofit’s WordPress Blog Without Storify
Feature a Page Widget Video Demo
I found this:
Just found a 10 minute long demo for Feature a Page Widget in German! Awesome. https://t.co/WYuwoVIhug
— Mark Root-Wiley (@MRWweb) September 21, 2016
It’s fun hearing the person say “Feature a Page Widget” in German!