First Session Videos Posted!

Matt’s State of the Word was available on WordPress.tv the day after it happened, but what about the rest of the WCSF sessions? We’ll be rolling out a few more every day as the video is processed, but so far here are the session videos that have been posted:

More to come each day until we’ve got them all. Enjoy!

 

August 23, 2011 by Jen • Comments Off on First Session Videos Posted!
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Propose Sunday Lightning Sessions

Saturday’s lightning sessions were fun, 5-minutes pockets of information, and we’ll be doing something similar today following lunch. We have 30-minute time blocks (one for each track) designed to let you — seriously, it could be you! — share as much quick, fun, interesting information with us as possible. Are you working on an exciting WordPress project? Do you have or use a plugin to demo that everyone should be using? Lightning sessions are where you need to be.

We’re planning to have 5-6 lightning sessions for each block, and they will correspond to the theme of each track — each track will have its own lightning session, so there will be two at a time. We need your proposals for these categories and days:

Sunday: Information and inspiration for content creators
Sunday: Tips & tricks for getting the most out of WordPress

Before you tell us your idea, there are a few rules to keep in mind. First, you have to actually be at WordCamp or at least be able to mentally control someone who is, otherwise it’s going to be difficult for your presentation to actually happen. This means that you need to already have a ticket to the event. Second, you need to be on site in the morning when we vote for sessions. Finally, lightning sessions will be 5 minutes long — that means you have to go quick. You can use a web browser on a computer we’ll provide, but to move things along you won’t be able to use your own laptop, slides, other files, etc. If you want to show something on screen, make sure it’s publicly available on the web.

Sound good? Good! We want your proposals. For those of you that are interested in speaking at WordCamps, this is a great way to get your feet wet without a full-scale talk. Please leave a comment on this post with your proposed lightning sessions and let us know what you’d like to share at WordCamp SF. Include a title and description, which track it’s intended for, and any information that will help people decide if they think it would be interesting.

Voting will take place just before Matt’s keynote and if you’re not there we won’t be able to choose your session, sorry. We’ll have the selected session proposers meet with Jane at the end of Matt’s talk so they can get setup for the after-lunch sessions.

Propose your lightning sessions in the comments now!

August 14, 2011 by Jen • 9 Comments
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T-shirt Hours

If you’re coming to the conference on Saturday and/or Sunday, after registering stop by and pick up your conference t-shirt upstairs. Get there early and pick it up before sessions start, or stop by towards the end of the day. We’ll stick around for about 30 minutes after closing remarks.

The hours of the conference t-shirt pick-up will be:

  • 8 – 10am
  • 4 – 6pm

If you’re interested instead in purchasing WordPress t-shirts, sweatshirts and other swag, the swag table will be open during the entire conference and it’s located upstairs as well.

August 12, 2011 by Sara Rosso • Comments Off on T-shirt Hours
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Friday – Lighting Sessions

Developer Track (Downstairs)

1:30 – George Ortiz “With so many people on the same WordPress platform,we can easily aggregate and push information across those sites in a variety of contexts. One instance I’m working on at Storefront Themes is the ability to see trends across WordPress powered stores and how your site compares. The same idea can be used for blogs so that you could see trends in how people read and comment on posts, photos, etc. I would love to share our work and ideas with fellow WordCamp attendees in a lightning session!”

1:35 – Gal Brill “Show all of you how you can get your content to the iOS and Android Market in under 5 min!”

1:40 – J-trip “Introducing the bbPress plugin for WordPress”

1:45 – Israel “Demonstrate how any WordPress user can create and customize his own native iphone app and publish it to the Appstore by using a WordPress plugin with a friendly wizard and without dealing with any development and/or coding.”

1:50 – Calin Don “A plugin work in progress to allow displaying most viewed posts using data from Google Analytics and behaving nicely on high traffic.”

User Track (Upstairs)

1:30 – Joe Boydston “WordPress is saving journalism – Newspapers are disrupting the local media business by innovating on top of WordPress. I’ll demo and discuss plugins that redefine how a newspaper is run, including a sustainable  business model that includes both legacy print publications as well as digital. All powered by WordPress of course.”

1:35 – Susan Solar “I would like to share how I got around one issue of the SpeakUp!Email Petition plugin and another issue I am working one/dealing with currently is compatibility issue with latest version of IPhone display.”

1:40 – Douglas Bell “Multisite – How student organizations at my university are using WordPress to connect with students.”

1:45 – Suzi Grishpul “I’d love to do a talk on radSLIDE, a simple and easy-to-use slideshow plugin that my company, Radical Designs built and maintains. radSLIDE gives the user a simple interface for creating slideshows that they can use in the template or embedded in a page/post’s content. It uses jQuery cycle and is fully configurable from the wordpress backend, and is great for non-technical users.”

August 12, 2011 by Peter Westwood • Comments Off on Friday – Lighting Sessions
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It’s Time To Propose Lightning Sessions!

Although most of WordCamp San Francisco will hum along smoothly, like a well-oiled machine, we’ve left a few blocks of time for scheduled surprises: Lightning Sessions. Following lunch on Friday and Sunday we have 30 minute time blocks (one for each track) designed to let you — seriously, it could be you! — share as much quick, fun, interesting information with us as possible. Are you working on an exciting WordPress project? Are you trying to solve a particularly tough problem? Do you have a plugin to demo that everyone should be using? Lightning sessions are where you need to be.

We’re planning to have 5-6 lightning sessions for each block, and they will correspond to the theme of each track — each track will have its own lightning session, so there will be two at a time. We need your proposals for these categories and days:

Friday: Professionals, less-technical
Friday: Developers, more-technical
Sunday: Information and inspiration for content creators
Sunday: Tips & tricks for getting the most out of WordPress

Before you tell us your idea, there are a few rules to keep in mind. First, you have to actually be at WordCamp or at least be able to mentally control someone who is, otherwise it’s going to be difficult for your presentation to actually happen. This means that you need to already have a ticket to the event. Second, you need to be on site in the morning when we vote for sessions. Voting will take place on Friday and Sunday in the morning for that day’s lightning sessions and if you’re not on site we won’t be able to choose your session, sorry. Finally, lightning sessions will be 5 minutes long — that means you have to go quick. You can use a web browser on a computer we’ll provide, but to move things along you won’t be able to use your own laptop, slides, other files, etc. If you want to show something on screen, make sure it’s publicly available on the web.

Sound good? Good! We want your proposals. For those of you that are interested in speaking at WordCamps, this is a great way to get your feet wet without a full-scale talk. Please leave a comment on this post with your proposed lightning sessions and let us know what you’d like to share at WordCamp SF. Include a title and description as well as any information that will help people decide if they think it would be interesting.

 

August 11, 2011 by Evan Solomon • 12 Comments
Posted in News, Program, Speakers | 12 Comments

Weekend Parking at Mission Bay

While we strongly encourage attendees to take the Muni train to Mission Bay Conference Center this Weekend (the K/T trains go right there), we know some people will need to drive. There is not free parking, but the venue was able to get us 150 parking discount vouchers, so that at least it would be a little cheaper (their rates went up since last year).

The negotiated parking fees at the UCSF garage during WordCamp will be:

  • Friday, August 12 – $14 per vehicle all day (normally $28 at the new rates)
  • Saturday, August 13 –  $7 per vehicle all day
  • Sunday, August 14 – $7 per vehicle per day
If you want to buy a discounted parking voucher, you can do so at the main registration table starting at 11am, until we run out of vouchers. We will not sell the parking vouchers first thing in the morning like we did last year, because it slowed down the main registration check-ins. You don’t need to have the voucher until you leave the garage, so this still gives you plenty of time to get one during a break or lunch.
August 11, 2011 by Jen • Comments Off on Weekend Parking at Mission Bay
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Bling, Bling! Thanks, Dreamhost!

DreamhostOur second “Bling Bling!” sponsor is also a major hosting company with a strong love for WordPress: DreamHost. They are a preferred host over on the WordPress hosting page, and offer a 1-click install with automatic updates for those who don’t want to be bothered by the technical details of publishing with WordPress. In addition to providing WordPress hosting, DreamHost employs a staff member who contributes to WordPress core as part of his job description, which (to me) shows their dedication to the platform. Other things I like about DreamHost are great customer service (I’ve been a customer personally on and off for years) and the fact that they offer free hosting to non-profits.

DreamHost will have a booth in our mini trade show at WCSF, so stop by and say hello!

 

 

August 11, 2011 by Jen • Comments Off on Bling, Bling! Thanks, Dreamhost!
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Speaker Spotlight: Andrew Nacin

Debugging and Juggling with Nacin

WordCamp San Francisco is very special to me. Fifteen months ago, it was my first WordCamp. I was pretty terrified as a new committer to WordPress core, hoping that I would be able to keep up with my colleagues face-to-face.

Much has changed. I still struggle to keep up with my talented friends and colleagues, but I now work full-time on WordPress, WordPress.org, and other projects for Matt’s Audrey Capital. And seventeen WordCamps later, I’m excited to speak not once but twice at WordCamp San Francisco 2011.

My session on Saturday (bright and early, by preference of course) is a developer-oriented talk on debugging in WordPress. While there are some fantastic developers who build user interface features for WordPress core, I typically focus on API development and tracking down bugs. I’ll demonstrate some basic tools and setups, show how to effectively walk through the codebase, and share common pitfalls. You’ll also probably see me on stage at the Core Team Q&A that evening.

On Friday, I’ll be joining my colleague Otto in the Jane-dubbed The Otto & Nacin Show. We’re reviving a format that worked well in WordCamp Montreal last month — basically, the two of us bickering on stage about various advanced development topics. (Sorry, neither of us can juggle, but this will be more exciting.) This time, we’ll be sharing techniques for writing high-performance code, including caching, transient data, and how multisite significantly complicates this. Our presentation will only be a brief introduction, so bring your questions.

See you this weekend!

August 11, 2011 by Andrew Nacin • Comments Off on Speaker Spotlight: Andrew Nacin
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Speaker Spotlight: Dianne Jacob

Cherry tomatoes at the Grand Lake farmer's market in Oakland, Saturday mornings.

It’s summer in the Bay Area, my favorite time of year, when our 50 or so farmer’s markets are bursting at the seams with local produce at the height of flavor. At the Berkeley farmer’s market, I was just loading up on peaches, zucchini, tomatoes, strawberries…

Oh. Hello! You’re a food obsessed person like me? Good. Come to my talk on Sunday morning on Killer Food Blogs.

You know you want to start one. What else matters in life besides feeding friends and family, pop-up restaurants, food trucks, cooking, baking, great restaurants, culinary travel, food swaps, food politics and food culture?

While I’m a food lover, I talk mainly with food bloggers on my WordPress blog Will Write for Food. We have long discussions (and heated arguments, sometimes) on social media, recipe writing, blogging conferences, food photography, and working for free and for pay. They’re a smart and passionate crowd.

Saute these tiny Padron peppers in a bit of olive oil and then salt them. Heavenly!

Why not join in? Let’s have a live discussion Sunday at 9:45 a.m. I’ll cover 10 Things You Need to Know to become a well-known food blogger, with tips on content, food photography, community, recipe writing, and driving traffic. I’ll give a 20-minute presentation with secrets of some of the best-known food bloggers, and then we’ll have a 10 minute Q&A.

See you there. Right now, I’m off to make Turkish slow-cooked eggplant with currants and pine nuts. I found the recipe here.

 

 

 

 

August 11, 2011 by WordCamp.org • Comments Off on Speaker Spotlight: Dianne Jacob
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WordPress Core Hack Day on Thursday

We’re so happy that so many WordPress contributors are in town for the WordCamp. On Thursday, starting at 11am, the WordPress core team will be at the Automattic lounge at Pier 38 for a WordPress hack day. If you are a WordPress developer, we’d love to have you come help out. Also, if you can’t attend in person, hop onto the #wordpress-dev IRC channel to help out from afar!

Fair warning: This is not a social event. This is not an event for people who lack a working WordPress core development environment. If you come, come ready to be put to work on WordPress tickets — not your own themes, plugins, or websites. If we do not see you working on tickets for 3.3, you will be asked to go do your work elsewhere, sorry.

Info

Where: The Automattic lounge at Pier 38. Don’t drive, as there isn’t really anywhere to park. Public transportation is the way to go. Also, if you bring a car Jane may press you into service ferrying cargo to the WordCamp location.
When: 11am-6pm.
Who: WordPress developers who want to work on WordPress core tickets.
Food: We’ll order pizzas or something.

See you there!

August 11, 2011 by Mark Jaquith • Comments Off on WordPress Core Hack Day on Thursday
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