WordCamp Victoria 2012 has been announced for January 14, 2012. As a WordPress developer, I’ve attended my fair share of WordCamps, from San Francisco to the Fraser Valley, and organized WordCamp Whistler as well as WordCamp Vancouver. It’s always a pleasure to attend the event organized in our province’s capital as well. Last year I presented “WordPress Plugins to Make Your Blogging Life Easier” showcasing several basic plugins and how you can select the right one for your needs.

I have been asked to be a keynote speaker for WordCamp Victoria 2012 and have prepared the following outline for my talk:

Time Management with WordPress
One of the questions I get asked most often is “when will I find time to blog”. While most of my tips can be applied to almost any platform, there are specific features of WordPress that can save you a lot of publishing time. From the WordPress mobile application (for iPhone), to pairing WordPress with plugins and social media management tools, I’ll discuss ways that you can optimize your blogging time as well as your time spent offline.

Other topics on the schedule so far include multi-site installation, multimedia plugins, social comments, Drupal to WordPress, and more.

Tickets are currently on sale for $22.40 for a full day of WordPress-related talks. It’s a great way to learn more about the platform and network with the online community on Vancouver Island.

WordPress.com powers over 50 million blogs and in total, the WordPress platform powers 22% of all new websites created. This open source content management system is used by your favourite international new outlet to your favourite knitting blog. Miss604.com has been proudly powered by WordPress since 2006 and my company, sixty4media, has been building custom WordPress sites since 2008.

It’s Open Source Week in Vancouver which means a series of events, conferences, and activities celebrating Open Source technologies are taking place around town.

Open Source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process. The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in. The non-profit Open Source corporation maintains standards for the good of the community (developers, software users, corporations and governments).

What this means to me is that platforms such as WordPress, that power millions of blogs and website worldwide, are constantly being developed and improved thanks to the contributions of the Open Source community.

As someone who owns a website development firm that specializes in WordPress development, celebrating and promoting its Open Source roots is key. I have done so through attending and speaking at WordCamps (conferences for WordPress users), liveblogging events (on Miss604.com), offering tutorials, promoting WordPress through blog posts and social networks, and organizing WordCamp Whistler (2009) and WordCamp Vancouver (2010).

As a part of Vancouver Open Source Week, there will be a WordCamp:Developers conference on Thursday May 5th, however this is just one of the many events.

The others include a Joomla Mixer Meetup Tuesday May 3rd, Drupal Mixer Wednesday May 4th, Linus User Group Meeting Thursday May 5th, Show & Tell: Storytelling for a Web Made World hosted by The Museum of Vancouver Friday, May 6th, and an HTML Meetup Friday, May 6th.

The week’s biggest event will be Make Web Not War (MWNW), a Canadian conference for designers and developers that has made its way to Vancouver for the first time. It will have a full day of sessions followed by an evening party, the details of which will be announced shortly.

All of the week’s events will offer networking opportunities and the chance to connect with the web community that drives Vancouver’s growing on and offline reputation for excellence in technology. Follow @WebNotWar on Twitter for updates throughout the week.

This past weekend John and I took the ferry over to Victoria to participate in WordCamp Victoria. I was slated to speak as a part of a blogger panel with Lorraine Murphy and Mike Vardy, as well as give a talk about securing WordPress (for beginners, just the basics). While no voice-over commentary is included, you can view my slides here:

During my session there was a question from Twitter about plugins and that since they are third party applications, they should not be trusted.

My response was that you can’t fear all plugins, but you can look out for the most effective and least damaging. Look for the version number and the date it was last edited. If a plugin was submitted yesterday and has no feedback, it may not be the best idea to install it. You want trusted plugins that have been updated, reviewed, and that work with your version of WordPress. Also, always install plugins from the WordPress directory and not third party websites.

As you can see form Lloyd’s response (he works with Automattic), plugins added to the official directory are vetted for malicious code. I would also add that the community is pretty good at policing plugins as well. If something’s not working, you’ll hear about it in the feedback, comments, and probably even on Twitter.

Should you have any questions about the basics of securing WordPress, please feel free to drop a note in the comments.

Finally, having organized WordCamp Whistler and WordCamp Vancouver before, we can appreciate all of the time and effort organizers put into these events and I must say, WordCamp Victoria was pretty stellar. Over 175 people showed up to participate, present, ask questions, and have stimulating discussions in the coffee room. Lunch was provided and Twitter was abuzz with backchannel chatter. Kudos to Paul Holmes and his team on another successful event.

WordCamp is returning to Vancouver in the summer of 2010, welcoming WordPress developers, enthusiasts and bloggers once the Olympics have moved out.

We have a great group of people signed on to organize so far who all want to see this event become a smashing success.

It’s still very much in the planning phases so please follow @WordCampYVR for updates from Duane Storey (BraveNewCode), John (sixty4media), or myself. The website will be up at WordCampVancouver.com and it’s already listed on the official WordCamp directory.

Related: See John Biehler’s post about WordCamp Vancouver 2010 as well.

WordPress version 2.8.4 came out in early August, and now there is a serious issue that has come to light for users whose installations are operating with previous versions.

Otto42 of OttoDestruct, a key WordPress developer and supporter, reports that there is an “attack” on older versions of WordPress right now. The number of sites hit by this is growing every hour. Protect your WordPress blog now: UPDATE NOW!!! [lorelle.wordpress.com]

Lorelle’s post is very in depth regarding the various aspects of what this major security vulnerability entails and should not be taken lightly.

In addition, Matt Mullenweg has an even more informative post on the official WordPress.org Blog with even more specifics of these attacks and the severity of them.

Right now there is a worm making its way around old, unpatched versions of WordPress. This particular worm, like many before it, is clever: it registers a user, uses a security bug (fixed earlier in the year) to allow evaluated code to be executed through the permalink structure, makes itself an admin, then uses JavaScript to hide itself when you look at users page, attempts to clean up after itself, then goes quiet so you never notice while it inserts hidden spam and malware into your old posts.

The tactics are new, but the strategy is not. Where this particular worm messes up is in the “clean up” phase: it doesn’t hide itself well and the blogger notices that all his links are broken, which causes him to dig deeper and notice the extent of the damage. Where worms of old would do childish things like defacing your site, the new ones are silent and invisible, so you only notice them when they screw up (as this one did) or your site gets removed from Google for having spam and malware on it.

I’m talking about this not to scare you, but to highlight that this is something that has happened before, and that will more than likely happen again. [wordpress.org]

The battle wages on. The full read is very intriguing and worth the click to finish reading.

For information about how to upgrade your WordPress on a self-hosted installation, the WordPress Codex offers directions on how to do that. If you need assistance getting the upgrade done, feel free to contact us so you can get your content protected as soon as possible.

On August 22nd we’ll be participating in the second WordCamp Fraser Valley. The day will be laid out in tracks for beginners, intermediate users, developers, and a track just for Twitter use with WordPress.

This will also be our third WordCamp this year, having organized WordCamp Whistler, and attended WordCamp in San Francisco. My specific talk will be about how WordPress can be used for much more than blogging.

I’ll be giving examples of websites powered by WordPress where a blog is not the main feature and sharing some tips on how to achieve this use of the platform. It is in the “beginner” track so it will be far more educational than code-heavy. My hope is to spread the word that WordPress is powerful and easy to use but not just for blogging although that’s how my experience began.

WordCamp Fraser Valley is 9:00am – 5:00pm August 22nd at the SFU campus in Surrey at Central City. Easy to get to by SkyTrain and transit, with plenty of parking as well. Each track is $25 or you can get a ticket to all tracks for $75 by registering online.

After all the planes, trains, and automobiles, we have made it to and from San Francisco. WordCampSF 2009 was very much a success, and the event was a great chance to hear about all things WordPress, organized by the company that heads the core development of the platform, Automattic.

Photo by Rebecca Bollwitt

Photo by John Bollwitt

Photo by Rebecca Bollwitt

Photo by Rebecca Bollwitt

Photo by John Bollwitt

Photo by Rebecca Bollwitt

See more of our coverage on johnbollwitt.com and miss604.com that are tagged with wordcampsf.

Many thanks to the organizers, volunteers, and sponsors who helped to make WordCampSF 2009 a success. Already looking forward to the next one!

In just a few short hours we’ll be heading down to San Francisco along with our friend Duane Storey to attend this year’s WordCamp conference. The event takes place Saturday and the lineup includes everyone from Chris Pirillo and Cali Lewis to Matt Cutts and WordPress’ founder, Matt Mullenweg of Automattic.

John and I have been asked to do a shift at the Genius Bar so if you’re there bright and early, you can ask me all your WordPress questions from 9:15am until 10:00am. We’ll be blogging while we’re down there and hopefully making some connections, meeting new people, and brushing up on our WordPress skills so that we can deliver the absolute best sites and tools for our clients.

As of this afternoon, sixty4media has been listed on Automattic’s official list of WordPress consultants. What this means is that the creators of WordPress themselves thought us worthy to list in their directory of WordPress shops, which is pretty great.

I’ve also been getting numerous emails asking what exactly it is that sixty4media does, what services we offer and how we can help put a social media strategy together for individuals and businesses. Here’s a quick list of our offerings and should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

WordPress

Social Media Consulting

This past weekend sixty4media co-hosted WordCamp Whistler alongside Brave New Code. We had originally planned for 50 people and we ended up getting over 100 attendees joining us for the weekend for a day of talks about WordPress and online publishing.

Keynote Lorrelle Van Fossen (aka Lorelle on WordPress)
Dave Olson (Topic, Are you Worthy?)
John Biehler (Topic, How To Sex Up Your Blog With Photos And Video)
Dale Mugford (Topic, WordPress On The Go)
Andy Peatling (Topic, BuddyPress)
Quentin Mulhurt (Topic, WordPress and Search Engine Optimization)
Morten Rand-Hendriksen (Topic, Using WordPress In Alternate Configurations)
Tris Hussey (Topic, Using WordPress as a Generic Content Management system (CMS))

We were very please with the location and the accommodations, while the attendance, input, insights, and presentations exceeded expectations. We definitely look forward to doing this again next year.

You can read the live notes on the WordCamp Whistler website that John setup and I also have a few day blogs up on Miss604.com.

Announced on Friday of last week, WordCamp Whistler is happening on January 24, 2009 at the Fairmont Hotel in Whistler B.C. Registration is open for attendees as well as speaker submissions on topics relating to all things WordPress.

If you ever wanted to find a room full of people that are passionate about what WordPress is, things it can do, and tips on pushing it above and beyond your expectations, events like this are a great place to start learning. Sign on up and plan for a weekend in one of the most beautiful areas of British Columbia, not to mention a 2010 Winter Olympics venue. Skiing and snowboarding skills are not required, but you’re welcome to mix some fun on the slopes into your planning of the weekend.

Please visit wordcampwhistler.com for the most up to date details.

I wrote this recently on my personal site although it’s the prefect content for our business site as well.

Over the last few weeks my company, sixty4media, has themed, coded, and tweaked quite a few WordPress sites (and even more over the years before we even had the company). I am often asked what I use to code or theme so here are some of the basic tools that make my life a whole lot easier.

MAMP
MAMP allows you to run a mini WordPress web server from your computer so that you can theme sites locally, without having them published online or on a development site.

FTP
You need a good FTP application for uploading files and images on the fly. I’m using Cyberduck right now but I’ve had many suggestions for more productive tools (and I can’t for the life of me remember the one that Tod recommended).

Smultron
For Mac OS X and Leopard
A great text editor (used for PHP files) that works nicely with Cyberduck by selecting it as your file editor under preferences. It colour-codes nicely and is very simple to use.

CSS Edit
MacRabbit – CSS Edit (for Macs only)
All in one CSS editing tool. Allows you to eyedrop colours, shows your properties in a sidebar, knows where to place brackets etc. and even auto-completes some elements. In the sidebar it also displays colours on anything that has a background colour ie. if your footer is blue, it will show up blue in the sidebar list.

WordPress Codex
This last one isn’t downloadable, the codex is an online resource for all issues, questions, and reference materials in the WordPress realm.

John is usually on top of all the latest applications and is even a beta tester for some upgraded versions of the software listed above. He’s great at staying on the cutting edge and then passing the knowledge on to me so I’m sure my staple apps will probably change soon, but for now – they’re great basics.

It never hurts to say it too many times because we realize that not everyone pays attention to the information streams like we do. Check your WordPress installation and make sure that you are running the latest version, 2.6.3. This latest update was announced over a week ago, so we’re doing our best to help extend the news in case you missed it.

This update is very important to the security of any install of WordPress that you are running. You can read more details about it here.

After several successful WordCamps in Vancouver, Kulpreet got the wheels in motion for the next event, coming this winter. Last night on Twitter something magical also happened – the idea of having the event in Whistler was hatched and so planning for WordCamp Whistler is now underway.

Read Duane’s blog post for a preview, view the Facebook event, and feel free to sign up on the wiki. More details to come in over the next little while. sixty4media will once again be involved as an organizer as well as presenting.

WordPress is an open source blog publishing application powering millions of blogs worldwide.

During this year’s BarCampVancouver on Granville Island we had a sidetrack that featured WordCamp as well as PhotoCamp in the afternoon. In case you missed it, I have a small recap up on my site and here are some of the featured talks:

Andy Peatling – BuddyPress
Keith Murray – WordPress for Newbies
Brad – WordPress as a CMS
Tris – SEO tips
Lloyd Budd from Automattic – The Business of WordPress
Greg from Donat – sni.ps
John Biehler – FAlbum plugin

John also shared his top 3 most-recommended WordPress plugins, which include FeedEntryHeader, WordTwit, and Quicktag Manager.

So far I’ve had a great time at all of Vancouver’s WordCamps and we’re looking forward to the next.

It’s been a busy few weeks in between when WordPress 2.6.2 was launched and now, but it’s worth mentioning nonetheless. The main reason is because this release is a critical security upgrade, vital at keeping your site safe from anything malicious being done to your content.

If you are unsure about the status of your WordPress install or need help getting it upgraded, contact us.

We’ve been running some installs of WordPress 2.6.1 on various sites and can report that everything seems tip top. There hasn’t been any major issues with plugins, and performance on the latest version of WP seems a little more snappy.

This falls on the heels of WordPress 2.6 that was released a few months ago. The upgrade brought much needed improvements to security, but there were a variety of tweaks done to the back end administration. Many elements have been improved when it comes to managing posts, comments, and plugins, saving time when you need it the most.

2.6.1 brings many international enhancements to the core of WordPress, making it more accessible to users around the world.

If you are behind on WordPress upgrades for your site, feel free to contact us for some assistance in bringing you up to date.

There have been a few WordCamps in Vancouver and the Fraser Valley over the last year but none have compared to the scale and grandeur of San Francisco’s master gathering of WordPress enthusiasts. Duane from Brave New Code attended this year and is bringing back all sorts of ideas for the city’s next WordCamp, which sixty4media will be co-organizing with him at BarCamp Vancouver.

BarCamp is an ad-hoc un-conference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from attendees.

All attendees are encouraged to give a demo, a session, a presentation, or help with one. All attendees are expected to be participants. All presentations are scheduled the day they happen. Prepare in advance, but come early to get a slot on the wall.

Presenters are responsible for making sure that notes/slides/audio/video of their presentations are published on the web for the benefit of all and those who can’t be present.

Anyone with something to contribute or with the desire to learn is welcome and invited to join.

If you have any suggestions about what you would like to see at WordCamp during BarCamp feel free to drop us a comment. We’re hoping to incorporate some elements from San Francisco as well as bringing in experts to share their thoughts and knowledge on all fronts. This will be a learning session for rookies and veterans, all celebrating our favourite blogging platform.

As we have been slowly molding sixty4media into shape, we have recently made our very own Twitter account open and available to the public.

Twitter is a popular social media site that combines micro-blogging and instant messaging to an international phenomenon of letting people know what you’re doing. Sounds insignificant to some, but there are more ways to use it other than telling people that you’re hungry or doing the laundry.

For instance, we use a great plugin for WordPress called WordTwit. This was made by our good friend Duane at BraveNewCode, and the whole purpose of it is to make an update to your Twitter account when you publish a new post on your WordPress site. Combined with any other updates we do on the account, you can get the latest news from our site as we publish it.

In the age of iPhones and Blackberries, what better way to connect to your audience directly?

Apologies for not promoting this event sooner, but WordCamp Fraser Valley is going on right now. In fact, Raul is up in the front of the room and giving his presentation on switching to WordPress from Blogger, so we are in full swing out here in Langley.

Rebecca is doing her best to live blog most of today’s event, so head over there to get more information.

It’s worth noting these types of events for being great places to meet other WordPress users. There is also a wealth of ideas that we find by attending gatherings like this. Whether it’s finding your voice as a blogger or discovering new tools to make your postings better, finding events like these are worth your time when it comes to wanting to find out more by what you can do with your blog.

Update: There was a question raised during Rebecca’s presentation that prompted me to make a quick blog post on my personal blog about “Designing drop down menus with CSS on WordPress“. This is something that we did for one of our clients, No Boundaries.org. If you are curious about this topic, please check out my post there.