Wordcamp UK 2010

Date of Event: July 17-18, 2010

What: Wordcamp UK 2010

Who: Wordpress people

Where: Manchester

What happened Day 1:

General – Arrived at Wordcamp UK after a bit of confusion in the streets of Manchester and was greeted by what I perceived to be a well organized and eager group of individuals. (At least in comparison to anthropologists!) Heading upstairs to the tea/coffee area, I found a good mix of people standing tentatively against the wall and many comfortably conversing (soon to be explained by the tight knit community). I made introductions with a few people and headed into the lecture theatre with my first of probably six cups of green tea that day and continued on introducing myself to those seated close by until the conference began.

Housekeeping announcements were made, one of which asking for volunteers to hold the boom microphone for the AV team. After a couple of failed attempts to recruit someone, I decided to volunteer both to save the lead organizer of the conference from having any extra tasks and as a way of making sure the majority of attendees would know who I was. A good, but tiring choice. Not being able to do even one pull up my entire life, I don’t think my arms and shoulders have ever been so sore. Cycling doesn’t exactly work the upper body. Thank god I didn’t whack someone in the back of the head or swipe a computer off a table. Still it was good fun and gave me a chance to talk to the media guys, who were awesome.

So yeah, everyone in the room went around and introduced themselves, in what way they utilize Wordpress and why they had decided to attend the conference. I was last, and of course the only anthropologist there, but certainly not alone in my work using Wordpress with nonprofits; a pleasant and helpful surprise.

Still, the diversity within the WP community is astounding. And what is more, people get along (for the most part). It appears the core appreciation of open source principles and a love of WP as a software bounds people in a different way than other technology. There was constant reminding of people at the camp that everyone who put together the event is a volunteer. Meaning, there was an expectation at the event not to act like a customer who was purchasing a one time experience, but  to recognize your money was being put to use in improving the Wordpress community. A community that will continue to thrive as long as you also support the WP ideals with whatever talents you can offer.

First presentation overview: How WP Themes Changed the World, Michael Kimb Jones, @mkjones, mkjones.co.uk, base6design.com – Not being heavily involved in the commercial side of WP (or being a student who refuses to pay for themes…) I was not aware of how much of  a business theme developers have created for themselves. I understand that part of the glory of the GPL is that people can make a fine living, which then provides them with the opportunity to give back to the WP community, however it appears the success that people have with method has created a sort of fervor leading to choices that leave the GPL behind and forgotten. Especially when many people searching for such website options arrive at these theme sites because of price point and not through open source or Wordpress connections.  Additionally, it was said the majority of the innovation was said to be occurring in premium themes rather than the free themes supported on the .org site. (Except for Thematic, which has a very strong support community.) It will be interesting to see how the Wordpress marketplace expands and what efforts will be made to control it, if any.

And again, this discussion of the “theming business” supports WP as an extremely large and growing ecosystem. What was once a somewhat closed community now has a great variety of players and hooks in a number of industries.

Questions:

Is it up to people who know about WP, the GPL and Free and open software to educate people?

Are WP themes become too homogenized due to reused frameworks?

Resources:

www.wpdesigner.com

http://spectacu.la/

http://themeforest.net/

Presentation info and slides:

http://wiki.wordcampuk.tonyscott.org.uk/2010_content_ideas#How_WordPress_themes_changed_the_world

http://www.slideshare.net/mkjonesuk/how-wordpress-themes-changed-the-world

Next Presentation: WP Template Design and Theme Frameworks, jonnya.net @jonnyark – An important reminder from this presentation: the workflow of the web designer is separate from the workflow of the web designer + client. Processes followed by the web designer to achieve require project functionality will often never be known to the client, the web designer holding greater power in a relationship where the exchange of knowledge is necessary.

Note: Highly important piece of education to pass on in WP sites is updates. An often forgotten necessity resulting in hacks and annoying needs for backwards compatibility.

Questions:

If innovation is driven by both users and designer/developers…how does the obvious overlap muddle feedback results?

How is the definition of web design/development different within the WP community?

Code tips in slide to check out: http://wiki.wordcampuk.tonyscott.org.uk/2010_content_ideas#WordPress_theme_frameworks_and_template_tricks

http://www.slideshare.net/Jonnya/wordcamp-2010-presentation-4780842

Notes:

-        WP affects a number of different sectors socially, economically and politically. While the actual open source technology may be seen as the core, people are bound by relationships created by the software, continuing to perpetuate the expanding network of WP users.

-        WP is a social system dependent on the understanding of a specific rhetoric and technical aptitude, in addition to commitment to open source ideals.

And another : Beyond Blogging, Kieren O’Shea – An interesting comment I am hearing from most everyone when they speak about blogs is that keeping up is just plain difficult. Too much going on in their lives to keep up with the demands of their readers.

Kieren had a slide (see here: not up yet) that diagramed where his content was sourced from. Ex. Twitter updates, Facebook events etc… All of a sudden I could see Latour’s Black Box in terms of websites. The “average” visitor often views a website and its content as an individual entity, taking the third party content for granted. The amount of work and number of individual involved in the production of a website is completely unknown to the user. The website itself is of course not self sufficient and depends on a number of factors from hosting to functioning RSS feeds etc…

Question: How has third party software affected the construction of websites and their functionality?

Next : WP in Big Media

It was particularly interesting to hear about the Telegraph and how WP has changed the style of reporting. It is still the case that blogging had taken a certain amount of power away from journalists, so it was cool to hear that it had been so wholly adopted by a large newspaper.

-        WP’s flexibility allowed for innovation in journalism and the ways in which they are able to reach their audience.

Also interesting was the structure of communication in terms of the use of WP. While the developer was accessible, there was an in-between communications officer meant to be the first person asked if any problems were run into while using the software. Something that not many companies can afford to have.

Q & A Session

Jane, one of the core people at automatic along with a lead developer (looking for name) conducted a completely open Q & A session which I thought was a great idea. Took a bit of time for people to get into it, but soon got moving.

Jane does the UX stuff for WP.org and she is one quick, strong individual. The users focused on those who actually use WP.org to build and maintain sites. She stated there were about 4 main users: “mom”, “admin”, “developer” and then Wordpress.com users. Most testing is done with “avg” to super-admin users.

…talk about future plugins and such was cool…but too much for me to concentrate on now…

Quote: “We don’t make options, we make decisions”, motto of the Automatic team.

Day 2

Building for accessibility + HTML5, Benjamin Ellis, Benjaminellis.org, redcatco.com –

Benjamin reiterated that accessibility is not just about added functionality, but about people’s journey and user-experience. It was also an excellent reminder that accessibility has many meanings and assistive technology is created for specific disabilities, not all working well together. Meaning; creating a site for predominantly blind people, is obviously going to be much different that for one for people with lesser motor/mobility skills.

Because web designer is also about the user journey, many subjective decisions need to be made. Ex. whether or not it is right to leave or take a photo out of the page. The storyline= very important and it is a talent to be a fluid storyteller.

A lot of good stuff coming out of HTML5, excited to use a few of ‘em when I get time. Hopefully it won’t be too out of date by then.

Resources:

http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/

http://code.google.com/chrome/chromeframe/ – adds Chrome’s functionalities to IE

http://redcatco.com/blog/productivity/building-for-accessibility-and-getting-ready-for-html-5/

http://www.slideshare.net/benjaminellis/wordcamp-uk-accessibility-and-html-5

WP and Nonprofits – Jason King

Jason King’s presentation answered a great number of questions I would have interviewed him about and backed up the majority of my findings about nonprofits through my research.

Notes:

-        Nonprofits are generally better clients to work with because of their passion

-        WP for smaller nonprofits is an ideal match

• While small is subjective, Jason King spoke about nonprofits who were small in terms of their website needs, which was a great way to filter I though

-        181,000 registered charities, not including other organizations, CIC’s and other community groups

-        The nonprofit structure is vastly more confusing in the UK

-        The 3^rd sector is about finding low cost solutions that still speak to stakeholders

-        IT can be a money pit for organizations not informed about the options and technology requirements

-        Jason King gave a variety of quotes about WP, and not one of his nonprofits had given WP a bad review

-        What is missing in WP is CRM – Client/Customer relation management

-        Concept of the “accidental techie” or guy that fixed the printer once

-        Most nonprofits require “an explanation in plain English” about technology. Subjective.

-        Noted that WP also go ride a lot of its specific language…less “bloggy” speak which was much more understandable by a variety of people.

-        Wp also allow for orgs to develop in small bits and pieces as the money becomes available

• This also might allow for a better progression of understanding and a less overwhelming education of how to us WP

-        “Nonprofits are not bothered by the openness, just care that it is free”

-        The end of use cheap 2^nd rate agencies that are just trying to pump out work quickly. WP saves that extra time allowing more dedication to client and personalization.

-        Charities also need help in knowing how difficult what they are asking for is, since they have never taken on the task

Question: What problems come with giving nonprofits quick and simple solutions? They say it works for them, but is this ignorance hurting their own ability for innovation if neither they nor the web designer have the time to devote to the technology?

Resources

http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/

http://www.lasa.org.uk/ict/suppliers-directory/

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/05/14/non-profit-website-design-examples-and-best-practices/

Factory Records Presentation – The artists own all their work. The label owns nothing. Our bands have the freedom … to fuck off.

The movement of WP from a small project to the success it has achieved presently is bringing a whole new series of issues and responsibilities. It also has inspired a new layer of professionalism and knowledge that needs to extend not only to the construction of websites, but in the surrounding community. It was interesting to hear that this responsibility falls not only to the people of WP, but to the websites as well. The websites utilizing WP need to stay updated to protect users from harm, in addition to promoting innovation.

Question: How does WP stay sustainable and grow up at the same time?

Great way to tie together the entire event and discuss seriously the future of WP.

Few notes from people I spoke to during the event:

Jag from GIST – Works with nonprofit clients on volunteer basis, taking care of the relationship aspect of the project. Because their projects are free to nonprofits, they have an application that filters out nonprofits who do not want to work collaboratively. So, in the process of web design with WP their nonprofits are taken through a workflow that allows them to slowly learn how to use and update WP, rather than in a major session at the end. It appears this process also allows for greater innovation and nonprofits better understand what is possible, without being dependent on the web designer. This dialogue also aids designers in finding out what the nonprofit requirements and what is feasible for them.

Linda from Grow a Better Business – made an interesting comment in the beginning of the WP camp about the need for better education abut WP and its ideals in order to help people use WP properly and just generally stay up to date. The question is then, where exactly does this responsibility lie? With the web designer? Within the WP community to provide videos etc…? It seems that it should be a variety of sources, but there just needs to be more emphasis put on creating these educational sources rather than leaving it to be the people who are also creating the technology. It’s a lot to handle.

Oh and the controversy at the end about what the WP camps should be called and where they should be located: There is enough discussion out there now and as it is not directly linked to my research, I won’t spend much time on it…But the obvious (authoritarian sounding) error in speech made by a prominent WP employee proved to be quite the closing comment. It appeared a North American perspective prevented her from seeing why the Brits were getting a bit ticked.  Same old stuff…country too small, people are able to travel, London would take over, why fix what ain’t broken etc…and really to have a series of camps going, with a WP community that is not incredibly large may diminish the camp quality and everyone’s ability to network. Not to mention the USA having a bad reputation for making broad, authoritative decisions (lacking proper research). Being an American in the UK for the past 8 months it was a cringe-worthy discussion to witness.

All I can remember for now…Manchester was great… really a fantastic community vibe and feeling of openness that lacked the pretension of London and promoted the building of relationships no matter where I was in the city. Excellent match for Wordcamp.

Tags: cms, commercial, designer views, Nonprofit, web design, workflow

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 25th, 2010 at 10:02 pm and is filed under Anthropology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.