WordPress 101: A beginner’s guide to WordPress

by: Phillip Barron - June 13th, 2009   Filed under: Uncategorized Add Comment

By request, here’s my presentation from WordCampRDU 2009.

It takes more than a day to build a rock wall. You don’t want to finish each day’s work with a smooth edge, otherwise the final result will be a series of adjacent rock walls rather than one integrated wall. So at the end of each day, you leave rugged “toothing stones” for two reasons. It marks where you will pick up when you continue your work the next day. It also creates the uneven surface to which tomorrow’s section will bond, linking today’s work and tomorrow’s.

My presentation concludes with three toothing stones: themes, plugins, and widgets. I was tasked with giving a 45 minute introduction to WordPress, so rather than try to cover everything WordPress is capable of, I chose to lay groundwork for a greater understanding. I hope the conference participants were (are) able to gain a foothold in the WordPress universe.

WordPress 101 makes the most sense when viewed in conjunction with the other presentations given today at WordCamp, and the toothing stones help make the learning experience more whole.

Other presenters include:

 
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

WordCamp RDU 2009, tomorrow

by: Phillip Barron - June 12th, 2009   Filed under: Uncategorized 1 Comment

wordcampWordCamp RDU is tomorrow, Saturday, June 13th. See you there.

And, I’ve already upgraded nicomachus.net (and all the other WordPress sites I manage) to WordPress 2.8. If you haven’t upgraded yours yet, take a look at what’s new.

 
Tags: , , ,

WordCampRDU 2009 to be in Durham

by: Phillip Barron - May 8th, 2009   Filed under: Uncategorized 2 Comments

North Carolina Central University will play host to WordCampRDU 2009, which as far as I know is the Triangle’s first WordCamp.*

WordCamp is a conference type of event that focuses squarely on everything WordPress. WordCampRDU is a day-long event on June 13th, 2009 in Raleigh Durham, North Carolina that focuses on beginner and advanced WordPress users with presentations and useful information. WordCampRDU will be highlighted by a much anticipated keynote speech by WordPress Founder, Matt Mullenweg.

The RDU conference is designed around a dual track, so both beginners and more advanced users are welcome. Sessions currently include WordPress 101 (an introduction to WordPress and blogging, hosted by yours truly), Search Engine Optimization, using WordPress as a content management system, as well as integrating eCommerce into your WordPress sites. WordCampRDU is coming together this year under the leadership and hard work of Danielle Baldwin.

I made the switch (from MovableType) to WordPress in October 2007 and haven’t looked back. The plug-ins, the editing pane, the overall ease of everyday use, and the power of php have convinced me that WordPress is the blogging platform for me. Whether you are already a WordPress user or  are thinking of making the switch (or even thinking about starting your first blog), WordCampRDU will be a great opportunity meet other WordPress users and find answers to some of those burning questions.

If there are any topics that you would like me to cover in the WordPress 101 session, feel free to email me or leave a comment below.

You can register for the event here. See you there.

*WordCampRDU 2008 was canceled at the last minute.

 
Tags: , ,