Category Archives: Blog

This blog, blogs in general, and blogging

WordCamp Day 1 Roundup

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I’m back in my hotel room after a very long day at WordCamp UK. I’ve had a fantastic day. There were some good sessions, it’s a pity I didn’t get to see them all. That whole multi-track thing can be frustrating.

My own session got off to a poor start with technical difficulties. Eventually solved, but it threw me a little. I didn’t manage to fill my 1 hour slot, but it seemed to go down well enough. I got some good questions and feedback later.

It was great to see Matt again after so long. We were both interviewed and filmed after the last session by two different people, and I look forward to seeing the recordings.

I then went for a great meal with Matt, Westi, and a small group of people and it was really nice to just chat and chill with a fantastic bunch.

I’m really looking forward to tomorrow.

Informatology Conference

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I’m at the Informatology conference today and had my first WordPress hands-on workshop for about 15 delegates earlier.

I am shocked at how short 45 minutes is! I felt like I babbled at break-neck speed and got nowhere.

However I did cover about a third of my agenda, touched on a few other bits, and got some good feedback from people.

I have another session this afternoon. I will have to trim it, and do more of the hands-on myself.

WordCamp UK 2009 – This year it’s Cardiff

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I have now bought my ticket to WordCamp UK 2009. The second annual UK-based WordCamp. This time the venue is Cardiff and I am really looking forward to it.

Last year’s WordCampUK was the first and went really, really well. I got to speak at the event, I met some great people, and for me, it was a life changing event — literally! Having listened to and spoken to a number of people who earn all or part of their living with WordPress, I decided to give up my job and work for myself.

I can’t promise it will be quite so significant for you, but I do promise you will hear some great speakers, and meet some really nice people. Some who are experts, some who are beginners, plenty in between, all of whom are fans of WordPress.

WordCamp UK 2009 Logo We all work together to make it a great couple of days from which everyone can learn something, be inspired, and maybe, just maybe, it can change your life too.

I have volunteered to speak again, but don’t let that put you off. 🙂

This time I am bringing the family along a day early and I’m looking forward to seeing some of what Cardiff has to offer. I’m especially looking forward to the Dr Who and Torchwood exhibitions

Tickets are now on sale, with a discount before May 31st. We are looking for Sponsors too.

Come along, all are welcome. Please book early, as places are limited.

New Law Commission Site Launched

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A client site I have been working on just went live today. It’s a public consultation site for the Law Commission.

They wanted a commentable summary version of their current consultation paper and a general discussion forum. The original consultation paper, “The Admissibility of Expert Evidence in Criminal Proceedings in England and Wales”, runs to 98 pages, so the 15 page summary (plus end notes) works much better online.

site screenshot

It’s built on WordPress, of course, and the forum is BBPress

Check it out and, of course, it is a public consultation, so feel free contribute (registration required).

New Release: a DITA to WordPress Importer

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I’ve just released an eagerly awaited (by some anyway) DITA to WordPress importer. Take a look at the tool’s page to learn a little more about what it does.

This is not a general purpose tool. It is particularly specialized and only useful for people using the DITA Open Toolkit to generate web content.

Other developers might be interested because it does import static XHTML files and pick apart the content, extracting info, removing unwanted parts, and change others, as well as importing the body of the page into WordPress.

Take a look if you are interested on the plugin page (yes, I know an importer is not a plugin). Please leave feedback in the comments on that page.

WordPress is 6 – or is it?

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At this time of year, I normally say Happy Birthday to WordPress. After all it was 6 years ago today I made the comment on Matt’s blog that started the whole thing off.

However last year, Matt held a birthday party for WordPress’ 5th in May. May 27th to be precise, which is the anniversary of the first WordPress release.

If the birth of WordPress was the first release, then I guess I’ve been celebrating the conception.  🙂

Regardless, WordPress has come a long way. The baby  has grown into a world beating piece of software. It’s so good I’ve bet the house on it (more of that soon).

Anyway “Happy Conception” to WordPress and I hope there are many more to come.