Today, WordPress turns 7 years old. I’ve been using WordPress since 2007 which is only a few years ago. I always enjoy hearing the stories from those who were on board with WordPress since the day it was created by a fork of b2. I suppose those folks can be called the ancestors of WordPress. At any rate. WordPress is continuing to grow into a healthy project. The third party community is buzzing with new themes and plugins, WordCamps are popping up all over the world, as Matt Mullenweg said at WordCamp San Francisco this year, the state of the word is Strong. May 27th, 2003, the first version of WordPress was released on the development blog. This is when the development blog still allowed comments.
If you’re interested in seeing what WordPress looked like in the early days, check out this post written by Ozh which explores the first five years of the WordPress user interface.
Recently, I’ve been uploading video files to VideoPress.com. When uploading the files, I’ve generally kept the default naming scheme provided by the Flip Camera. On my machine, there were two different video files with a similar name but different extensions, video-4.mp4 and video-4.mov. The .mov file was the interview with Jane Wells while the .MP4 file was the interview with Brad Williams. I discovered today that the reason why the Jane Wells interview started showing Brad Williams was because of the way VideoPress renames files.
When videos are uploaded to VideoPress, the service renames the file using the original name. So what ended up happening is that Video-4.MP4 and Video-4.mov both turned into video-4_fmt1.ogv. Since Brad’s video was uploaded first, the second uploaded file pointed to Brad’s video. This is what caused the confusion and why Jane’s interview switched from her, to Brad. What I ended up doing was downloading the Jane Wells interview .mov file, renaming the file and then re uploading it to VideoPress to resolve the conflict. This is a lesson that before you upload your videos to VideoPress, you should give them a unique file name.
Brad Williams who is the author of the book, Professional WordPress talked about initial sales and the type of feedback he’s received thus far. We also discussed what is going on with the WebDevStudios Crew including information regarding their iPhone application called IPFreely which is a location based application that plots where you pee. Don’t ask me, that’s just what the application does.
Cory Miller who heads up iThemes.com along with PluginBuddy.com gives me the low down on what is going on with the company. Cory gives the details regarding what their newest offering, Plugin Mobile Buddy is all about. It sounds like an awesome plugin and once WPTavern.com goes through a minor redesign, this will be the first plugin I install to provide a mobile version of the site. We also talk about how iThemes tries to take customer feedback to heart by monitoring trends and responding to those trends with awesome products.
It’s been a long time since I had the chance to talk with Nathan Rice face to face. The last opportunity I had was at WordCamp Dallas in 2008 which was my first WordCamp that I attended. Since that time, Nathan has worked for iThemes, ModThemes, and now resides at StudioPress where he ended up having a strong hand in developing the Genesis Theme. In this interview, I ask him how things are going with his employment at StudioPress. I also have him explain the strengths behind the Genesis theme framework. Last but not least, Nathan describes the features he is most excited for regarding WordPress 3.0
In this special interview with Jane Wells from WordCamp Raleigh, we discuss the prospects of WordPress 3.0. We also have a good discussion revolving the new menu system, including the question I’ve had since Beta 1 and that is, why bother going with Woo Nav if at the end of the day, there is little of Woo Nav to be seen or used? We also talked about the recent promotion assigned to John O’ Nolan who will be Jane’s assistant managing the UI group for WordPress.
The lesson I learned here is to not do an interview with someone against a bright background because as you can see, you end up not seeing the person. In this case, we now can’t debate whether Jane’s hair is Red or Violet. Perhaps we’ll take HairOfJanes word for it.
Patrick O’ Keefe who is known as iFroggy on Twitter and the author of the book Managing Online Forums presented at WordCamp Raleigh this past weekend. In his presentation, Patrick talks about how to extend your community beyond the blog as well as bringing community from various outposts spread across the web back to your blog. It was a great presentation filled with pointers for those looking to start or build upon their existing community. With Patrick’s permission, I was able to record the presentation and use it as a special episode of WordPress Weekly. Thanks again Patrick.
WordCamp Chicago is a little over a week away and I won’t be able to attend this years event. Things just didn’t work out according to plan and so I’m trying to sell my ticket. Unfortunately, refunds can not be given due to the way the ticketing system works. So if you still need a ticket to WordCamp Chicago, please get in touch with me so we can hammer out the details. Basically, someone will need to Paypal me the amount for the ticket and then I will transfer the ticket in EventBrite into your name. The price of the ticket is $30.00.
In this interview, Leland who operates ThemeLab.com tells us what he’s been up to, what it’s been like to attend a WordCamp for the first time, and he also gives us some information regarding his underground project. I enjoyed getting to meet Leland face to face and hope I get the chance to meet up with him again soon at another WordCamp. Oh, the cookies were pretty awesome.
*Note* You may need to turn your volume to full blast to hear both myself and Leland. Lesson learned. No more outside interviews with the Flip.
In this interview with Dave Moyer conducted at WordCamp Raleigh we talk about what it is that Dave does, what Bitwire Media is all about, his session about brand reliability, Lorelle Van Fossen and a couple of other topics. By the way, I attended Daves session today at WordCamp Raleigh and the man is a good talker and keeps it real. Thanks for the interview Dave.
Patrick O’ Keefe who is known as