Pat Lockley talking about PressEd the conference about WordPress run completely on twitter. PressEd uncovers many aspects of the use of WordPress in all areas of education.
We discussed some of the aspects and features of running a conference on twitter the previous and upcoming conferences. Pat invites anyone who uses WordPress in any area of education to submit a proposal to the conference.
- Pat Lockley on twitter Pgogy WebStuff (@Pgogy)
- Pat’s Website: Pgogy Webstuff – Pedagogic and Techological Outfitters – WordPress / Drupal / Moodle / Digital Humanities
- PressED Website: 2019 PressED conference – A WordPress and Education, Pedagogy and Research Conference on Twitter
- PressED PressED Conf – A tweeting WordPress conference (@pressedconf) on twitter.
I think that such a conference could be held online and actually use WordPress; it would require more of the participants to be using IndieWeb philosophies and technology/plugins like Webmention and perhaps one of the more modern feed readers that are using Microsub.
Alternately, I could see a place where a platform like IndieWeb.xyz could be leveraged as a location to which all the participants could syndicate their content to a particular sub there (it has the ability to force Webmentions for people who can’t send/receive them yet) and then act as the reader in which the conference was taking place. In this sense IndieWeb.xyz would act a bit like an impromptu planet to aggregate all the conversation. I haven’t looked, but if IndieWeb.xyz also had RSS or other feeds coming back out of individual subs, then it would be a bit more like a traditional planet and people could subscribe in their feed reader of choice, and with WebSub or an occasional manual refresh, a conference like this could be done directly from WordPress (or honestly any IndieWeb friendly platform/website) and have much the same impact. In fact, perhaps a bit more impact since all the presenters and participants would and could have archival copies of the conference on their own websites at the end of the day and the ephemeral nature of such an online conference could tend to disappear.
Incidentally, I could almost hear the gears turning in John’s head as I’m sure he was thinking much the same thing. He carefully restrained himself and managed to keep the conversation on track though.
Now I’ll have to brainstorm an IndieWeb for Education using WordPress proposal for this year’s pending PressEd Conference if there’s time left.
I loved the short snippet at the end of the episode where Pat Lockley gave a brief bio on his Twitter handle and domain name. It reminds me a bit of the podcast My URL Is, which I hope comes back with more episodes soon.
While listening to @johnjohnston and @Pgogy talk about #PressEdConf19, I couldn’t help but think how cool it would be if it could actually be held on #WordPress itself.
boffosocko.com/2019/03/05/rad…
You’ve got till midnight utc on monday
I think a theme like p2 has potential and i could see building it stand alone. I think the serendipity of twitter discovery helps though
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Now I’ll have to brainstorm an #IndieWeb for Education using #WordPress proposal for this year’s pending @PressEdConf if there’s time left.
Hey @chrisaldrich https://boffosocko.com Feel free to grab what we did in #edu522 we have an example of teaching on #IndieWeb WordPress for #pressedconf19. Plus the course templates and webmention badges have come so far since then: https://edu522.networkedlearningcollaborative.com/
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Replied to PressED WordPress and Education twitter conference | Radio #EDUtalk 27-02-19 | EduTalk by Chris Aldrich (BoffoSocko)
Hi Chris,
Thanks for the listen, it is not often I am accused of keeping things on track;-)
I’ve though about this a wee bit. Doing the whole thing via the indieweb would be beautiful but it raises the barrier for participation very high. Setting up WordPress for indieweb is certainly doable but the number of folk interested in WordPress and education that would do this would be low. Given the notion of accessibility I think this is more something to aim for long term?
I had though of the idea of running the whole thing on p2, I’ve set up a couple of short term p2 blogs for Education Scotland to go with public events. You can set p2 to allow subscribers to post and set a widget to allow self registration. In our set up this registration was limited to Glow Scotland users. This of course loses the indieweb bit. Unfortunately p2 is pretty horrible on mobile.
I hope you get a proposal together, it would be great to have an indieWeb presence virtually at the conference. I expect you would post your presentation tweets via your site. I did consider that last time when I presented but was worried about timing and appearance on twitter which I’ve not really got my head round.
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John, I think you’re totally right about the barriers. It’s not something I would recommend lightly either this year or even next year without some serious consideration, but it is something aspirational and definitely worth taking a shot at in the future. If they were to leave Twitter, I would worry that they’d loose out on some additional audience that might otherwise find them organically via their hashtag and other related hashtags. Staying there or allowing others to syndicate to Twitter easily definitely helps out when it comes to the discovery portion.
Like both of you, I’ve also played around with P2 in the past on a variety of sites, including one that had webmention installed. It’s an interesting set up, but does lose a lot of the IndieWeb flavor that it should really have. While it would do a potentially better job of creating a searchable archive of the conference, it could also still be a lot better.
My threaded conversation earlier was in some sense a test run of what a Twitter presentation might look like. There are one or two other variations I might like to try first, but I’ll see what I can put together before the deadline.
I’ll note that, even if it’s done manually, my original post and the copied thread on Twitter (with comments!!) are a reasonably good example of how presenters at PressEd could both give and archive their talks on their own websites.
As a quick sketch, I’m using fragmentions for highlighting/targeting particular segments, and I have both Webmentions and Semantic Linkbacks plugins in combination with a free Brid.gy account to get the comments to come back to my website from Twitter. All of the syndication could be done relatively quickly and manually otherwise.
I’ve also thought about starting a conversation with an initial post and then continuing the presentation throughout the comments section, for which I’ve previously documented a bit about how to manage threaded conversations between my website and Twitter.
I’m sure it could be done, but it’s an overhead to get ot setup
I wouldn’t necessarily rush people to do it this year, but just knowing that it can be done could encourage others to (optionally) make the attempt to do it themselves in the future.
If you’ve got a guide we’ll happily publish it
There’s a lot of value in owning and aggregating this content on your own website, particularly in a use case like this.
If you’ve got a guide we’ll happily publish it
I’ve written up a short sketch (linked), but I’ll see if I can carve out some time to do a full step by step tutorial, which shouldn’t be too hard for an audience that’s already using WordPress.
Last year I thought it would be fun to outline how people might use their #WordPress websites to actively participate in #PressEdConf20 by posting content on their WordPress website and syndicating copies to Twitter for those following that way.
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Last year I thought it would be fun to outline how people might use their #WordPress websites to actively participate in #PressEdConf20 by posting content on their WordPress website and syndicating copies to Twitter for those following that way.
(Meta: Welcome to my talk: I know it’s cheating & early, but I’m hoping a few presenters will borrow this method.)
My general thought was:
The only thing better than A WordPress and Education, Pedagogy and Research Conference on Twitter would be A WordPress and Education, Pedagogy and Research Conference using WordPress itself!
(Meta: Sure, post it to Twitter: but why not own a copy of your presentation on your own website when you’re done?)
So let’s give it a spin by providing an outline for how to accomplish it in true #IndieWeb & #DoOO fashion? Perhaps a few people might trying doing this year’s conference this way? Here’s an early #PressEdConf20 presentation to get the juices flowing.
(Meta: Hint for those on Twitter: I’m including links to my website, so you can get just a little bit more information than Twitter limits me to–oh, the fringe benefits of having one’s website where they’re not censored by the confines of the platform on which they’re creating!)
First, we’ll start off by making the humble presumption that you’ve got your own domain and an install of WordPress running on it. Hopefully this covers most #PressEdConf20 attendees.
(Meta: If it doesn’t there are lots of options: You could do something similar a bit more manually if you like using WordPress.com. You’ve also got a great community of people who could help you to better own your online identity and domain right here! I’ll bet our friends at Reclaim Hosting could help as well.)
Next we’ll want the Webmention Plugin (+Semantic Linkbacks) which will let our site communicate with other websites as well as to receive replies and reactions on Twitter with the help of Brid.gy. Install and activate both.
(Want to go deeper into the idea of what Webmention is and how one could use it? I wrote an article for A List Apart that goes into details.)
Illustration by Dougal MacPherson
Image courtesy of A List Apart
One could manually syndicate content from WordPress to Twitter, but there are multiple plugins and ways to syndicate it. My favorite is the Syndication Links plugin, which we can use for syndicating to other services. Install and activate.
Next we’ll want an account on Brid.gy for Twitter. This will allow us to publish from our website to Twitter; it will also allow us to reverse syndicate reactions from #PressEdConf20 on Twitter back to our posts using Webmention.
(Meta: Publishing this way will require Microformats: Your theme will need the proper microformats support to use this method, but again other methods are available.)
Authenticate your website and Twitter account with Bridgy and enable Bridgy publish on your account page:
https://brid.gy/twitter/username.In Syndication Links settings at
example.com/wp-admin/admin.php?page=syndication_linksEnable Syndication to Other Sites
Enable Twitter via Bridgy
Add a custom provider using the following:
name: XYZ pressEdconf20
UID: XYZ-pressEdconf20
target URL: https://indieweb.xyz/en/pressEdconf20/
Save the settings.
(Meta: Syndication Links Settings: These will help you set up syndication targets on other platforms and can be configured for a variety of social media.)
Now write all of your posts in your presentation as status updates (without titles) and include any media (photos, videos, etc.) making sure to mark up the photos with a class of u-photo in the HTML. Don’t forget the hashtag #PressEdConf20.
Set posts for one every minute. Use the SL Syndicate To meta box to syndicate your Twitter account and to the indieweb.xyz sub where everyone can find them (if they’re not following the proceedings via Twitter).
Others at #PressEdConf20 with Webmentions can reply to your posts on their sites. Replies will show up in comments depending on settings. Bridgy will also find responses to your content on Twitter & syndicate those back to your website automatically.
(Meta: Give it a whirl!: Reply to this post on Twitter to see it boomerang back to the comment section of my website.)
Webmention rocks
Those who are paying attention at #PressEdConf20 will see the value in webmention for allowing cross-site interactions without the need for “social media”. WithKnown, Drupal, Grav, and other CMSs are capable of doing this too.
(Meta: Ownership of your Open Pedagogy Anyone? Who needs invasive corporate social media to interact online now?)
With luck, I’ll have created this entire #PressEdConf20 presentation on my own website and syndicated it to Twitter without actually needing to visit Twitter itself. I’m around for questions. Thank you for your time and attention. [more…]
Those looking for more details can find documentation on the IndieWeb wiki at https://indieweb.org/Getting_Started_on_WordPress, or https://boffosocko.com/2018/04/27/setting-up-wordpress-for-indieweb-use/
I’m also happy to help people set things up and make alternate suggestions via video chat or you can find online help in the IndieWeb WordPress chat.
P.S. There’s still some time to submit your talk for #PressEdConf20. Since it’s all designed to be online from the start, I’m hoping it won’t be cancelled like all the other events lately.
(Meta: PressEdConf 2020: A WordPress and Education, Pedagogy and Research Conference on Twitter March 26, 2020)
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