Category: Events

👓 WordPress 4.8 adds events to the dashboard news widget | Make WordPress Communities

Read WordPress 4.8 adds events to the dashboard news widget (Make WordPress Communities)
WordPress 4.8 will be released soon, and when that happens, local events will show up in the dashboard! For more background, check out this post. This is really exciting! It’s going to be eve…

Attended An introduction to the WP REST API | WordCamp Orange County 2019

Watched An introduction to the WP REST API by John HawkinsJohn Hawkins from WordCamp Orange County 2019
In this presentation, I’m going to give a brief introduction to the WP REST API, how to create custom end points, and some tools you can use to test your API as you’re developing it!
Great overview presentation, but a tad on the elementary side for me. John generally does a very solid job, but here I think he spent too much time on talking about other ways of doing things as a means of motivating why to use the REST API instead of talking about the REST API itself.

I did get the chance to meet a great programmer and developer named Beth who was previously in the area of instructional design.

Attended Making the world a better place through web design | WordCamp Orange County

Watched Making the world a better place through web design by Natalie MacLeesNatalie MacLees from WordCamp Orange County 2019
We all know better than to think that design is just about ‘making things look pretty’. But did you ever stop to think about the power you have as a web designer (or developer) to make the world a better place? It’s true! You have the power every single day to help make the world more just and equitable through design thinking and an inclusive mindset. We’ll explore how every person involved in designing and building the web can help lead the way, how to convince others to follow in your footsteps, and how to save yourself from being a plain vanilla designer.
A great way to start off the camp! The idea of inclusive design is a much better way to frame accessibility and related ideas.

Natalie standing next to the podium with a slide from her presentation on the screen behind her that reads "Inclusive design benefits everyone."

RSVP Innovate Pasadena: Eat, Pray, Startup: An Entrepreneur’s Global Search For Creativity & Innovation | Meetup.com

RSVPed Attending Innovate Pasadena: Eat, Pray, Startup: An Entrepreneur’s Global Search For Creativity & Innovation
Fri, Apr 26, 2019, 8:15 AM

Entrepreneurship requires creativity and innovative thinking. Yet living and working in one location can feel like being trapped in an echo chamber, thereby limiting our creative potential.

In 2018, Jennifer Chang found herself at a crossroads. She had successfully sold a startup in 2017 and chased the rising tech pay into the job market, but felt her creativity was being stifled by job descriptions. After being fired from yet another job, she decided to embark on a six month journey around the world to revitalize her creative energy. Her trip took her across 5 continents, 20 countries, 35 flights, and 45,000 miles. Throughout her journey, she met with entrepreneurs, investors, and technologists, using a shared interest in startups as a way to connect with local people, places, and cultures.

In this presentation, Jennifer will share highlights from her journey, including the unique organizations and companies she came across as she travelled the globe, looking for entrepreneurial soulmates.

I’m glad that the PressEd Conference’s main schedule page has links and embedded versions of all of yesterday’s talks on each of the individual session pages.

The best part of reading through them on the day after is being able to read and react to all the additional conversations and sub-threads. There’s also more time to catch what I missed and read and reflect on some of the more dense links to other sources. I hope I can manage to digest it all before PressEDConf20 is upon us.

It was a huge amount of effort and work by our wonderful hosts and all the presenters. Congratulations all around!

Garrish rainbow colored background with the name PressED, April 18th on Twitter along with their URL and hashtag

Hathaway-Sycamores’ Celebrating Children Gala 2019
Photos from last night’s gala:
Posterboard welcome at the entrance of the event.
Posterboard welcome at the entrance of the event.
People mingling in a garden-like setting with the church in the background
A view of the steeple at Vibiana in downtown Los Angeles from the courtyard where the cocktail hour was held.
People gathering for a dinner of about 300 with subdued lighting for the evening
The interior of a retired Catholic church makes an interesting gathering space for a dinner event
A table with wine service set up in front of the church's wooden paneled confessional area.
A wine station in front of the old confessionals? How apropos.
A 40 page blue booklet whose cover reads "Celebrating Children Spring Gala"
The program for the evening
View of the hall from table 14 as three people pose for photographs on the dais.
Debra Manners and Robert Pynoos receive proclamations from a local dignitary.
A purple orchid with about 20 blooms lit from above with special lighting
The lovel y orchid centerpiece at our table.
Pacheco in a suit at the front of the church sings while guests finish their meals
Nathan Pacheco entertains the crowd with the accompaniment of a piano and a cello.
Shot from table of the people across the table from me.
Some of my dining companions from Dignity Health at table 14
Two people enjoying the music for the evening.
Jennifer and Todd at Dignity Health’s table #14
View from the middle of the church with a view of a major screen above the altar space featuring Pacheco so that the people in the back have a better view of the festivities.
Nathan Pacheco returns for a second mini-set of singing.
View of the archwork and decoratively lit ceiling in the church
Vibiana has a striking interior

Reflections on WordCamp Santa Clarita Valley 2019

I really had a grand time at WordCamp Santa Clarita Valley yesterday. I’d like to thank the visionary Joe Simpson, Jr. and his entire group of fantastic organizers and kind volunteers for putting the entire thing together. I couldn’t imagine a better launch for a brand new camp.

College of the Canyons was a fantastic location for the camp and even had some excellent outdoor patio and dining space for lunch.

I do wish I’d been able to make my schedule work out to have been able to attend on Friday. I’m particularly bummed that I didn’t get to see Glenn Zucman’s presentation as he’s always doing some of the most interesting and creative things with WordPress. I’ll wait patiently for WordPress.tv to deliver it for me.

Some of my favorite highlights:

  • David Nuon wearing a blonde Richard Dean Anderson wig during his talk MacGyver plays with blocks: Using the Gutenberg editor in new and surprising ways
  • Chatting with Kat Christofer of Woo Commerce about how she and the Woo team create better documentation for their product. I think there’s some things we can learn for documenting pieces of the IndieWeb experience with WordPress. She also mentioned the beginning of a new short Mustang road trip.
  • Joseph Dickson going old school on Upgrading Kubrick for Gutenberg. His highlighting the fact that the editor is able to better mirror the ultimate output as a time saver is an intriguing idea.
  • Not that they aren’t always in general, and I didn’t think about it until reflecting on it today, but I also want to mention the spectacular diversity of speakers and attendees at the camp. It really made for a better and more well-rounded experience. I’ll give all the credit to Joe and his team who I suspect are directly responsible for designing it to be that way from the very beginning.

On a more personal level, my two favorite parts included:  Seeing the viceral reactions of a handful of people as the proverbial light switch was turned on when they realized the power and flexibility of the posting interfaces provided by micropub clients during my talk. There was also a palpable rush at the end while using a few minutes of extra time demoing some examples of my website and and the power of Micropub, Webmention, and backfeed along with some other IndieWeb goodness. I’ve already had a number of people following up with additional questions, conversations, and emails.

For those who may have missed them, here is a link to my slides from the Micropub and WordPress talk and a link to some of the bigger pieces I’ve wrtitten about with respect to WordPress and IndieWeb technologies in the past. Naturally, these are only a supplement to the hundreds of others who are working in and documenting the space. 

I’ll also give a special thanks to Joseph Dickson for the photo/tweet of me just before the talk:

The metal and glass edifice framed by the blue sky of the Santa Clarita Valley
Dr. Dianne G. Van Hook University Center on the campus of College of the Canyons
Tables and chairs in foreground with campers chatting in middle ground and the impressive glass wall of the center in the background
Inside the Hook University Center where WordCamp Santa Clarita Valley 2019 was held
Clear signage directs pedestrians to WordCamp Santa Clarita at Hook University Center
Clear signage directs pedestrians to WordCamp Santa Clarita at Hook University Center
My name tag as a speaker at WordCamp Santa Clarita Valley
The front entrance of Brewery Draconum
The afterparty for WordCamp Santa Clarita was held at Draconum in Newhall
Long picnic tables and red umbrellas provided some great ambience with the sun shining brightly in the late afternoon
WordCampers from Santa Clarita gathering on the outdoor patio at Draconum

A selfie by Chris Aldrich with other campers in the background
Hanging out with old friends and new after WordCamp on the patio at Draconum.
Joseph Dixon, Erik Blair
RSVPed Attending AnnotatED at OLC Innovate 2019
Join us 1–4pm MT Tuesday, 2 April 2019 at AnnotatED, a free annotation summit brought to you by Hypothesis in conjunction with OLC Innovate 2019. RSVP NOW to reserve your spot at this free event. Can't make it to Colorado? RSVP as a virtual participant. Learn more about all the annotation activities happening at #OLCInnovate! Attendees will include leaders from the annotation community like Marginal Syllabus co-founder Remi Kalir, Francisco Perez from CROWDLAAERS, Director of Education Jeremy Dean and Nate Angell from Hypothesis, and folks from institutions now piloting annotation like CSU Channel Islands and MSU Denver. The summit will feature a mini-keynote from Manuel Espinoza, Associate professor of Educational Foundations at CU Denver. Connect with your peers at other institutions working with annotation. Learn about and share annotation use cases. Explore existing and new research on the impact of annotation in education. Find out how you, your colleagues, and your institution can get started or expand annotation in partnership with Hypothesis. Help shape future annotation summits. Refreshments provided.
Attending remotely
RSVPed Attending Hathaway-Sycamores’ Celebrating Children Gala 2019
On Saturday April 13th, we’ll be hosting our annual Celebrating Children Gala. Join us for this intimate evening at the stunning Vibiana in downtown Los Angeles to support Hathaway-Sycamores’ critical efforts in providing homes and hope to hundreds of young adults facing homelessness across Los Angeles County.
RSVPed Attending Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

Saturday, April 13th | 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Sunday, April 14th | 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.<

Since 1996, The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books has become a world renowned experience gathering writers, poets, artists, filmmakers, musicians and emerging storytellers like no other. Today over 150,000 people attend, making it the largest festival of its kind in the United States. Join us this year as we celebrate our literary culture and the Los Angeles Times’ passion for story.

🔖 Where WordPress Meets Higher Education | WPCampus

Bookmarked WPCampus 2019 Call for Proposals: Save the Date! (WPCampus: Where WordPress Meets Higher Education)
Hello WPCampus friends! We’re excited to announce that our Call for Proposals for this year’s conference will be opening soon! We’re looking forward to another year of wonderful ideas, demonstrations, brainstorming, and benchmarking. Session Topics As in past years, we’re looking for a variety of topics on anything that might bring value to our community. …

📅 Micropub and WordPress: Custom Posting Applications at WordCamp Santa Clarita Valley 2019

Details

Come for two days of WordCamp Santa Clarita Valley on Friday and Saturday April 5 & 6, 2019, featuring an IndieWeb-related talk by me on Saturday afternoon.
 
I will be at WordCamp both days to chat with participants about the IndieWeb and implementing its principles and related plugins using WordPress in addition to giving a featured talk on Saturday afternoon.

Micropub and WordPress: Custom Posting Applications

The W3C recommended Micropub specification (2017) allows developers to create custom posting applications for a wide variety of data targeting any content management system that supports the spec.
I will provide an overview of the setup and use of the available plugin and endpoint for WordPress. I’ll also provide a beginner walk-though for a variety of client applications like Quill, Teacup, OwnYourGram, OwnYourSwarm, Omnibear, and others that allow one to easily post status updates, bookmarks, likes, check-ins/location data, photos, and more directly to their WordPress sites.
We’ll also talk about how developers can create custom posting interfaces to drastically simplify content creation and posting for clients in ways that can be even simpler and more flexible than working with Gutenberg.

When

My talk on “Micropub and WordPress: Custom Posting Applications” will take place on  from –

Where

College of the Canyons
Dr. Dianne G. Van Hook University Center
26455 Rockwell Canyon Road
Santa Clarita, California 91355
USA

Tickets

This post is an “indie event” so feel free to RSVP by adding yourself in the comments section below or by sending a webmention so I’ll know to expect you, but be sure to purchase tickets in advance. General admission is $40 and includes:

  • Two days of sessions of everything WordPress — design, development, e-commerce, marketing and more!
    • Day 1 (Friday, April 5) will focus on getting started with WordPress and WooCommere;
    • Day 2 (Saturday, April 6) offers a full slate of WordPress content spread across three simultaneous tracks;
  • Lunch on Friday & Saturday, including snacks and refreshments;
  • Swag and sponsor goodies; and
  • Afterparty Saturday (details to follow)

Any questions? Respond below or ask me in the IndieWeb chat. I look forward to seeing everyone there!

​

👓 Schedule | WordCamp Santa Clarita Valley

Bookmarked Schedule (WordCamp Santa Clarita)
We’re thrilled to debut the first-annual WordCamp Santa Clarita will be held at the Dr. Dianne G. Van Hook University Center University Center on the campus of College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, California. Friday, April 5, Beginner’s Day Time Vásquez Rocks Vásquez Rocks were named after...