This past January, WordCamp Boston took place at the Microsoft NERD Center, offering multiple tracks of sessions and speakers for WordPress devotees in the Boston area. Recently, we published some of the sessions from this WordCamp on WordPress.tv—if you missed it, here’s a recap of what’s available.
From the Developer/Designer Track
The Developer and Designer track from WordCamp Boston starts out with some basics and moves into heavier territory. First, there’s Mitcho with “Getting into the Loop,” an introduction to how to work with The Loop and make it work for your WordPress sites. Then, Daniel Jalkut from Red Sweater Software discusses the AtomPub and XML-RPC APIs in “Exercising APIs,” using examples such as desktop, iPhone, and even Web implementations.
Jim Doran gives an overview and a case study in how to use “jQuery in WordPress,” demonstrating layout and animation techniques, DOM manipulation, and JSON, Daniel Collis-Puro shows you how to have “Screaming Fast WPMU” with a whole bunch of optimization techniques and tricks to get your installation up and running smoothly, and Rob Larsen teaches the basics of integrating “HTML5” enhancements into your themes using some JavaScript and a little know-how.
Rounding out the Developer and Designer track, we have Daisy Olsen’s session on “Parent and Child Themes,” demonstrating how to get more mileage out of themes by creating new versions of them as child themes, and “Making BuddyPress Do Thy Bidding” from Boone Gorges, beginning with basic BuddyPress examples and moving on to more specialized fare.
From the Practical Track
The Practical Track contains sessions like “Rock Your Business Blog” from Karen Rubin, focusing on building a brand and an audience using your business blog, “WordPress, PHP, and CSS: Oh, My!” from Shayne Sanderson, covering the very basics of theme development and design to help your blog get off the ground without the need for specialized design work, and “MU-ving to MU” from Automattician Jane Wells, explaining and detailing the changes coming to WordPress MU in WordPress 3.0, as it joins the main WordPress distribution.
WordPress security has been a hot topic lately, and Brad Williams gives his excellent presentation entitled “Lock It Up,” where you can learn several basics to help keep your WordPress site secure. Corey Eulas performs a live critique of sites owned by audience members in his presentation, “SEO Analysis.”
A good overview of legal issues faced by bloggers as they work to create good content is presented in “How Not to Get Sued” by Miguel Danielson and Kimberly Isbell, giving you insight into what you should consider before you hit Publish. And Steve Garfield gives a lightning version of his web video course in “Get Seen: Web Video,” offering tips on everything from equipment to post-production techniques.
The Keynote
In a great sit-down discussion, two of the original authors of The Cluetrain Manifesto discuss its impact, its foresight, and its shortcomings ten years later in “Ten Years after the Manifesto: The Cluetrain Stops at WordCamp.” Doc Searls and David Weinberger sit down with writer Scott Kirsner to discuss the lasting impact and lessons to take from Cluetrain in its second decade.
That’s a lot of video to digest, so dig in, kick back, and enjoy the sessions from WordCamp Boston. Summer brings WordCamps, and WordCamps bring more session video. Be on the lookout for more sessions posted to WordPress.tv! Follow us on Twitter for notices when we publish the latest videos.
