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How Does all this Open Source Stuff Work? An Intro to the
Wonderful WordPress Community
Jim Echter
[email protected] : @JimEchterYouTube: SpindleJim
My Journey from
Expensive Proprietary Software
To Using
Open Source WordPress
WordCamp Rochester 2018
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Have You Ever Used
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Welcome to the world of
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Open Source Origin
Open Source Initiative
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My Journey From Lots of Zeros
•Early 1980s
•Cad/Cam Industry
•Average Seat Cost $250,000
• 4 to 6 Seats per System
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Late 1980s – Networked Computing
•A Little Company named Sun Microsystems
•My first entry into the world of UNIX
•Started to learn about SCO, Linux, etc.
•Sun came out with OpenOffice to compete with Microsoft
• $50K to $500K
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2000 - Big Data
• InformationView developed custom analytical databases for telephone companies
•Multi Terabyte Databases
• $1 - $6,000,000 per License
•Very Proprietary
• 1.6 Terabyte Cygnet Optical Jukebox
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Start-ups in the 2000s
•SaaS solutions•Times are a changing…
•Open Source software forNot-for-Profits
Took the plunge into starting
our own businesses
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Our real jobs – not web design
Woodturning
Quilting
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2008 My First Web Site
•SiteBuilder – a Free CMS from Yahoo
•Hard to keep up to date
Microsoft FrontPage$100 to $200/License
Macromedia FrontPage$400 to $500/License
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2014 - Defining the purpose and goals of our NEW web sites
•Replace our old Yahoo site
•Ability to edit
•E-commerce
•A system that was easier to maintain
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Finding WordPress
•Kathy attends a WordPress Meet-up
•Starts talking about this software called WordPress
•She attends another meeting and hears about this thing called a WordCamp in Buffalo in two weeks
• “Jim, I thing you should go to this….”
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I Responded…
• Free is good… however…
• I don’t know about this Open Source stuff
• Is it stable?
•Who develops it?
•How do we get support?
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My Journey Into WordPress Begins
•WordCamp Buffalo 2014
•Best $20 I Ever Spent
• 6 Great Presentations
• Food
•Swag
•Started Networking
•Passion Everywhere
• Interesting Community
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Getting Started with WordPress
• Took a Class
• Books
• Rochester Meetup and
Facebook Group
• YouTube
• Google
• Learn, implement and
improve
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The WP Basics – The WP Dashboard
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The WP Basics – WooCommerce
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Themes
• Your site’s appearance
• WordPress.org is the repository
• Free themes – 2015, 2016 and 2017
• Paid themes
• Elegant Themes, Theme Forest, iThemes,
StudioPress
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My YouTube Teachers
www.tcspindles.comeCommerce siteMystile themeJosh Jackson, wpsculptor.com
www.tcquilting.comwww.tcturning.comGeneral siteVirtue themeKatrinah, katrinah.com
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My YouTube Guru
Kori Ashton200+ YouTube WordPress videoshttps://askkori.com
https://webtegrity.com
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Plugins and Tools
• Plugins
• Add functionality
• Adds a specific set of features or services to a WordPress site. (from codex.wordpress.org)
• WordPress.org is the repository
• Paid Plug-ins
• Tools – Jetpack – “the toys”
• Jetpack is a popular WordPress plugin created by Automattic, the people behind WordPress.com.
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Language Barriers
• Terminology
•Basic page layout
•Menu bar
•Sidebar – Header & Footer
• Image Slider
• Image Gallery
• Forms
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Media Files Take Work
•Media•Picture
•Video
•Sound
•Pdf
•Word docs
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Where to get Information
•wp.org
•wordpress.tv
•Google
•YouTube
•Books
•Local Meetup Groups
•WordCamps
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Hosting Your WordPress Site
• Register your domain name
• Self-hosting companies• bluehost
• SiteGround
• DreamHost
• GoDaddy
• Costs• WP is free
• Free tools
• Paid tools
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E-Commerce
• Image editing takes the most time
• Get a photo booth
• 72 dpi
• 500 x 500 dpi
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Keep a Journal
• Notes from meetings
• Tips
• Good Plug-ins
• Corporate standards
• Log-ins, vendors, renewal dates
• How you did something
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Best Practices
•Child Themes
•Back-up, back-up, back-up
•Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall –firewall against hackers
•Akismet - spam eliminator
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My Questions Answered
•Yes – it is really Free
•Open Source is Great
•Yes
• Automattic and contributors
•Everywhere
• Free is good…. however…
• I don’t know about thisOpen Source stuff
• Is it stable?
•Who develops it?
•How do we get support?
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Join the Community
• ROC WP – Facebook Group
• Co-working days
• Classes
• WordCamps
• Have fun
• Meet new people
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The WordPress Ecosystem
• Wonderful community
• Meet-ups
• Word Camps• Vendors• Happiness Bar• After Party
• Twitter - #WCROC
• YouTube
• Google
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The Survey Says…
• What’s Under the Hood• Everything!
ie: Plugins
• You can do anything
• It’s all documented
• Community
• Thinking about new ways to do things
• Always something new to learn
• Multiple people (with permission) can add content
• Easy for novices
• Community
• Great for Professionals
• Focus on site development
• Offload content to customers
• 7 x 24 help on Facebook
• Community
• Helpfulness
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In Summary
• It’s a Wonderful Community if you participate
• WordPress is affordable and works!
• In 2018, there are many Open Source solutionsthat can help you develop your web site
• Free is GOOD!
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Thank you for thePrivilege of Your Time!
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Please Note:
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Link to this presentation
https://tcturning.com/tips-articles-and-videos/