Author Archives: Brett Shumaker

About Brett Shumaker

Brett is a Enterprise Support Engineer on the VIP team at Automattic.

FACES of WORDPRESS: Christopher Joel Wilcoxson

slushman

WordPress can change your life. Just ask Chris Wilcoxson, aka Slushman. He was a speaker last year at WordCamp 2013 and we think he’s pretty great at what he does. Chris always knew that he wanted to work on the web, but pursued other directions in life until he was brought onto a project working with WordPress. Learning WordPress redirected him back to his passion for web development, so much that he got a degree in it from Belmont University.

“It’s a lot easier to use than other systems,” he says. “Wordpress has everything laid out. It makes more sense.”

Chris is one of those developers that tries to push the platform as far as it will go… and then some. Through his company, Slushman Design, Chris has worked on all kinds of WordPress development projects: building plugins, creating themes, websites for clients and even applications that can be built on top of WordPress.

Originally, Chris used Blogger but wanted to expand the functionality of what he was doing. He found wordpress.com. “I started playing with it and figured out how to set up a self-hosted version (via wordpress.org), out of necessity because I needed more out of it.”

That need for more is the driving force behind the advancement, stability and power of WordPress and its developers.

Here’s a list of power-users, blogs and tutorials that Chris follows and recommends. You can also check out his work and follow his blog: http://slushman.com/blog/.

Smashing Magazine
Theme Designer
Core Developers
Matt Mullenweg
Otto Wood
Mark Jaquith

For new developers looking to push their own creative boundaries, Chris has one caution. “When you’re Googling around trying to find tutorials on what to do- check the dates! There’s a lot of really old stuff that doesn’t apply anymore. Always go with the most current thing. Realizing this early on would have saved me a lot of time.”

FACES of WORDPRESS: Alisha Lampley

alisha-lampley-origami-owl

Coily Locks is more than Alisha Lampley’s blog; it’s a perfect example of the power and gravitas that WordPress provides for its users. “I started this blog as a way to share my natural hair journey, the craziness that is motherhood and my love of food, fashion and most importantly…wine!”

“I was on Blogger,” she says. “And then I joined a couple of blogging groups. A lot of people told me that if I wanted to make money and monetize, it would make more sense to switch over to WordPress.”

Alisha’s been using WordPress for over two years. She loves being involved in the WordPress community, as well as the free resources, tools, tech support and plugins. Alisha’s constantly challenging herself to learn new tricks and best practices. “There’s still plenty of stuff where I’m like, oh, I didn’t know it did that!”

That’s the beauty of WordPress, just like wine, it only gets better with age.

In fact, learning the basics of WordPress has allowed Alisha the opportunity to start a home business in addition to her blog, selling custom jewelry through Origami Owl.

“I wouldn’t have done that otherwise and it’s where all the traffic to my site comes in,” she says.

For new users, Alisha recommends the following plugins:

  • NoFollow. This plugin provides fine-grained control of linking for SEO purposes, containing a package of tools to increase your control of the rel=”nofollow” tag on every link on your blog.
  • JetPack. Jetpack is a WordPress plugin that supercharges your self-hosted WordPress site with the awesome cloud power of WordPress.com.
  • Broken Link Checker. This plugin will monitor your blog looking for broken links and let you know if any are found.
  • Google Analytics. The Google Analytics for WordPress plugin allows you to track your blog easily and with lots of metadata.

And for those of you looking for some expert advice on wine, be sure to check out her blog: http://coilylocks.com/.

FACES OF WORDPRESS: D’nelle Dowis

dnelle

  • D’nelle Dowis
  • WordPressing since 2009
  • Intermediate (advanced user, intermediate designer, beginning developer)
  • berry-interesting.com
  • Twitter @d_nelle

D’nelle Dowis began using WordPress in 2009 as a website manager. She fell so in love with the flexibility of the platform that she now builds WordPress sites as a part of job as an internet consultant (a delightfully vague term meant to encompass content writing, social media management, website development and email marketing).

“I had created HTML websites and used other Content Management systems before,” says D’nelle, “so I figured that using WordPress would be just another CMS to wrangle. I had no idea how it would suck me in… I’m totally a WordPress evangelist now.”

D’nelle attended WCN12 after years as a participant and volunteer at Nashville’s BarCamp and PodCamp, “Once I saw what a great community has built up in Nashville around WordPress, I wanted to be more involved.”

After attending WordPress Nashville meetups, her professional network expanded and her business grew. “Not only have I made amazing connections with people I now call my colleagues and friends, I’ve seen new work come my way directly from this community.”

Speaking at WCN13 seemed a logical step. D’nelle threw her hat in the ring and let the planning crew decide where she fit best.

“I work best when I’m asked questions or challenged to solve a problem,” she says, “So when I was asked to talk about images, plugins and themes for Track 1, I couldn’t wait. And, as nervous as I was going into it – it was my first time speaking at a professional conference like that – I relaxed almost instantly and had a great time. It was like what I do with my own clients every day, only with a big group all together.”

This year, D’nelle is organizing all session submissions and is the point-person for anyone on the schedule to speak. “I want everyone in the community – in Nashville and at large – who is considering speaking to take the plunge whether they have experience or not,” she says.

(If you haven’t already, hop over to the session submissions page and submit your ideas – even if they’re vague or you’re not sure where you fit, we want to hear from you!)

You call follow D’nelle at http://twitter.com/d_nelle

As part of the build-up to WordCamp Nashville 2014 Faces of WordPress will highlight members of Middle Tennessee’s great – and growing – WordPress community. We will feature WP users at all levels, newbies to advanced developers. And mark your calendar. This year’s Big Event is May 3, 2014.

SAVE THE DATE: WordCamp Nashville 2014 is May 3

Book it! WordCamp Nashville 2014 is set for Saturday, May 3, at Nashville School of Law.

We believe WordCamp Nashville 2014 will reflect the excitement, growth and diversity of the Middle Tennessee WordPress community.

This one-day event, organized by members of the Nashville WordPress MeetUp, will have something for everybody. As in 2013, we will have three “tracks” to accommodate new users, intermediate users and developers. We also plan an expanded Help Desk, where people can receive one-on-one assistance, and a keynote speech.

You may attend any session, regardless of experience level, but we will break sessions into three general categories.

Tickets, $20 each, are scheduled to go on sale March 24 and will include lunch and a t-shirt. Subscribe to our mailing list to stay in the loop ticket sales and other announcements, including lodging options, speaker submission deadlines, speaker selection and schedule updates.

WordCamp is all about community-building, and it takes a community to build a WordCamp. Submit an application to become a speaker or become a sponsor. Volunteers are the heart of WordCamp, and it’s not too early to sign up to help.

This is the second year we are holding the event at Nashville School of Law, 4013 Armory Oaks Drive, Nashville, TN, 37204. The venue has awesome rooms, ample parking and easy access from both Interstates 65 and 24.

So mark the date. May 3, 2014. Nashville WordCamp returns.

BECOME A SPEAKER

Wanted: WordCamp speakers who understand what WordPress users and developers want and need and can communicate it clearly. Because we want to showcase the depth of talent in Greater Nashville, preference will be given to local speakers who have not presented at other WordCamps.
Check out a list of topics submitted by local users and session descriptions from last year’s WordCamp Nashville.

Submit a speaker application.

BECOME A SPONSOR

WordCamps run under the auspices of the WordPress foundation a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. The official event itself ends when the final sessions of the day wraps up at 4 p.m. We don’t raise extra money to run off to the beach, though additional sponsorship opportunities do exist for the speakers’ dinner and the after-party gathering.
WordPress users are a passionate and loyal group, and sponsors enjoy visibility in a crowd that loves tech, problem-solving, entrepreneurship and business. What are you waiting for?

Submit a sponsor application.

BECOME A VOLUNTEER

Without volunteers we are nothing!

Months of planning and preparation come down to 8 hours on a Saturday in May, and a cadre of awesome volunteers makes the event run smoothly. WIth enough volunteers, we can make sure they also can attend some sessions. The day of the event we’ll need help with registration, room monitoring, coffee set-up, lunch distribution and clean-up.

We can’t comp volunteer tickets but we will show our appreciation in other ways.

Sign me up to volunteer!

BECOME PART OF IT

Stay informed about ticket sales, deadlines, session lineups and other great stuff.
Subscribe to the email list
Join WordPress Nashville on Facebook
Follow @wordcampnash & @wpnashville on Twitter