Thirsty for some WordPress knowledge? If so don’t be late for class! We are going to have beer at WordCamp…Lucy Beer. No need to worry about being intoxicated by her session as she will put you on training wheels to get where you want to go. If you can’t wait until WordCamp to get your fill, you can find her on twitter @webtw.
With that said, here’s the next Speaker Spotlight:
How long have you been working with WordPress and what first attracted you to it?
I started using WordPress for some personal sites back in around 2004. I don’t remember how I heard about WordPress, but like many others, I had started off using Blogger and quickly outgrew it. When I started using WordPress I never looked back – I loved that I could do everything I couldn’t do on blogger and then some!! Since that time I have realized that the only limits WordPress has are those of my own imagination or skill.
What are your thoughts on the WordPress community as a whole, including WordCamps?
I love that WordPress has a really solid community! Through Meetup groups, WordCamps and my own clients, I have met all kinds of people who are all using WordPress slightly differently, and it’s refreshing that most of them are non-“geeks”, but are people that have an idea or a passion and are using WordPress as a tool to manifest their vision. Attending WordCamps is always inspiring as I see how more and more people are being introduced to WordPress and how the community goes from strength to strength.
Who in the WordPress community inspires you? Who do you follow?
Even though I’m not a full fledged developer, I like to follow people like Joost de Valk, Mark Jaquith, Justin Tadlock and other code-y types because I’m always looking to educate myself. Here in the Los Angeles WordPress community I have a lot of respect for Natalie Maclees who is a great developer and has built an awesome WordPress meetup group.
What is the most exciting feature/addition/improvement to WordPress that you have noticed in the last year?
Custom menus are awesome!!! In general I think premium themes have been going from strength to strength – there are some really amazing ones available now. However, theme developers still have a lot to be desired in terms of documenting their themes in a way that non-developers can actually understand.
Where do you see WordPress 2 years from now?
Tough question – I think the growth will be exponential as more and more people continue to discover it. The premium theme market will get more and more overwhelming – I HOPE that there may be some kind of standardization in the way that theme developers document and explain the features of their theme. Hopefully there will be a movement toward making the information more user-friendly for regular people and being absolutely clear about exactly what the user can control in the theme (without touching code). I’m sure there will be lots of new features although I’ll admit I’m a bit worried about WordPress trying to “streamline” the writing interface by doing things like hiding screen options. WordPress’ job is not, in my opinion, to make WordPress into a writing environment – I’d like to see the focus remain on the capabilities of the platform and enhancing those types of features.
