Quick notes on Simon Dickson‘s presentation at WordCampUK:
- Make big change happen in a small way
- Didn’t intend to be a WP fanboy, but it just turned out to be the best way of doing things
- Need for a WP ecosystem – WP now mature enough to require/support a real community
- PHP geeks not enough – need to understand the simplicity of the platform
- Simon not a developer, or designer. Can get by, but could do with some help!
- Three threats: procurement teams, IT people and
- Big web projects cost far too much – hundreds of thousands, millions even. Not just the systems, but the project management etc
- Free platforms has benefits, including longevity and ongoing support
- Simon started using typepad mainly, as seemed easier. No need for IT depts to know about what people were doing. WP.com takes that to a new level.
- Typepad has limitations – too blog focused. Need WP’s flexibility especially that which you get from self-hosted
- Up to 30% of WP.com blogs now are custom domained / CSS etc
- Appeals of WP – zero cost (can send the wrong message), skills base (lots of local talent to draw on)
- Designed for use by the individual – no need for support, it’s so easy to use. Upgrade cycle the only glitch
- Focus on content – it’s NOT about the tech – also don’t have to wade through metadata fields before writing content. Make it like writing something in Word (sad but true)
- Power of RSS – category based, tag based, integrated wordpress mini sites into the big ugly corporate CMS. Use SimplePie and Google API
- Do you mention the word ‘blog’ in relation to WP? Initially no, but maybe mention it early then move on. Blog not as dirty a word as it was. Ingrained in culture. BBC news journalists are known by their blogs as much as anything
- ourNHS site – built 3 times in 12 months, but so what? Quick, easy and cheap. Lord Darzi’s blog – discussion at time about referring to it as that
- Incredible power in themes
- “can WordPress do X?” YES! It’s just HTML and PHP folks.
- Automate as much as possible through the WP loop
- With WP sites, build it then walk. Very very few support requests
- WordPress in Welsh with the Wales Office site
- New number 10 website is running on wordpress. Round of applause for Simon
- Number 10 – what they do is news. News is blogs. Hence, blogging the right medium.
- Blogging and political journalism are merging
- When dealing with big orgs, form a precedent quickly. No. 10 started using youtube first in uk gov, now everyone is at it!
- No. 10 Twitter feed – c3,500 followers – people wanting to be a part of the conversation re: uk gov. Amazing!
- No, 10 uses Brightcove for video hosting etc
- Key message: acceptance of lightweight, social tools
- Security testing of No. 10 – heavyweight testing going on. Will be fed back to Automattic
- Micro sites, sites within sites…Can be thrown together fast, run as long as you need them, then close
- Theme switching – WP allows one-click change of template. Have some themes developed for certain incidents, can turn on when needed
- WordPress as crisis site when required. Have sitting in the background til when needed.
- What’s needed in WordPress to get into enterprise environment: page ordering (need rag and drop built in), slicker workflow (better pending/drafts handling), new long term support version (like ubuntu, don’t call it legacy branch!) ie better upgrades, the ecosystem/community (we need people that understand WP available and on call!)
- Developers – need to understand content and designers need to understand the WP machinery
- WP generalists?