The higher-education version of WordCamp is coming to a city near you! I am organizing one that will take place on February 2, 2009 at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA. This is being hosted under the Nercomp SIG format, and is a one day event. The official website and on-line registration will be ready soon. The complete program description follows below. Our day starts with a talk by Matt Mullenweg himself, and continues on with a great group of speakers and presentations.
I have also been in touch with Dave Lester from the Center for History and New Media, George Mason University. In addition to being a speaker at our event he is organizing a WordCamp ED: DC edition that will take place at George Mason University, Fairfax, VA on November 22. More details will be forthcoming — the site web site is at dc2008.wordcamped.org/.
Come to both! Hope to see you in Worcester!
WordCamp ED: NorthEast
February 2, 2009
The College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA
WordPress, an open source web publishing platform, is a frequently used tool for content creation and distribution on college campuses. The software has proven to be useful for meeting the needs of a wide range of campus challenges. Uses include blogging sites for faculty and students (blogs.wesleyan.edu/), web site content management (conted.colorado.edu/), manuscript peer-review (mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/commentpress/), and course instructional support (brst440.commons.yale.edu/). The software has spawned a vibrant and active user community that offers a wealth of resources to learn about the program and extend its capabilities.
This event follows the popular WordCamp format, with a day of workshops and presentations focused on the use of WordPress to meet a range of content management and application delivery needs on campus. Attendees will:
Attendees will also work with each other to discuss common user needs and apply the day’s material towards developing solutions that utilize WordPress to meet those needs.
Event Schedule
Introductions and Keynote address – The State of WordPress
Speaker: Matt Mullenweg, founding developer of WordPress, and founder of Automattic, the business behind WordPress.com and Akismet.
A look at the current state of WordPress, the WordPress community and future directions for the project.
Planning a WordPress implementation
In this interactive exercise small groups will be assigned a program need and work through a series of planning steps with the goal of developing a sample implementation plan by the end of the day. Through this activity individuals will have a chance to trade ideas with colleagues and apply topics from the day’s presentations to a real world problem.
Supporting Learning Initiatives with WordPress
Presenters: Ken Panko, Manager, Instructional Technology Group, Yale University; Yianni Yessios, Manager of Web Technologies, Instructional Technology Group, Yale University
WordPress can be used to implement Web 2.0 learning initiatives without the need for a team of programmers. Examples of how WordPress is being used to deliver student-created podcasts, video and images will be demonstrated. Administrative concerns such as privacy, tracking post edits and theme customization will also be addressed.
University Branding for MU: Variations on a Theme
Presenters: Patricia Leone, World Wide Web Administrator, Information Technology Services, Wesleyan University; Kevin Wiliarty, Academic Computing Manager, Social Sciences, Wesleyan University
How to take advantage of the MU administration in order to provide both continuity and flexibility from site to site. In some ways, continuity is the easy part. Our own efforts have mainly been about creating flexibility. We’ll talk about developing our own” theme with variations,” a three-tiered system of cascading style sheets, and a method for operating over different sub-domains.
Noon – 1pm Lunch and group work on planning project
Securing WordPress
Presenter: To be announced
What is comment spam? How do WordPress updates work? Which plug-ins and themes are safe? How do I keep hackers off my site? Most college sites are prime targets for hackers and spammers, with their trusted domain names and fast internet connections. This sessions reviews strategies for a safe, hacker resistant WordPress implementation.
Extending WordPress
Presenters: Casey Bisson, Information Architect at Plymouth State University; Dave Lester, Digital History Associate at Center for History and New Media, George Mason University; Robert Stein, Director, The Institute for the Future of the Book.
WordPress is not just a content management and blog system, but can also serve as a flexible development and application delivery environment. In this talk the developers of Scriblio (about.scriblio.net/), CommentPress (www.futureofthebook.org/commentpress/ ) and ScholarPress (scholarpress.net/ ) will discuss how they utilize WordPress as the basis for their applications.
Planning a WordPress implementation: wrap-up
Start review/discussion of group results from the planning work through the day. The days presenters will be available to offer ideas and suggestions. Groups will have the opportunity to post results to the workshop blog for continued discussion and feedback.
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RodeWorks » WordCamp Ed DC edition on Oct 13 08 at 9:11 am[...] am planning the February 2 event. The official web site and registration will be ready [...]
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Randall Rode's online home for thoughts, notes, and experiments with a wide range of technology topics. Visit the about page for info on my recent projects and professional background. I welcome your comments!
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