How Does all this Open Source Stuff Work? An Intro to the

Wonderful WordPress Community

Jim Echter

www.tcturning.comjim@tcturning.comTwitter: @JimEchterYouTube: SpindleJim

My Journey from

Expensive Proprietary Software

To Using

Open Source WordPress

WordCamp Rochester 2019

Link to this presentation

https://tcturning.com/tips-articles-and-videos/

Have You Ever Used

Welcome to the world of

Open Source Origin

Open Source Initiative

My Journey From Lots of Zeros

•Early 1980s

•Cad/Cam Industry

•Average Seat Cost $250,000

• 4 to 6 Seats per System

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

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

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

Our real jobs – not web design

Woodturning

Quilting

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

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

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 think you should go to this….”

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?

My Journey Into WordPress Begins

•WordCamp Buffalo 2014

•Best $20 I Ever Spent

• 6 Great Presentations

• Food

•Swag

•Started Networking

•Passion Everywhere

• Interesting Community

Getting Started with WordPress

• Took a Class

• Books

• Rochester Meetup and

Facebook Group

• YouTube

• Google

• Learn, implement and

improve

The WP Basics – The WP Dashboard

The WP Basics – WooCommerce

Themes

• Your site’s appearance

• WordPress.org is the repository

• Free themes – 2015, 2016 and 2017

• Paid themes

• Elegant Themes, Theme Forest, iThemes,

StudioPress

My YouTube Teachers

www.tcspindles.comeCommerce siteMystile themeJosh Jackson, wpsculptor.com

www.tcquilting.comwww.tcturning.comGeneral siteVirtue themeKatrinah, katrinah.com

My YouTube Guru

Kori Ashton200+ YouTube WordPress videoshttps://askkori.com

https://webtegrity.com

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.

Language Barriers

• Terminology

•Basic page layout

•Menu bar

•Sidebar – Header & Footer

• Image Slider

• Image Gallery

• Forms

Media Files Take Work

•Media•Picture

•Video

•Sound

•Pdf

•Word docs

Where to get Information

•wp.org

•wordpress.tv

•Google

•YouTube

•Books

•Local Meetup Groups

•WordCamps

Hosting Your WordPress Site

• Register your domain name

• Self-hosting companies• bluehost

• SiteGround

• DreamHost

• GoDaddy

• Costs• WP is free

• Free tools

• Paid tools

E-Commerce

• Image editing takes the most time

• Get a photo booth

• 72 dpi

• 500 x 500 dpi

Keep a Journal

• Notes from meetings

• Tips

• Good Plug-ins

• Corporate standards

• Log-ins, vendors, renewal dates

• How you did something

Best Practices

•Child Themes

•Back-up, back-up, back-up

•Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall –firewall against hackers

•Akismet - spam eliminator

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?

Join the Community

• ROC WP – Facebook Group

• Co-working days

• Classes

• WordCamps

• Have fun

• Meet new people

The WordPress Ecosystem

• Wonderful community

• Meet-ups

• Word Camps• Vendors• Happiness Bar• After Party

• Twitter - #WCROC

• YouTube

• Google

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

In Summary

• It’s a Wonderful Community if you participate

• WordPress is affordable and works!

• In 2019, there are many Open Source solutionsthat can help you develop your web site

• Free is always in the budget!

• Open Source• It’s all about people!

Thank you for thePrivilege of Your Time!

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Please Note:

Link to this presentation

https://tcturning.com/tips-articles-and-videos/