Okay, I have made up my mind.

I once again signed up to volunteer at WordCamp. It is likely that Melanie will join me as a volunteer again this year. I’m so thankful that she was there with me last year because I wasn’t about to go meet people on my own. I am hoping that there will be more take-away this year than the last.

Since it’s a few months away, the schedule isn’t set yet. There is already a list of some of the speakers up. Should be something to keep an eye on. Are you going to be there?

I’m really digging the latest version of WordPress. I didn’t really look into it much until I discovered that I could edit my posts with a click of a button. Super convenient and easy. No more manual upgrades, they say. Plus, a customizable Dashboard to make throwing posts out there a breeze. If you’re not already on that train, jump on it.

Anyway, there’s a whole video on the new features.

After the shenanigans of WordCamp 2008, will I be attending in 2009? Who knows?

They’ve announced that WordCamp SF 2009 will be on Saturday, May 30, 2009. So I have several months to decide if I want to register/volunteer/whatever.

Maybe this year, I’ll actually talk to people?

I was not meant to attend these types of events.

In fact, within the first hour of listening to one of the presenters, I made a fool of my friend and myself. We waved at someone’s web cam and distracted the presenter. :/ My bad. A lot of the topics were over the head of the personal blogger that I am, so I spent way too much time finishing up on work and giggling to myself about all the folks in front of me with their screens on Twitter [self included]. I won’t say that there weren’t ANY relevant presentations because there WERE. Here was the USER track:

* The Future of Education and WordPress
* SEO Mistakes Most Bloggers Make – Stephan Spencer
* Open Source Business Models – Stephen O’Grady
* LOLcats and the Secret of Virality – Ben Huh
* WordPress & Microformats – Tantek Celik
* Switching to WordPress Painlessly – Lloyd Budd
* 450 WordPress Power User Tips – Lorelle VanFossen
* Hassle-free Upgrades – Sam Bauers
* State of the Word – Matt Mullenweg
* Get Friendly with BuddyPress – Andy Peatling
* Democratizing the Web through Global Voices – Jeremy Clarke
* An interview with Om Malik
* Riding the Crazyhorse – Liz Danzico and Jane Wells
* Kicking Ass and Creating Passionate Users – Kathy Sierra

Honestly though, I’ve always been rather quiet and shy. I was only comfortable being there as a volunteer and then later hanging out with a good friend. If I had attended alone, I might’ve been up in a corner, wondering what I was doing there. I’m totally self-conscious. It sucks. It won’t change.

There were a few takeaways from WordCamp:

* Apture – a linking platform for the web. You’ll see it in action above with the links to Wikipedia and various Powerpoint presentations. It doesn’t work in my LJ feed or Sage or Google Reader! It’s useful for throwing in a little bubble of information about the topic without actually changing the post. For all other links that require a little clicking, I’m sticking to the old-fashioned way because I haven’t figured out if I can get the links to open as a new window/tab, essentially mirroring the effect of “target=’_blank’” – anyone?

* Absolute Comments – a comment manager plug-in for Wordpress that you can use to respond to comments directly from the Dashboard. Hello, USEFUL! I got pretty stoked learning about this one, even though I’m sure many already know about it… If only I could get Akismet to stop picking my comments up as spam! Hahaha.

I may attend again next year. We shall see. I’ve always been interested in this stuff, so maybe if I’m a bit more involved, it’ll make a little more sense. Maybe not.

Edit: I’ve found out that when one clicks on the little Apture pop-up bubble, you can get a new tab or window if you click on the TOP of the bubble. Hooray!

It’s no longer six degrees of separation, at least not in a metropolitan area. Somebody you know knows someone that maybe someone I know knows… JM mentioned at lunch today that we’re probably separated by just one person. Considering that I met him just a month ago, I’d be surprised, but it’s not that unlikely. Even with so many people in San Francisco, given our age range and our social and work circles, it could be very likely. The number of social networking websites out there has grown significantly, and there are more popping out of nowhere. It’s become much easier to track just how connected one really is. So crazy!

I’m actually wondering how many WordCamp attendees I will know or will be separated from me by just one or two friends. I’m sure that it will differ upon the link one has with Wordpress, whether user or developer. There’s a list up, but I don’t really know who any of the speakers are…

Aside from the shyness factor, the fact that my mouth really hurts and probably will hurt even more so tomorrow will cause me to be ridiculously quiet tomorrow. Just call me a “wallflower.” The orthodontist appointment today left me with four spacers. I hate spacers!

WordCamp 2008 is coming to San Francisco on August 16th! I’ve used other platforms for blogging, and I can definitely say that this one is my favorite. If you’re in the area, please come.

Registration is open!

If you can’t make it out here, there will also be WordCamps in other cities:
- Capetown, South Africa
- Manila, Philippines
- Beijing, China
- Portland, Oregon
- Salt Lake City, Utah
- Birmingham, Alabama
- NYC, NY
- Toronto, Canada
- Honolulu, Hawaii
- Sydney, Australia
- Washington, DC

Check WordCamp Central for details!

PS – I’m going to volunteer at the event, passing out t-shirts in the morning. Say “hi” or something!

Last night, I attended WordPress’ 5th Birthday Party. Of course, I was as socially awkward as ever. How awkward? So much so that part of my conversation with someone I’d just met was regarding that very fact. Ugh, lame, right?! Thankfully, I wasn’t there alone. There were some familiar faces, just a few people who know that when I’m in my own element, I’m not all that bad.

So two new websites to check out: Reschool Yourself and AirBed and Breakfast.

Reschool Yourself: Melia of Spark [the non-profit organization, not the networking site] is taking a one-year sabbatical to revisit her schools [from elementary school onward] to understand how her experiences in school shaped her identity so that she can reshape her way of thinking and doing. She will also learn the things she’s always wanted to learn. It reminds me of the 101 in 1001 Project, only in a fewer number of days and with a more precise focus. I stopped tackling that project a few years ago, but perhaps it’s time to hop on that wagon again.

AirBed and Breakfast: Essentially, it’s a site to find a place to stay or to offer a room. Hosts and travelers put up profiles. Similar to the idea of Couchsurfing [perhaps one notch above it], it’s about staying with a local while traveling, rather than in a hotel. What differs is that money is involved. Hosts decide how much to charge, and travelers pick a room based on the hosts’ profiles, the description of accommodations, and the price. I’d probably use the site if/when I travel next. Finding a host on Couchsurfing can be tedious, and this just sounds a little bit more reliable.

My world seems to be shrinking. Everyone knows everyone else. As it turns out, Melia is a co-worker of a gal I’m acquainted with, and one of the founders of AirBed and Breakfast appears to be a friend of someone else I’ve met in the past year.

That’s pretty fantastic.

Photo taken on the rooftop where we played beer pong.