EyeSee

Open Source is another buzz word that has become a part of our daily vocabulary.? When I think of open source I think of software development where the tools are free.? This has lead to a lot of really great innovation as companies can now build products faster and cheaper.
The world today is all about sharing and the traditional model of making money by charging for the information has changed.

Open source has now gone beyond personal photos and videos.? Open Source Learning is the new way to learn all you need is an internet connection and a computer.

In the past to get access to any university course material you had to sign up or audit the class for a fee.? If you could not physically be present then there was no way to get the information beyond buying the expensive text book.? Today forward thinking institutions are putting their lecture notes, exams and videos for free online!!!!

MIT Open Courseware is one such institution.? Wow, in the past only the elite could get access to this information but now anyone who is willing to be self taught now has access.? This is pretty powerful.
Moodle is a course management system that is absoloutely free!!!? They are building an olnine learning community.? It runs off one computer and is scalable to an institution with 200,000 students.? It’s available in over 75 languages.

With the sharing of information happening for free so to speak, information is no longer power as anyone can have access to it.

Last night the much anticipated snow finally arrived.? The great big fluffy flakes came down with big gusts of wind.

I was just settling down to my session on the comuter.? The usual read blogs, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter or just catchup on what’s going on out there.

None of this happened as with the big wind came the power outage.? I thought nothing of it until I tried my computer, phone, dvd player ….

• computer battery died
• no internet connection
• no phone
• no movies on portable dvd player, battery died
• no power at the gym
• no power at the coffee shop
• saving cell for emergencies

What was I supposed to do?? It’s was too early to go to bed?

This is when I realized that my life revolves around technology that all depends on power from the outlet or batteries.? A lot of my spare time is spent using such technologies.

This was the time to get back to basics

• had a snowball fight
• built a mini snowman
• read a book by candle light

What would you do if you had no power?

Thanks to Jamie I now know where to find the API key.? So here’s the scoop.

If your Blog is hosted off your personal or company website …

Create an account in wordpress.com not org.? Use the account option on the Blog.

You will receive an activation email

Login into wordpress.com

Look for My Account

Edit profile

Voila, here is the API key

Back in the admin panel of your Blog (the one hosted on your site)

Plugins activate akismet

Akismet configuration

Add your key here to the box

update key

Bye, bye spam.

I have had a number of people point out to me that my wordpress “previous” link does not work nor the archive feature.? So if you have this problem, here is the solution…..

Add the following to the .htaccess file

# BEGIN WordPress

I had an amazing conversation with Brandan Sera-Shriar during lunch here at WordCamp Toronto.? He is involved in a lot of very interesting projects and is also a teacher at a College!!!

Building plug-ins in Wordpress is very easy and does not need a lot of programming knowledge. A great way to get started is to take a plug-in and copy and paste the code and develop a new one.

There is a limit to what a plug-in can do and will want to customize it to whatever you want.? Look is just as important as functionality in a successful plug-in.

HTML/CSS, PHP and MySQL skills are great to have

Check out the source of the plug-ins and make small changes.? See what the effect is.? If the plug-in is from a good source then it will be well documented.? This is the best way to learn.? Do this on your local host so that you don’t crash your site.

Design a basic template that you can use overall when designing multiple plug-ins.

He does not release his plug-ins to the community however if you do want them he will make it available to you

Plug-in 101

• Create a folder in the /wp-content/plugins/pluginname/
• Give the plug-in a name.
• Describe, authors.? This is standard stuff.
• Comments section
• Add code for option menu
• Setup the Options Page
• Register the activation and deactivation hooks
• Function
• Save as a php file

Side bar info…

Breadcrumb

Can have one database for multiple sites with different look and feel.

Wordpress plug-in competition is coming up for 2009.

Here’s what people were doing during the break.

More discussions

Sacha posing

Plug-in side discussion

Just playing around

Mathiew

Rannie and I in a shoot off

The afternoon at WordCamp Toronto, started off with Mark McKay talking about video blogging.

He showed us some examples of videos on You Tube.? Happy Hour is his own show.? Dear Toronto has their own style of videos.

He will be on MTV on Thursday at 6pm with his view on the election.

How to make a better video blog?

• Think before you speak
• Plan out what you want to do or say
• Video about 2 minutes
• Compress video before uploading

Saw the 61second video posted on Michael Geist, Boing boing

Learnt about video microblogging, 12 seconds

Lot’s of software out there and use whatever you have available to you.? Vegas, Premier and Avid.

Take note of the lighting in the room

Video sharing great on Wordpress, Delicious, Facebook, MySpace, Mdialogu, TubeMogul,
Talked about Viral Videos by entering contests. Have no plans to make money of the videos and just wanted to get noticed.

Mark has a green screen in his basement and now paints a wall green where he lives.? Today it takes the form of a green fabric and has good lighting.? DVgarage is a great plugin.

Convergence of a video blog and TV station.? Each video blog is a show.? Try to keep it to all one idea.? Video blog is the internets version of a TV show.
Give it away and let people watch it.

No cheeseburgers

Gotta have the ketchup

Yummie, dessert

Here are some more pictures from WordCamp Toronto.

Hole in chair

Thirsty again

Accessories

more accessories

Tweeting

Let’s trade moo cards

David Peralty was the second presenter at WordCamp Toronto and he went into details about Running your Blog like a pro.

Here are some great tips.
Create quality content constantly and consistently

• post every day
• research your topic
• prove your passion or expertise, research goes a long way

Stop copying- be unique

• when a big news story happens, come up wth a unique angle
• Stop following the crowd
• Generic posts and comments are worthless

What stories Wow you?

• proof of expertise
• interview of interesting people
• breaking news
• dissection of something cool?

Promote your content

• network with others
• stumbleupon, mixx, reddit, digg, delicious, magnolia and more
• comment on other blogs

Getting more comments

• ask questions
• leave an open ending
• be controversial
• respond to comments!

People are too lazy

• make commenting easy
• no captchas
• no interim pages
• low number of required fields
• thank peope for commenting

Getting links takes time

• create compelling content
• link bait
• guest post
• create services
• try other media (video and/or audio)

Link Bait isn’t a bad thing

• make it long
• make it detailed
• make it easy to digest
• make it funny
• make it useful
• make it hard to replicate

Increasing revenue is easy

• try other ad systems
• test other ad placements
• direct ad sales

Don’t be afraid of ads

• you deserve to monetize
• you are creating quality content
• you are providing a valuable service
• you are working hard

Direct Ad sale tips

• who is advertising on your competition?
• who would you like to have advertise?
• ask everyone! ther worst they can say is “NO”

Secondary Benefits

• book deals
• job offers
• speaking opportunities
• hi everyone

Make everything totally dummy proof

• can I contact you?
• can I easily advertise with you?
• can I easily promote your content?

Find the limiting factor

• Do you need more links?
• Do you need more advertising?
• Do you need more content?
• Do you need SEO?
• Do you need more contacts?