Mindanao bloggers Archives

September 6 marked a milestone in blogging history in the Philippines as the first WordCamp in the entire Southeast Asia was hosted by none other than the Philippines (specifically Davao and Manila).

With most of my blogs on the WordPress platform AND with Mr. WordPress himself, Matt Mullenweg coming to the event, there was NO WAY I was going to miss this event! Even the ADMU-DLSU UAAP games took second place (even if only for a few hours!

Mica rode along with me to the venue site, the College of St. Benilde. We exchanged our campers passes for real badges (complete with barcode scanning!). I was excited to meet Ria and Blogie again and met Gwen for the first time (although we had been Plurk buddies already for some time).

Wordcamp 2008 registration — Registration table complete with barcode scanners to record attendance

We opened with a plenary session that had the head of CSB and Blogie welcoming all the campers.While all this was going on, I spotted Matt sitting a few rows behind me and took this shot of Mr. WordPress —

and here —

The morning sessions were breakaway ones, depending on whether you were on the user or developer track. Obviously, I chose the user track.

My first session was Blogging 102 with Jayvee.

Several of us almost did not make it to Jayvee’s talk because we were told to go to Rm. 409. There we were, sitting in this room for over 10 minutes when Shari came dashing into the room to tell us we were in the wrong room! Apparently, there was ANOTHER Rm. 409 in another wing of the building! Yikes…we all half walked, half ran to the right room and thankfully still caught a great part of Jayvee’s talk which was so well prepared and so educational.

My 2nd session was with Ely Apao who spoke on Organizing and Optimizing Your WordPress Blog. A lot of what he spoke about affected those who were on WordPress.org so I could not relate to all of them but I did take down some notes and took pictures of some of his presentation and am filing it away somewhere for future reference.

The 3rd session for the morning was one of the most hilarious but very informative sessions — Video Blogging by Kring Elenzano.

Kring produces videos and took us through the pros and cons of video blogging (vlogging), how to make a vlog “kick-ass” as she called it. Her presentation was done in a very humorous way (combined of course with spiels from Kring that can only come from….Kring — including a not-to-be-named comment that got us laughing because she did not realize she was being live-streamed. But I did take pics of every slide she put up because they were filled with great tips (including where lights should be positioned so the subject comes out as well as how to reduce noise and amplify the subject’s voice). I absolutely did not regret going to this particular session!!

After a Chowking lunch, I made my way back to the auditorium for the afternoon plenary sessions.

Matt was first in line, regaling us first with interesting stats on the use of WordPress in the Philippines. (Trivia: Did you know that the Philippines ranked #24 worldwide in terms of WordPress users?)

He also talked about the future of WordPress including a live demo of WP version 2.7 which is coming out in November. WOW! We were all eyes and ears!

Aileen (aka Ms. Google Philippines) took us next through Google Analytics (very interesting things you can find about your blog, where visitors come from, what converts more visitors to your site, etc). I think I will spend the next few weeks learning more about this one!

A few more sessions followed after this. Matt later came back on for a Q&A portion (a much awaited opportunity for the campers to ask questions of THE MAN OF THE HOUR). Unfortunately, I could not stay long as the car was already coming for me. I missed the photo op with Matt but came away with a WP bag filled with goodies from the sponsors. And had a chance to get Ria (one of the Mindanao bloggers) to myself for this —

Thanks to the Mindanao bloggers who spearheaded this event. You managed to pull this thing off with aplomb! Looking forward to our next WordCamp Philippines!!!

Here’s some link love to people who blogged about WordCamp (I “stole” an initial list from AJ who likewise got it from Jehzlau) and added as I came across other posts:

The Old Media Coverage:
1. WordPress developer previews new version in RP by Inquirer.net
2. WordPress enthusiasts meet for WordCamp by GMANews.tv
3. WordPress Developer lauds RP blogging community by Alexander Villafania
4. WordPress Creator on the future of RP Blogging Community by Inquirer.net

Some WordCamp Photos from WordCampers:
1. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Jehzeel Laurente
2. WordCamp 2008 Photos by Jayvee Fernandez
3. First WordCamp in Southeast Asia by Hannah Rika Villasis
4. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Tess Termulo
5. WordCamp Philippines by Ada Lajara
6. WordCamp 2008 by Regnard Raquedan
7. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by AJ Matela
8. WordCamp at Benilde by Normz
9. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Micaela Rodriguez
10. WordPress Philippines 2008 by Shari
11. WordCamp Philippines by Sofimi
12. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Andrew Dela Serna
13. WordCamp Candy by Flair Candy

I have been blogging on WordPress for over a year now. It was at iBlog3 summit last year when I met fellow bloggers who spoke about its impressive platform and stats. While I consider myself an intermediate blogger, there are still aspects of WordPress that stump me and challenge me to learn more and more.

So it was a delight to find out soon after iBlog4 summit last April that the Mindanao bloggers who I met at the summit were going to organize the first WordPress WordCamp right here in Manila. Wow, what better way is there to pursue my desire to learn how to blog better on the WordPress platform than attend a camp precisely for it!!!

The WordCamp will be on September 6, 2008 (Sat.) at the College of St. Benilde on Taft Avenue, Manila.

For those of you already using WordPress or just thinking of it, here are some details:

– The camp is free of charge. However, in lieu of the fee, you will need to do a blog post containing certain information as outlined in their instructions after you register.

– The organizers will need to verify your blog post. Once you are confirmed, you will get a confirmation email which will serve as your ticket to the event.

– As of this posting, the organizers plan that the camp will have the following components:

Deployment (Usage) Track
Development Track
Panel Discussions
WP Install-Fest
After Party!

To register, click HERE.

This event would not be possible without the help of sponsors. These are:

Of course, thanks also go to DLSU-CSB for hosting the event.

Hope to see you there!

Tag: Mindanao bloggers

Experiencing WordCamp Philippines 2008

1st WordCamp Philippines 2008 (Sept. 6, 2008)