word camp chicago 2010 developer 101

WordPress Developer 101

Lessons Learned By A Newbie

Chris RossCarina LLC

Stuff I’ll Discuss

• My Road to Here• Why WordPress?• What are the tools we depend on to make our

clients happy?• What am I learning?

Some Me Stuff

• Hacker (20+yrs)• Foodie• Poker Fiend• Family Man

My Road To Here•3yr old company (my full-time gig since 2009)

• Focus Areas (by billable hours):• IT Optimization & Consulting (50%)• Collaboration Solutions (30%)• Custom Application Development (20%)

•Geographically Dispersed Team• 3 US states• 2 continents• 4 time zones

Rock Star Coder

Corporate CTO

Technology Consultant

Corporate Dude

“Seasoned”Technology Consultant

Why WordPress?

• Completeness– Significant out of the box usability– Automattic & WordPress.com

• Low Cost High Value– Low barrier to entry for developers– Vast library of themes & plug-ins– Resources (forums, books)

• Community– Passionate, Committed & Knowledgeable

• Complimentary– Plays well with our other competencies (lead-in & pull-thru)– Brand recognition with our customers

Tools of the TradeWhat we use to do what we do

Design & Development

• Adobe Photoshop• Microsoft Visual

Studio• Microsoft Expression

Blend• Microsoft Expression

Design• iStockPhoto

Communication & Collaboration

• 37 Signals’ BaseCamp• Skype• Zoho Meeting /

Microsoft LiveMeeting

Secret Sauce

• DropBox• Camtasia/CamStudio• Pinnacle Studio• IPSwitch WS-FTP• JungleDisk+Amazon

S3• Windows LiveMesh /

Citrix GoToMyPC• Fresh Invoice• Microsoft BizSpark

1

Code Once (or twice). Comment Often.(You won’t be here forever, but your work might)

2

Read Before Your Write.(Ain’t no shame in picking up a book.)

3

Don’t Just Complain. Contribute.(code, ideas)

4

Freely Take. But Also, Freely Give.(criticism, credit, cash)

5

Don’t Do What You Suck At.(Recognize your strengths and weaknesses)

6

Know When To Be Available. And Expendable.(To your clients. To the community.)

7

Take Care of You.(Enjoy Life. Have Fun.)

http://ChristopherRoss.net

Thank You!