I'll admit right up front that this diary is:
- an opportunity to procrastinate because the work sector of my brain is full and I need a break.
- I am planning to build a community site for advanced ESL folks in Japan, and so my eyes and ears are more open than usual to the word community.
- I just figured out that the CTO of Mashable is an AfricanAmerican guy who I've been listening to on a podcast for quite a while.
- An opportunity to share some resources I've found with Kossacks who are also interested in building online communities.
- A call to see if anyone else has been using WPMU multisite to build communities and how you've found the experience.
If any of these appeal to you, follow me below the fold.
So, Frederick Townes first: he's the CTO of one of the popular social media news sites, Mashable.
two points:
a. I knew his name from The WordPress Podcast, which I listen to sometimes. Frederick doesn't say much on the show, relatively speaking, as Joost, the other co-host, is pretty dominating. But, they do have interesting guests on, like Google's Matt Cutts. So I learn about plugins and tech politics and big-picture planning in the WP community.
b. I like it when I run into an AfricanAmerican at a prominent position in tech. For example, it was nice to see Tristan Walker, head of BizDev at Foursquare.
Why does it matter?
Well, when someone in one of my key communities does well, it's a confirmation. I feel as if it readjusts my personal view of what is possible. I'm doubly thrilled if the achievement is public enough that it may adjust others' view as well. It's not an 'I want to do that' feeling. It's more of a 'the possibility is there' feeling. Now, I know that smarts, connections, credentials, cash, and luck also have a lot to do with anyone's achievement in America. ditto taxes (and the society they pay for), social programs, privilege, and education. Nobody makes it solely 'on their own', despite the libertarian/conservative view.
But it does feel good.
Anyway, Frederick did a very interesting video on WordPress.tv, about: well, here's the description:
Understand the techniques that prevent your users from spending more time on your site or from getting a small boost in sales or rankings. Learn how performance is a building block for success with practical examples in this keynote presentation from WordCamp Denmark.
I'm watching the video in bits, and I'm already rewarded because Frederick introduced his plugin for optimizing your hosted WordPress site performance, and it has the most comprehensive .txt file I have ever seen: W3 Total Cache.
Next, the article that made me think about doing an online community post in the first place:
HOW TO: Manage a Sustainable Online Community
Of course, the folks who run communities for a living know this already. But as a 'regular person techie', it was heartening to see the Understanding the Community Life Cycle graph, as we Kossacks are clearly in the Mature & Mitosis stages. Plus, I feel justified in staying connected to Kos, even when the part of the community that I see most often seems to be beset by an advanced case of the struggling uglies.
Not only will 'this too' pass, but it's a natural occurrence, and we an afford to take a deep breath and extend some compassion towards each other as we go through another metamorphosis - the butterfly that emerges will be kickass, I am sure. Having said that - I'm so eager to see DKv4!
Finally - how about WordPress 3! I like it a lot - it seems very streamlined and simpler to understand. I'm finding, however, that building a community site with multisite functions, BuddyPress, etc, is much more complicated than I expected.
Not complaining, because I love this stuff. Just remarking.
I know Kos is powered by Scoop, but that's way too hard for me, at this point. Plus, as a perpetual learner, I love the WordPress community - it's a great resource. I hope I can get to the point where I can give back by creating a theme or two and offering it to the community.
Which brings me to a last thought: since I was getting kind of down and unhappy with DK, which is a key daily touchpoint for me, I figured I might feel better if I start contributing more. Hence I've written a few more diaries than usual, tried to comment more, etc. And it's working: when I come here, I not only read what I want and take action where I can, I feel like this is my home again.
And that makes all the difference.
oh, almost forgot a couple of good, low-cost online learning resources:
Poynter's News University: Very useful tutorials on writing and other journalistic subjects.
SitePoint Live online courses: I'm taking CSSLive & Javascript Live. By 'taking', I really mean I've downloaded them and will actually watch them as I have time ;-). Very good ways for newbies to learn.
thanks for hanging in as I think out loud. would love to hear your thoughts on any of the above.
and now I'll be even more self-indulgent and say sayonara with a picture: