November 14, 2019 — Join an animated discussion on the hot topic of WordPress security and automated updates among longtime WordPress contributors. The panel will review recent conversations in WordPress Core on this issue, and discuss points for and against!

May 15, 2019 — Gutenberg. It’s real, it’s happening, and it’s terrifying because you don’t know how you’re going to do everything you do today. What if I told you that for the majority of the simple tasks out there, no only will you still be able to do them, they’ll be even easier? Let me show you how with the magical, repeatable, Gutenberg block.

March 27, 2019 — Four key members of the WordPress community discuss what the future of WordPress holds – a panel discussion led by Ana Silva.

August 22, 2018 — Everyone tells you to use a cloud as a CDN. But … what if they’re wrong?
They tell us to use a CDN to host our large files, or our shared files, and that will be more performant. But in October 2017, I found out that remote loading SVGs not only wasn’t, it was downright DETrimental to my site speed. So here is the story of how remotely hosting SVGs caused a massive slowdown.

Presentation Slides »

August 22, 2018 — Everyone tells you to use a cloud as a CDN. But … what if they’re wrong?
They tell us to use a CDN to host our large files, or our shared files, and that will be more performant. But in October 2017, I found out that remote loading SVGs not only wasn’t, it was downright DETrimental to my site speed. So here is the story of how remotely hosting SVGs caused a massive slowdown.

Presentation Slides »

August 22, 2018 — Everyone tells you to use a cloud as a CDN. But … what if they’re wrong?
They tell us to use a CDN to host our large files, or our shared files, and that will be more performant. But in October 2017, I found out that remote loading SVGs not only wasn’t, it was downright DETrimental to my site speed. So here is the story of how remotely hosting SVGs caused a massive slowdown.

Presentation Slides »

December 10, 2017 — Using WordPress to queery (not a typo) data and generate statistics based on the entire history of television and understand the impact of fictional death in the media on real life people. As seen on https://lezwatchtv.com

Overview

This presentation will discuss the complications of using WordPress to manage a site filled with cross-related data, in order to understand the social and psychological impact of the Bury Your Gays trope on TV. By using WordPress, we were able to easily output the data, but building out a site without planning what data will be captured leads to headaches. There were difficulties in the growth of data, including handling multiple actors and shows, with separate roles, characters who changed names and genders, and the death and revival of another character (does she count as dead)? Through it all, we prioritized open data and open discovery of the data to allow people to take the content and use it for their own purposes.

Aspects

– The dead lesbian / bury your queers trope (see also: The Lexa Effect of 2016)
– Rest API for data promulgation and distribution
– Confirming theories with data
– How WordPress makes it ‘easier’ for people to find themselves reflected in media

December 6, 2017 — Suggested tag: Plugins

The part of your plugin that is hardest is the part that isn’t the code. Developing your first plugin for the WordPress directory means thinking beyond yourself and your own goals. In this workshop we’ll build a plugin together, a simple one, and work through the common pitfalls like function names, user permissions, and how much to sanitize.

August 9, 2017 — Have you ever wondered WHY you can’t do some things in plugins? Why we don’t let you use your own jQuery or call wp-load or offload images? I’ll tell you the real reasons why your plugins get flagged for fixes beyond the obvious like….

* Call my own jquery
* Call wp-load directly
* Offload images
* Put Google Analytics on the Backend of my plugin/theme
* Use FancyBox 2.x
* Name My Plugin X….

This talk will be CODE LITE, so if you’re working on your first plugin or want to get started, this can be for you!

August 7, 2017 — One of the things that makes WordPress as amazing as it is is the vast community of people who give so freely of their time and expertise to make it that way. And there are all kinds of ways, beyond being an ace coder, to make a contribution and become part of the ecosystem. Come listen to a panel of regular folks talk about the ways they are involved in supporting and growing the WordPress community and WordPress itself. If you’ve benefited from this generous community and are ready to pay it forward, this promises to be a fun, inspiring panel and will give you ideas on ways you can contribute, too.