June 5, 2020 — We all want fast sites, but what is fast? What is performant? We may know it when we see; yet quantifying and communicating about web performance effectively is still a challenge.

In this talk, we discussed our ever-evolving set of standards for what comprises a fast site. With special attention to the problems that ads and analytics present for publishers, we also discussed how antiquated notions of web performance are a ripe environment for abuses by 3rd party code.

Finally, we reviewed techniques for improving performance monitoring as a tool for institutional change.

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November 14, 2019 — We all want fast sites, but what is fast? What is performant? We may know it when we see; yet quantifying and communicating about web performance effectively is still a challenge. In this talk, we will discuss our ever-evolving set of standards for what comprises a fast site, how to measure it, and what to do once we have the resulting data.

August 2, 2016 — You’ve decided to move your website to HTTPS. What now? In this session, you will learn how to manage the difficult aspects of an HTTPS migration using techniques that work for small to large sites. We will focus on practical, actionable tasks to ensure that your site is properly configured for a secure HTTPS delivery.

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May 1, 2016 — Google, Firefox, and the IETF are currently engaged in major initiatives to convert the web to be secure by default. Page ranking, new browser APIs, and HTTP/2 are all pushing websites to require HTTPS. An HTTPS only web is imminent. Unfortunately, according to SSL Pulse, 75% of the top 1 million websites that use HTTPS are not actually secure because of misconfiguration. Do you know how to configure HTTPS properly? In my talk, I will discuss the key aspects of HTTPS to empower developers to deploy truly secure HTTPS sites.

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December 23, 2015 — Google, Firefox, and the IETF are currently engaged in major initiatives to convert the web to be secure by default. Page ranking, new browser APIs, and HTTP/2 are all pushing websites to require HTTPS. An HTTPS only web is imminent. Unfortunately, according to SSL Pulse, 75% of the top 1 million websites that use HTTPS are not actually secure because of misconfiguration. Do you know how to configure HTTPS properly? In this talk, we will discuss the key aspects of HTTPS to empower developers to deploy truly secure HTTPS sites.

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December 9, 2015 — For many years, the stack that WordPress sites have been built on has remained rather stagnant. PHP hasn’t released a new major version since 2004. The HTTP/1.1 spec was first released in 1997. Browsers have continued to evolve, yet much of the JavaScript and CSS written fails to take advantage of these evolutions. This is all changing and at a very rapid pace. 2015 marks major updates to multiple underlying technologies for WordPress and the web in general. This talk will explore PHP7, HTTP/2, HTTPS, ECMAScript 2015, and CSS4. We will look at what you need to do to prepare your code and help you get excited about taking advantage of new technologies today. The web is moving forward, if you don’t move with it, you will be left behind.

July 29, 2015 — In my talk, I break down the important aspects of the new HTTP/2 protocol, how it differs from HTTP/1.1, and ways in which you can take advantage of the HTTP/2 performance improvements today. Whether you realize it or not, HTTP/2 will affect your life in the near future and I will help you understand what it all means.

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November 2, 2014 — Lightning Talks:
While site performance is an important topic in the WordPress community, how are we really doing at maintaining fast websites in the real world? This talk answers this question by examining a large sample of performance data from actual websites. It also suggests areas of improvement for the community in an effort to improve performance for WordPress deployments.

September 2, 2014 — We all know not to cowboy code our applications, yet it’s the Wild West when working on building and maintaining your servers. This talk discusses provisioning, deployment, and development setup for infrastructure. By working through a case study of rebuilding my company’s infrastructure, It demonstrates the advantages of building servers in a development environment. Using this workflow, you will be able to see how easy it is to build and maintain infrastructure through sane and logical development practices.

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August 18, 2014 — Understanding why your page is rendering slowly is the first step to improving your page load speed. The faster your pages load, the better the site will convert and the happier your clients will be!

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