15.43

Presenter Kevin Cheng How do you get a point across within 10 seconds? #wcsf Comics are a unique way to communicate, using both image and text to effectively demonstrate time, function, and emotion.

15.48

Google launches Google Chrome. Why did they do this? #wcsf Marketed with a comic book if had white paper very few people would have read.

15.53

Using comics to make sure something gets read and why they work. #wcsf @k SeeWhatIMean.org

You can learn something inadvertently It catches a persons attention and it is a happy medium

Four points why comics work

• Communication
• Imagination
• Expression
• Emotion

16.04

@k #wcsf People who can’t read can understand comics. Comics use a language one inherently understand.

Imagination is another piece that comics are really good at. A lot of comics choose to be on the more abstract side. Show just enough to give the person the idea.

Pixar is one of the best at creating expression in simple ways with body language and eyes. A stick figure can show expression.

Motion the passage of time and movement. Move the stick man up and down. Empty space can have meaning in a comic. Repetition can show passage of time. Can be difficult to convey in copy and words.  Once you understand how motion and time works you can do amazing things with comcs.

16.17

Inspiration for comics – you are trying to tell a story and how do you choose to get the story across. This is the right tool to get this point across #wcsf

• bitstrips – create comics with templates
• designcomics.org
• Comic Life  plasq.com – people use this for blog posts

plugin called comicpress for wordpress

Infographics: ikea instructions, lego instructions

16.19

Comic Version vs. Traditional is to do A/B testing #wcsf Comics are putting the user back in the user experience.

13.58

How To Hire A Developer http://www.tonicarr.com/blog/how-to-hire-a-developer-wordcamp-sf/ (like me!!) #wcsf presentation by Andrew Riddles

14.45

Steve Zehngut #wcsf @zengy How to Hire and Manage Developers

14.46

@zengy leads the Orange County WordPress Meetup #wcsf

14.47

What went wrong dealing with web devs #wcsf.

• Money
• quality of code
• took to long
• communication
• cultural differences in other countries

14.52

Interview the Developer what questions to ask:

• what is your hourly rate,
• how will I be billed, maintenance,
• what is a typical project budget for your firm,
• where does my project rank,
• will it be delivered on time,
• what happens when something goes wrong,
• what is turn around time,
• bug reporting bug fixes,
• project management do you use,
• day to day contact,
• what version control system do you use.

I am more interested in how they answer the questions not what the answers are. How confident. Look for body language.

Ok to interview many developers. You are entering into a long term relationship

If they aren’t cutting it – find another developer.

14.53

“bad planning on your part doesn’t make it bad planning on mine” #wcsf

14.55

client can never over plan and you should not rush this project. #wcsf

Planning is about setting expectations. Developers expectations were different than the developer

SOW – Statement of Work – every project big of small should have this written. Doesn’t have to be big and should be signed.

14.56

Always have a SOW Statement of Work #wcsf take as much time as you need to prepare. Living document that changes. Scope creep.

14.58

Who owns the code in a project? Establish this up front. Protects both client and developer #wcsf

Client usually owns the code as long as the developer gets paid. Can the developer use the code again. Developer is learning things for future work. Client own iteration of the code.

15.01

Freelancer or small shop, client can put project management into place #wcsf

Project Management tools

• Assembla – assembla.com
• BaseCamp
• GoPlan

Centralizes communication on a project. Worse form of communication is email. Nothing gets lost with Project Management tools

15.02

Clients: Know that developers work strange hours. Developers are on weird schedules and respect their time. #wcsf

15.03

Communication, email is the worst. Use the phone, video chat. IM is a little better than email. #wcsf

15.05

Version Control, client should have access to this. Gives client a peace of mind that they are in control #wcsf

15.08

git – is good version control tools github.com beanstalkapp.com assembla.com Client can control #wcsf

15.11

Clients learn to use Bug Reports  supportdetails.com downforeveryoneorjustme.com. #wcsf Developer needs to train client. Good to prioritize bugs. Good project management system will have a ticket system

15.22

Q&A @zengy WordCamp #wcsf

• How do you know how to hire when you don’t know the skills: body language, level of confidence most important portfolio.
• How do you check the portfolio if not a coder: Is it working, is it functioning, is it working the right way. You should have a gut feel. Not getting quality results fire them and move on.
• What should we be paying a skilled developer hourly: there are websites with hourly wage. He did not give an exact amount.
• Can you explain best practice designer then coder: Project manager will say how to go about the project. First wireframe everything ui standpoint >> designer >> coder. But depends on project.
• Problems with assembla getting developers to keep it up to date and commit to amount of time to do a project:Difficult, moved things into buckets small, med., large. Developers put it into buckets.
• What is step one to find a developer: Go to meet ups. Attend meet ups. On line. Meet them at wordcamp

13.17

Otto and Nacin work for Audrey Capital #wcsf

13.18

Transients an option with an expire time. Temporary data that can expire at will #wcsf

13.18

Plugin Simple Facebook Connect #wcsf

13.19

Transients store this data until I update it otherwise. Object cache, WordPress uses the options table #wcsf

13.21

Object caching and transients work in the same way. #wcsf

13.22

Object caching is not ideal if you need both data persistence and code Portability #wcsf Then use transients

13.27

Multisite have both concepts network wide transients #wcsf
Global Cache Groups: are a way to use the cache api globally across all sites
Need to tell wordpress when not blog specific

All these things work well on Single-site which they keep pointing out throughout the presentation.

switch_to_blog()
don’t use this
or know what you are doing

13.47

Q & A @otto42 @nacin #wcsf
Can you have a global nav menu? Answer is yes – I can’t give you the details here I am not that techy.

Transients are more meant for data that takes a long time to generate-transients are stored in database
Object cache meant more for objects such as posts – stored in fast memory
If your on a server that has an external object cache then it doesn’t matter which one you use.

My take away from this, I need to learn more about cacheing.

What is your favorite WordPress function? #1 Get transient. #2 Media site load image, press this uses this

WordPress Core: How do you get it to work so well to work with all plugins? It is Voo Doo. It works on hooks. 3.0 they made a huge improvement. 3.2 they made it faster add action add filter

Twitter handles: @otto42 @nacin

What is the worst part of the WP codebase: Admin Menu’s – everyone is clapping. Internal admin menu stuff is a mess.

Absolute URL’s: this is the way to go. It is more portable to use absolute url. Your content isn’t always displayed on your website. They always work.

09.41

The next session is about web spam  #wcsf- A Brief History of Web Spam with Pete Davies

09.48

Name of presentation Vikings, Viagra and Versace – A Brief History of electronic spam #wcsf

Pete Davies works at Automaticc – Premium Services, to make available to self hosted

What is Automaticc – founded by Matt Mullenwig
To provide products and services around WordPress
WordPress.com
Akismet
VaultPress

90 employees all over the world

09.52

Spam – Akismet #wcsf  He is going to give us some history, what is, plus more

The first piece of electronic spam: 1864, it was in London: local electronic telegraph co. could send group telegraphs

09.56

Why did they call it SPAM? From Monty Python video clip 1970 #wcsf He is now showing the video from Monty Python “I don’t like spam” as  they sing the spam song This is where the Vikings come in shouting SPAM -

10.02

I won’t bore you will all the history of spam – 1994 First “commercial” spam #wcsf

2004 Bill Gates said it would all be solved.

Modern Internet Spam

• Direct Spam – post in comments and forums
• Parasite Spam – people use your hosting and trade pages on other peoples sites. They are in twitter profiles / forum profiles. Create accounts post events.

Comment threads and forum threads or hosting pages. Why do they do it?

“I wanted to create a nice internet biz. no one wanted to read it , so spamming blogs make money. SEO traffic and then pump the adds. Produce many sites, post another website.” Once it is automated it makes a lot of money.

10.10

How to mitigate spam. #wcsf

• Have an email address where people can report abuse. Abuse@……. . com
• Close posts if they are no longer being used
• Use a SPAM filter
  Make good SPAM reports, when errors come through they can be read
  As soon as they get a comment on your site they learn how your site works
• Don’t un-spam what goes into the Akismet filter because then they will learn now to get on your site and you are opening the door to your site
• Be vigilant and report SPAM
• Captcha they do work but “Death by Captcha” a commercial operation that will bust sites captcha

10.16

Q&A SPAM #wcsf

WordPress blogs attract spam – once you beat it (a spammer) then they get more mileage. Always sign up for Akismet and it catches all of them and be vigilant. Get a filter

Why people create SPAM: SEO reasons, and they make money. To see if they can do it.

Translator – getting a lot of comments from Russia. Doesn’t know if it is spam. There is a difference between trolling and spamming. Use a translator to make sure – use translate at google.com

Approve all comments: You should distinguish between trash and spam, it is training your spam filter.