Smug declarations aside, I’m pretty happy with today’s programs. Hands down, it was one of the BEST blog events of 2008. WordPress is something all the participants were passionate about, and you can really see how much bloggers are interested in learning more about this powerful blogging platform. There was an eclectic mix of participants – newbies, probloggers, personal bloggers, developers, designers. All the breakaway sessions were well attended (because they’re all interesting), and the afternoon’s plenary session was especially interesting because it was when Matt Mullenweg delivered his State of the Word address and had a short Q&A session with the campers. I think Matt was amused at how we love to take photos and took plenty of shots of campers taking a picture of him.
Matt and his fans
Then there was the serious business of camwhoring after the program XD We all posed for a class picture with Matt, then the Wordcamp organizers and volunteers had their photos taken with the huge backdrop. Then comes the jumpshots. Matt was so amused by all of it, that he had to join the other photographers in taking photos and joining the organizers eventually. Almost everybody wanted a photo with Matt, and he willingly obliged to each request, even chatting up the groups who came up to him for a photo.
I guess that’s one of the reasons why this was such a fun event: Matt was so easy going and friendly. Despite his popularity and status, he remains down to earth. It really was such an honor to meet a person like Matt Mullenweg.
Wordcamp Philippines Organizers and Volunteers
Of course, a big part of why this event was one of the best ever are the organizers. I have to hand it to the Mindanao Bloggers; they really worked hard for Wordcamp Philippines, and it paid off. I was watching them work while I was waiting (because I arrived way too early), and I saw every volunteer doing their assigned tasks, and all the leaders working with them, instead of just ordering people around. That, my friends, is the recipe for a great event 
Looking forward to Wordcamp Philippines 2009!
List of Wordcamp posts ganked from Jezhlau:
The New Media Coverage:
0. The Best and Most Memorable Blogger Event in the Phils by Jehzeel Laurente
1. I Got Wordcamped! by Tess Termulo
2. The First WordCamp in Southeast Asia by Adrian Jeric Peña
3. My WordCamp Experience by Master Betong
4. WordCamp Philippines by Hannah Rika Villasis
5. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Nina Fuentes
6. Matt at WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Binary Silver
7. Matt Mullenweg Highlights from WordCamp Phils by The Bachelor Girl
8. WordCamp Philippines Report by Fear the Spork
9. WordCamp Philippines Shirt Please by Evenly Piece
10. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Alrenz Cabasa
11. WordCamp Philippines 2008: A Success!WordCamp Phils, 1st Southeast Asia WordCamp by Ana Katharina Pena
13. WordCamp Philippines 2008 Aftermath by Zero Blade
14. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Mae Paulino
15. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Green Bucks
16. Matt Mullenweg by Charmed Mom
17. WordCamp PH 2008 and Afterparty by Carlo Reid
18. WordCamp Philippines After-Party by The WordCamp Philippines Blog
19. WordCamp Philippines 08 by Project 365 Days
20. WordCamp 2008 Philippines by Karla Redor
21. Live Blogging from WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Spilled Lustre
22. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Aja Lapus
23. Experiencing WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Here’s to Life!
24. WordCamp Manila Blow-by-blow by Jonel Uy
25. Just got home from WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Jayvee Fernandez
26. Bloggers’ Event: WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Ada Lajara
27. WordCamp Philippines 2008 Winners and Bloopers by Funny Sexy
28. WordCamping 2008 by Billycoy
29. Ernie Meets Matt Mullenweg by AJ Matela
30. Matt Mullenweg, Volunteers, and WordCamp Phils by Misteryosa
31. The WordCamp in Philippines by Mark Aethen Agana
32. Matt Mullenweg by Animo Hosting
33. WordCamp Manila 2008, I was there! by Sha Ang
34. On WordCamp 2008 and Meeting Mr. WordPress by Diventare.org
35. My WordCamp Philippines 2008 Experience by Regnard Raquedan
36. WordCamp Philippines Status Report by AWB Holdings
37. Live from De La Salle CSB, Marocharim is at WordCamp! by Marocharim
38. For the Love of WordPress by Kristina Ana Matanguihan
39. WordCamp Pilipinas Success by Ikabon
40. WordCamp 2008: For Healthy and Wealthy Blogging by Hitokiri Hoshi
41. WordCamp 2008 Philippines Success by Arvin’s Thoughts
42. WordCamp, Meeting Matt Mullenweg by Miss Wicked
43. Meeting Matt at WordCamp 2008 by Urriza.net
44. Finally, WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Estan
45. Toothache Vs. WordCamp Philippines by George Putong
46. Notes and Photos, WordCamp Philippines a Success by Tonyo Cruz
47. Some WordCamp Philippines Afterthoughts by Undercover
48. Live Blogging in WordCamp by Pageman
49. My WordCamp Experience by Junele Malaga Caravana
50. WordCamp Philippines A Success! by WordPress Philippines
51. Bakla Goes to WordCamp Philippines by Bakla Ako
52. My WordCamp 2008 Experience by Micaela Rodriiguez
53. WordCamp 2008 Philippines: It’s a success! by Joyceish
54. My WordCamp 2008 Experience by Fitz Villafuerte
55. A Personal Evaluation of WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Danny Arao
56. An Event Which I Failed To Attend by Dexter Panganiban
57. The WordPress WordCamp Fever by Pinoy Web Listing
58. WordCamp Philippines by Batang Yagit
59. Philippine WordCampers 2008 by Sabrina Lajara
60. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Roanna Roro
61. On Meeting with Mr. WordPress, Web Standards and Other Stuff by Shari
62. WordCamp Philippines 2008 Highlights by Sophia Lucero
63. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Mong Palatino
64. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Rowjielogy
65. I was WordCamped by The Industrious Time-Waster
66. HURAH! for WordCamp Philippines by Migs Hipolito
67. WordCamp is on today at De La Salle – CSB by AIM CSB
68. WordCamp Philippines 2008 Updates by Teacher Julie
69. My WordCamp Philippines 2008 Experience by Icezorg
70. I was at WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Gail Villanueva
71. WordCamp Philippines 2008 Ramblings by Sarah Cada
72. Weekend Snapshots #6 WordCamp Philippines by Joni Ang
The Old Media Coverage:
1. WordPress developer previews new version in RP by Inquirer.net
2. WordPress enthusiasts meet for WordCamp by GMANews.tv
3. WordPress Developer lauds RP blogging community by Alexander Villafania
Some WordCamp Photos from WordCampers:
0. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Jehzeel Laurente
1. WordCamp 2008 Photos by Jayvee Fernandez
2. First WordCamp in Southeast Asia by Hannah Rika Villasis
3. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Tess Termulo
4. WordCamp Philippines by Ada Lajara
5. WordCamp 2008 by Regnard Raquedan
6. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by AJ Matela
7. WordCamp at Benilde by Normz
8. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Micaela Rodriguez
9. WordPress Philippines 2008 by Shari
10. WordCamp Philippines by Sofimi
11. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Andrew Dela Serna
Matt is winding down the session with the Q&A session. Battery’s running out so this is probably my last update (and I’m getting lazy). Watch out for the proper WordCamp post later!
2:57 pm
It’s Ms. Google Earth Philippines, Aileen Apolo! She’s going to talk about Google Analytics. Woohoo! The crowd got really excited when she took out a Google shirt.
2:24 PM
Matt has the most awesome e-mail address, and I thought his url was already cool. Ria had a fan girl moment XD
1:59 pm
What’s this in the slide?? WordPress 2.7! It looks awesome! The Dashboard has been reorganized. It’s intuitive, you can even drag and drop the panels in the edit page! You can easily download and install themes and plugins right in your WordPress admin panel. How awesome is that? We’d all have to wait until November though. But still… YAY for WP2.7!
1:48 pm
I won a Php500 Gift certificate from Italianni’s! But enough of that… it’s Matt’s turn on the stage! First thing he did was to take a photo of the Wordcampers! 
1:28 pm
Lunch is done (thank you, Chowking!), and we’re just waiting for the afternoon’s plenary session.
Jeff and his cupcake
12:07 am
Apart from the overly technical stuff, this is really quite interesting. Specially since I need it for work and freelance projects. I’m really impressed at the sites Karla showed us that uses WordPress as their CMS. They really doesn’t look like your typical wordpress blogs! Impressive.
11:50 am
Nosebleeding at Karla’s session. Should’ve gone to the presscon (g_doh)
11:31 am
The SEO session was PACKED. Eric and I are now inside Karla‘s session, WordPress as CMS.
11:19 am
We were late to join the other breakaway session, so we’re just hanging around the CSB halls. But at least we have pictures with Matt Mullenweg!
With Matt Mullenweg
Second breakaway session is over. Moving on to WordPress & SEO!
10:42 am
Gail’s session is winding down. Important lesson: Don’t use your theme to spam! Oh, and while it’s often overlooked, it’s also important to edit your image.php and 404.php files.
9:59 am
Gail showed her work on the Pinoy Adventure Blog‘s theme. Ang ganda!
9:53 am
Gail’s talk is starting. She’s walking around the front of the theatre, wearing her Ateneo jacket. Kamusta naman.
Fritz, Gail, AJ and Hana
9:39 am
Migs is giving a run down of the day’s schedule. The two tracks will divide in a bit. I’m attending Gail‘s talk on Creating WordPress Themes & CSS Power. A new travel blog will be unveiled.
9:36 am
Blogie is now addressing the campers and welcomed Matt Mullenweg.
9:31 am
Opening remarks by De La Salle Benilde Dean Benhur Ong of the School of Management and Information Technology.
9:29 am
Wordcamp is starting!
9:23 am
Still not starting. They said the program’s going to start in two minutes a couple of minutes ago. I’ve finally met Estan, on my way to the loo. Nggh, forgot to take a photo *face palm*
8:27 am
People are trickling in. I’m seeing many familiar faces, but there are plenty of new faces as well. All around me are people taking about variable widths, widgets, header.php, upgrading to WordPress 2.6.1. My being an early bird got me a cute WordPress button!
7:23 am
I’m early. So early lol. I take comfort in knowing that I’m already the 3rd camper to arrive. The volunteers (save for the Rockstar Fritz Tentativa are hard buzzing about, making last minute preparations. The WC volunteers look spiffy in their black WordCamp Philippines shirt.
The Rockstar with his LG Secret phone.
I shall be updating this post throughout the day (or at least when I can remember), with the latest updates appearing at the top of the page. Here’s to hoping I actually pay attention and not Plurk all day!
P.s. The Fritz is now working.
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The Wordcamp is a gathering of WordPress users and enthusiasts to talk about… WordPress. Sounds utterly geeky, no? But I’m terribly excited about this. Wordcamp Philippines is on the 6th of September at the College of St. Benilde Taft Ave., Manila. I had my heart set on finally attending the yaoi convention, but alas, WordPress beckons! I have to surpress my inner BL fangirl for a year more *strikes tragic pose*
Wordcamp Philippines is organized by the Mindanao Bloggers, and is made possible by the following sponsors:
- i.PH: the Domain for Individuals
- Free Online Flash Games
- Wazzup Manila Philippines
- Real Estate CRM
- Real Estate Website Designers
- Orange County Real Estate
- Auto Insurance Quotes
- Lane Systems Inc.
- RedMedia
- Orange County Business Lawyer
- Cebu Pacific Air
- Buddy Gancenia Reality TV
- SmartBro Wireless Broadband
- SPOT.ph
- Make Money with Performancing Ads
I seemed to have come to Melbourne at a great time – Priscilla the Musical is still on going, one of my favorite travel writer Peter Moore is launching his latest book in Australia, and the event I attended last Saturday, WordCamp Melbourne.
WordCamp is a gathering of WordPress users talking about (you guessed it) WordPress and blogging. Among the speakers were Alex Shiels of Automattic (who quite succinctly told us how big WordPress is), James Farmer of Edublogs (who organized WCM07 and quite a jolly person), Darren Rowse of Problogger.net (how can this be a blogging event without Mr. Rowse? He’s a very nice, down to earth guy, by the way, and he even granted my odd request of posing with my Pinky St doll), Christine Davis of Neato.co.nz (developer of the Ultimate Tag Warrior, which I’m currently using), and Alister Cameron, the self-proclaimed blogologist (who was wearing a TinTin in Vietnam t-shirt, which had me racking my brains whether TinTin ever went to Vietnam).
Darren Rowse mentioned in passing that Melbourne bloggers have been talking about having one of these gatherings for a long time, and this is the first time it has pushed through. Also, when I asked him if he gives talks on blogging a lot, he said he gets invited to talk overseas, but hardly in Australia.
Apart from the talks given by the speakers, there were also round table discussions, where in participants get to talk among themselves regarding a topics pertaining to WordPress or blogging. Topics like choosing a blogging platform, selling plugins, online reputation management, themes, and blogging as new media. I joined the plugins table, reputation management and new media.
The online reputation management discussion was facilitated by Gerry McCusker, a Public Relations Analyst. We discussed how organizations can optimize blogs for better public relations. I found myself drifting off at certain points, thinking of how certain individuals can hurt their reputation through online self-publishing.
When the time came for the last round table, I eagerly headed to the table set for the new media discussion. Disappointingly, there were only three of us there. Hmmm, as I told Gerry, who was also at the table, this table would’ve been full had it been in Manila.
Overall, it was a great, enlightening event. I was able to see the “blog culture” in Melbourne, and how people are utilizing it. It was great to meet people with such passion for blogging. Oh, and Lucio, too bad you left early…you could’ve won a WordPress shirt 
Pictures from WordCamp Melbourne
Darren Rowse talking about how to make money by blogging
Alister Cameron telling us about all the fun to be had with Sandbox
James Farmer sharing his trick for increasing your multi-user blog from 1 to 1,000
Christine Davis differentiating between tags and categories
The panel of speakers with Alex Shiels answering question from the audience
(If you’re new to Just Wandering, please don’t mind this geeky post. Do check out my other entries. There’s a handy list to your right, listing my 10 most wanted posts.)
As much as I love Chris Frazier’s Subtle theme, it was time for a change. I originally intended this theme for my work blog, but I liked it so much that I just took it for myself. Some notable changes:
- The header image changes with each refresh. Yup, there’s about 18 different headers. This is basically a bigger version of the “Through my eyes” flickr badge thing I had in my previous layout. All the photos appearing in the header were taken with my beloved Canon Powershot A70. Most of the shots were taken around the Philippines, with a couple taken in Thailand. If you’d like to see more of my travel pictures, they’re up at my flickr.
- My profile picture beside the about me blurb also changes with each refresh. Clicking on the picture takes you to my flickr page.
- I’ve decided to trim the junk in my sidebar. However, I haven’t really decided which should stay and which should go. So far, all that you see to your right are the ones staying. I’m definitely putting the list of my favorite travel blogs back. I just have to go sleep a bit.
- This layout is best viewed in Mozilla Firefox and Opera. It’s tolerable in Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.
Just Wandering’s new theme is called Leia, designed by Kapikua. Sadly, it’s not widget enabled, but I’m still loving it.
So…any comments? Suggestions? Violent reactions? I would really like to hear what you think 
- WordPress upgrade to 2.2.2. The people at WP announced another security update to the WP2.2 Getz. You can download the complete installation file from the WordPress download page.
- Updated list of active plugins. I’ve also added the subscription information in the About Justwandering.org page.
- Updated the About Me page. Following Darren Rowse’s advice to Conduct an About page audit, I’ve decided the two page I had before was uncessesary and trimmed it down to one.
- Trimmed category listing. There’s just too many! What the hell was I thinking?
- Added e-mail subscription form. If you look to your right, you’d see the not-so-new e-mail form for subscribing to JustWandering updates. I figured nobody scrolls all the way down to the bottom of the page to see the form there.
- Added new travel blog links. They’re a great and fun read, check them out
Unfortunately, since my blog’s theme is terribly Widget-dependent, it went crazy. Well, not totally, but I’m still trying to figure out how to make it look like what it was before. Rather, how text in the sidebars were aligned. I’m picky that way.
The archive and comment boxes are in perfect working condition, but don’t panic if you suddenly see a wayward ad or entry list here and there. It’s just me breaking my blog for the nth time.
Enjoy!
[edit] Christopher Frazier, author of the Subtle theme has announced that he will be working on a fix for the Widget bugs soon. Since I don’t want to break my blog more often than necessary, I shall leave this as is. Or until I get restless again and start murdering the PHP codes.
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