The pre-workshop buzz looks encouraging.

“I’ve had a lot of positive feedback in the developing stage”, Steve said.

“Certainly, the time is right for WordPress. A lot of people are interested and there’s a lot you can do with it.”

According to Steve, getting rid of the fear of the code is one of the main aims of the workshop.

“The level of customisation we’re talking about means we’re not going in to write a lot of PHP or create our own plug-ins, we’re just tweaking the stuff that’s already there”, he said.

“I’d like to teach people to understand the code and not be afraid of it. It’s quite intuitive once you get into it but I think there’s that initial fear factor of ‘this is code, it’s PHP, MySql and other stuff that I don’t really understand’.”

The workshop covers all the underlying anatomy of WordPress – posts, pages, categories, tags, databases, php, templates as well as how to install it, secure it, configure it and start using it.

“The idea is that by the end of the day, the attendees can take away something that they’ve actually constructed – a working site”, Steve said

The workshop is being piloted next week and the first public one is set to run in June in Newcastle.

Feature article

WordPress moving beyond its blogging roots

WordPress has quietly gained the acceptance of the critical masses and grown into the biggest blogging platform on the web. Read more…

We asked web trainer Steve Boneham what’s so great about it.

“It’s free, open source, powerful, customisable, expandable. It’s got millions of users and a very active community of developers working with it”, he said.

To host or not to host?

WordPress offers two ways of using it – a hosted version running from the WordPress site often referred to as the ‘dot com version’ or a self-hosted version which means users are running it themselves.

The self-hosted version is where the fun starts and Steve would like more people to get past the fear factor involved in dealing with bits of code.

The set-up process is simple and doesn’t require the knowledge or skills of a web developer, Steve told us. The famous 5-minute installation really takes 5 minutes.

“You download WordPress, you extract it, you upload it and you run a script. And that’s it. You’re running it”, he said.

You can then start tweaking it. Add plug-ins, change the layout, give the site your own look and feel. According to Steve, the extra effort is worth it.

“Making that simple switch gives you access to a whole ecosystem of extra features and functionalities”, Steve said.

“There are hundreds of thousands of plug-ins, thousands of free and commercial themes and a very big developer community that you don’t get access to on the dot com version.”

Blog or a CMS

In the blogging space, WordPress has got few rivals to worry about. There are simple blogging platforms, such as Tumblr and Posterous, but neither of those allow self-hosting.

As the platform has grown and the available functionalities increased, WordPress is actually moving closer to a fully-fledged content management system.

“People have started to say that using WordPress to blog is like using a sledgehammer to open a nut”, Steve told.

“It has a potential of being so much more than a blog. In reality many people will use it as a blog but it can be so heavily customised, unique and bespoke that each site looks like a completely different system.”

So would you describe it as revolutionary?

“I’m not sure I’d describe any software as revolutionary.”

“It’s definitely changed the face of personal publishing. It’s given anyone a tool which is simple, powerful and can be up and running very quickly but which you can then do quite serious things with. So yes, in that way, I would say it’s revolutionary.”

Find out more

Help to get started with WordPress

Steve, who works as a Consultant Trainer at the staff development organisation Netskills, is currently developing a workshop which helps people with little technical knowledge to start hosting their own WordPress sites. Read more…

Profile

Matthew Charles Mullenweg is the founder of the blogging software WordPress.

Mullenweg was born in Houston, Texas in 1984. Before WordPress he was working for CNET Networks.

Mullenweg has devoted a lot of his time to developing a number of open source projects and is a frequent speaker at conferences. He has been listed as one of the PC World’s Top 50 People on the Web as well as Business Week’s 25 Most Influential People on the Web.

Read more about Mullenweg from his blog: http://ma.tt/