Why do we publish, and what does it mean? From the designers, to the builders, to the writers, to the site owners: we are all publishers. What is the significance of the WordPress platform, and why do we do what we do? In this talk, I’ll discuss the power of WordPress, and the awesomeness that is publishing with this great tool.

1. Why We Publish
@krogsgard
!
Range — Post Status

2. What is publishing?

3. “Publishing is the process of production and
dissemination of literature, music, or
information — the activity of making
information available to the general public.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publishing

4. “the number of people who create
content on the internet represents
approximately 1% (or less) of the
people actually viewing that content”
http://wordpress.org/about/philosophy/

5. The Vocal Minority

6. “Publishing includes the stages of the
development, acquisition, copy editing,
graphic design, production – printing (and
its electronic equivalents), and marketing
and distribution”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publishing

7. YOU

8. What did we publish with?

9. Radio
Television
Telegram
Telephone
Scroll
Word of mouth
Newspaper
Pamphlet
Books
Letter

10. Stories

11. Advocacy

12. Advertisement

13. Commerce

14. Journalism

15. $$$

17. “With the advent of digital
information systems and the Internet,
the scope of publishing has expanded
to include electronic resources”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publishing

18. The information super highway

19. What has changed?

20. Everything

22. Bar ^

23. What do we look like?

24. Hobbyists

26. Tinkerers

28. Professionals

30. Publishing tools

31. Content Management

32. $$$

33. if ( $cms == $$$ )
$problems == 99;

35. $open_source = ‘ftw’;

36. “We were never setting out to disrupt the
New York Times or the Guardian. Who we
were disrupting were the vendors who were
charging you guys $5 and $10 million for
crappy software.”
http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2013/sep/03/democratise-publishing-matt-mullenwegg-cloud

37. if ( $cms != $$$ )
$problems == null;
!
// @todo: unit tests

38. Democratize publishing

39. 20%+

40. When publishing is available
at a mass level, wonderful
things can happen.

41. “Up until hitting the publish
button, email had been my main
interaction with the outside world.”
- Glenda Watson Hyatt, doitmyselfblog.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajqq9bHomn8#t=105

42. Citizen journalism
homewoodatlarge.wordpress.com
bhamterminal.com

43. Local journalism
weldbham.com
abc3340.com
yellowhammernews.com

44. Advocacy
REVBirmingham.org
foundationbirmingham.org

45. Arts & entertainment
caskanddrum.com
ironcitybham.com
artsbma.org

46. Business & eCommerce
jimnnicks.com
brasfieldgorrie.com
robinsmorton.com
cocacolaunited.com
finecabin.com

47. Education & non-profits
sightsaversamerica.org
betterbasics.org
jonesvalleyteachingfarm.org
eng.ua.edu

48. These stories exist all
over the world.

49. We make the web.

50. We are the information
super highway.

51. It’s super fun!

52. We are publishers.

53. We transform businesses, institutions,
and people’s lives — all through our
efforts as designers, developers,
content creators, and marketers.

54. This is why we publish.

55. (and it’s nice to make some $$$ while we’re at it)

56. Why We Publish
@krogsgard
!
Range — Post Status