BackSpaceStudios Blog

WordCamp Toronto Updates

This year is looking to be the biggest year ever for WordCamp’s around the world. So many new cities jumping on board and many new changes being made by veteran WordCamp organizers.

I’m very excited about WCT 2009, it’s a lot more work than I had anticipated, but then again, go big or go home! This is Toronto’s second year hosting WordCamp and this year will be bigger, better, and AWESOME…

We’ve undergone a huge transformation in comparison to last years event. So, what changes have we made you ask…well…for starters we have a added a third day to the festival, 3 tracks of presentations instead of 1, and our favorite addition the WCT Awards! You can submit any work you have done with WordPress from plug-ins, themes, blog and site development, etc.

This year we want to explore WordPress to a higher degree. We have expanded the festival to include all walks of WordPress life, from commercial to non-profit, from amateur to professional bloggers, designers and developers, and we are exploring other ways in which WordPress is being used outside the blogging community.

We are also covering a range of topics including, social, community, business, and education.

We are also very excited about of key note speaker Nick La, the man behind the popular blog Web Designer Wall, Best Web Gallery, and founder of N.Design Studio.

We have an all-star lineup of speakers, Peter Flaschner, Erin Blaskie, James Walker, Jeremy Clarke, and Matt Brett, just to name a few…

So, make sure you don’s miss out on this event! You can register here >>> http://wct2009.eventbrite.com/ , find out more about the event at http://www.wordacmaptoronto.com.

Get Social!

web2.0 is dead! That’s right, I said it…glossy badges, validation links, static css layouts, are dated, and let’s face it just aren’t cool anymore…

Where does this leave us? The Social Web! This is how people socialize or interact with each other throughout the World Wide Web today.  There are so many different ways for people to socialize on the web today, from community driven sites, to blogs and forums, file sharing, friend finding, shared interest and hobbies, geographic location, job types, etc…

Without sounding repetitive, and to keep this short and sweet the Social Web can be described by the following:

• Identity: who are you?
• Reputation: what do people think you stand for?
• Presence: where are you?
• Relationships: who are you connected with? who do you trust?
• Groups: how do you organize your connections?
• Conversations: what do you discuss with others?
• Sharing: what content do you make available for others to interact with?

We all know Facebook, Twitter, Ning, blogger, MySpace, Last FM, YouTube, and sites like Digg, Stumble Upon, delicious, etc…

Social is viral, and grows in abundance daily. This week alone I came across 2 new social networks, Virb and Image Spark, i highly recommend you check them out, then blog it, tweet it, share it…you get the point.