Dan Milward @ WordCamp Melbourne
Dan is a member of WordPress royalty. His company, Instinct Entertainment, has been building WordPress Plugins & providing custom WordPress development since, well, since the dawn of the ‘Press. Instinct’s flagship plugin, the hugely popular WP e-Commerce plugin, even has a download count double the population of the Gold Coast!
Dan has attended and spoken at WordCamps all over the world. At WordCamp Gold Coast, he’ll present on how to facilitate and build an Open Source community. A subject core to WordPress and a topic he knows a thing or two about, with tens of thousands in the community around Instinct’s plugins.
I asked Dan a few questions about his presentation and his love of WordCamps.
At WordCamp Gold Coast you’ll be discussing how you built the open-source community around WP e-Commerce, which now has more than 1.2 million downloads. Can you give us a teaser with your top tips for how to build a community like that?
Well ummm actually its more like 1.5 million downloads. I think to attract a community one must create something that appeals to a group of people.
The WP e-Commerce Plugin has helped hundreds of thousands of people sell online and that goes a long way. A lot of the people who contribute to our project are experienced developers from all around the world that want to ensure the longevity of WP e-Commerce Plugin because they know it’s the best solution for their own customers.
I also think a community needs an evangelist, I guess for WP e-Commerce that has been me over the years. And I do it because I love it and believe in what we’re doing.
You’re no stranger to WordCamps, having attended and presented at WordCamps all over the World. What is your favourite memory from a WordCamp?
One of the highlights for me was attending the after-party at the 2010 San Fran WordCamp where I got to meet Richard Stallman (founder of GNU) and hang out with lots of like-minded people, many of whom are my friends and colleagues in the WordPress space.
As I write this I’m in LA preparing for San Fran WordCamp where I have a booth, but get this, I’m crashing on the couch of Jennifer Finch (google her), a super talented WordPress developer that I met at last years San Fran WordCamp! It’s just awesome how these things work out if you put yourself out there.
Of course… another awesome memory was getting to chauffeur Matt around Wellington at the first New Zealand WordCamp and getting to show him all my favourite teenage hangout spots.
What are you most looking forward to about this WordCamp and your time across the ditch at the Gold Coast?
BBQ!!
Hopefully I’ll get in lots of networking, maybe we’ll get to do a little recruiting, and of course it’d be nice to grow our community some more and make some new friends.
Thanks Dan. We haven’t got Richard Stallman attending (yet) but we will have lots of awesome like-minded people attending.
You can follow Dan on Twitter and should also follow WordCamp Gold Coast.
If you want to join the awesome line-up of WordCamp Gold Coast speakers, apply now!
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