Archive for the 'Announcements' Category

Announcing the Vancouver Joomla! Day

Published
by
Rastin Mehr
on May 7, 2008
in Announcements, Events, Helping Out, Jen Duguay and Rastin Mehr
. 2 Comments

Vancouver Joomla! Day
We would like to invite you to join us for Canada’s largest Joomla event: Joomla! Day Vancouver. It will be hosted at the Vancouver Public Library located in downtown Vancouver, beautiful British Columbia. This whole day event is held on Saturday June 14th 2008 from 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM.

Vancouver Joomla Day 2008

Joomla! CMS is one of the most powerful Open Source content management systems (CMS) on the planet. Joomla! is easy to install, simple to manage, and reliable to use.

The new version of Joomla (version 1.5) is an ideal platform for building Corporate websites, Intranets, Social Networks, and Web Applications in general.

Joomla! CMS has been inspired, developed and maintained by groups of volunteers from different countries around the world. It is a true evidence of what a crowd of inspired people can accomplish through an open source project. There are currently about 30 volunteers responsible for development and maintenance of Joomla CMS including a community of more than 180,000 users and 3rd party developers, all who have gathered around this project during the past couple of years.

In this event you will get to meet and listen to some of the people who are the original creators and maintainers of the Joomla! CMS framework. You also get to meet other Joomla developers and enthusiasts who live either in the greater Vancouver area or have flown in to attend this great community driven and inspired event!

So please remember…

The Date: June 14th 2008 from 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM
The Location: Alice McKay room at the Library Square Conference Centre in the Central Vancouver Public Library Building
350 West Georgia Street
Vancouver, Beautiful British Columbia, Canada
»» view map

Central Vancouver Public Library
[ Vancouver Public Library ]

How can we register for this event:

The tickets are 25$ each and for that price you will be getting a Vancouver Joomla Day! T-Shirt and a coupon which buys you a free coffee and baked goodies.

You can register online here:

Who are the Presenters?

Chris Adams - CEO of Rochen Limited

Chris Adams

Chris Adams is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Rochen Limited, a web hosting provider that specializes in performance hosting solutions allowing dynamic scripts like Joomla! to realize their full potential running right out of the box with fast load times and fantastic uptime. Rochen has certified support engineers based throughout the United States, Canada, Australia and United Kingdom, not outsourcing any part of their operations, and maintains their own servers and infrastructure in Dallas, TX, United States.

Rochen is a major sponsor of Joomla! and Chris has been involved with providing the infrastructure to the project since before the name “Joomla!” was even decided or publicly announced. Chris has previously spoken at Joomla! Days in Leeds, United Kingdom in 2006 and at the Googleplex in Mountain View, CA, United States in 2007. He has also attended the LinuxWorld Open Source Awards in London, UK with members of the Joomla! Core Team in 2005 and 2006 where Rochen was nominated as a finalist in the category of “Best Open Source Web Host” both years running.

Brad Baker - Joomla! Core Team Member

Brad Baker

It all started in October 2003, when Brad stumbled upon Mambo in his quest for an easy to use CMS. By 2004 he was on the Core Team looking after forum administration. Since moving to Joomla, and seeing the community and team expand even further, his responsibilities have broadened to encompass looking after all the Joomla! websites and infrastructure.

Brad has years of experience in the web hosting industry. As well as running his own local Webhosting and design business he also works for Rochen and has done so for a number of yrs. He had been associated with Mambo since 2003, and brings his good humor and expertise to the ever growing Joomla! fold.

Levis Bisson - Joomla! Core Team Member

Levis Bisson

Levis is an analyste-programmer (B.Sc.A.). After many years in the job market, Levis decided to go the Laval University to study computer programming in 1997. Graduating in 2000, he started along with Michelle Bisson, a Web programming business. Their primary clientele is the Quebec government offering customized programming solutions. He had been involved in the Mambo community since July 2003 and it now actively involved in developing Joomla!. With much anticipation, he looks forward to the next phase of the Joomla! project.

Michelle Bisson - Joomla! Core Team Member

Michelle Bisson

Michelle Bisson is one of the founding members of Joomla! Before that she was invited onto the Mambo Core Team in early 2004 after being active in the Mambo community since mid 2003. She partners with Lévis Bisson in a web development company, Jazzisoft International Inc. which specializes in custom programming to the Quebec government and developing Joomla! based sites to the municipal government, businesses and non-profits. Their company is also know as POPcliQ in Québec, Canada. They are fluently bilingual: English and French. They have started to offer their services internationally.

Her involvement in the past was coordinating the User Documentation Team. Currently, she is leading the Fundraising Team, representing Joomla! at various Joomla! events and involved in organizing Joomla! events in Canada

Steve Burge - CEO of Alledia

Steve Burge

Steve Burge is the CEO of Alledia (www.alledia.com), one of the leading Joomla development companies in the world, having built over 200 Joomla websites. He is the author of he Joomla SEO Book and writes a daily blog about Joomla! and Search Engine Optimization at www.alledia.com/blog.

Originally from England, he now lives and works close to Atlanta, Georgia.

Louis Landry - Joomla! Core Team Member

Louis Landry

Louis of New Orleans, Louisiana, works in web development and holds a Bachelors Degree in Computer Science from Louisiana Tech University. His first experience with computers was playing on a 286 with Basic at his father’s office. Louis has programmed in many languages, ranging from low level x86 assembly to managed languages like Java and scripting languages like PHP.

Jennifer Marriott - Joomla! Working Group Member

Jennifer Marriott

Jennifer Marriott started designing print media in the mid 90’s and progressed into freelance web development from there. Her private web design work for herself and her clients has mad her an expert in taking artist websites to the next level using Joomla!.

Jennifer is a renowned blues singer and guitarist with the band Jennifer Marriott & Odd Sheep Out, and her experience as an artist gives her a unique perspective on the communication needs of artists.

As a Joomla! supporter, Jennifer has contributed to the project in the Sites and Infrastructure working group since 2005 and is currently diving into Q&T.

www.jennifermarriott.com

Toni Marie Swats - Joomla! Working Group Member

Toni Marie Swats

Toni has been an all-around web and database consultant for six years,working from home to be closer to her family.

Toni discovered Joomla two years ago and has since focused her entire consultancy on Joomla. With partner David Prestia, she owns MyDynamicSite.com, a custom Joomla design consultancy.

Toni has been a part of the Joomla Forum Workgroup for more than a year, and is currently one of the Joomla Extensions Directory editors.

Event Organizers

Wendy Robinson - Vancouver Joomla! Day Coordinator & Joomla Community Forum Administrator
Vancouver Joomla! Day

Tazzu Business & Technology Community - www.Tazzu.com
Tazzu Business & Technology Community

Rastin Mehr rmd Studio Inc. - Former Joomla Development Workgroup member and Google Summer of Code Mentor
rmd Studio Inc. - Custom CMS & Social Media Technology Solutions

Jeannette Duguay - JenTekk Web Solutions www.JenTekk.ca
JenTekk Web Solutions

Ash Sanieyan - PeerGlobe Technology Inc. www.PeerGlobe.com
PeerGlobe Technologies

Event Sponsors:

Open Source Matters (home of Joomla) - www.OpenSourceMatters.org
Open Source Matters

Rochen Engineered Hosting - www.Rochen.com
Rochen Engineered Hosting

FatPort Secure Broadband Wireless
FatPort Secure Broadband

Baratta Design - www.dvbaratta.com
Baratta Design

Media Sponsors:

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THANK YOU Tazzu WordCamp participants and sponsors

Published
by
Rastin Mehr
on May 2, 2008
in Announcements, Jen Duguay, Rastin Mehr and WordPress
. 2 Comments

You know when we were kids, we use to get together, bring our bags of Legos and toys, pile them up and build cities together. We did that because none of us had all the bricks necessary to build a city - so we learned to collaborate.

The Tazzu Wordcamp event felt like that. We all came together with our toys, tips, and financial contributions to connect with each other. Yes, the venue was a little small (sorry!) and we couldn’t feel our bums and legs when we got up from sitting on those hardwood floors, but boy the number of inspiring emails, twitts, facebook messages, and inspiring words that we received from the Vancouver’s blogging community was simply amazing. The reality is that, this event couldn’t have been nearly as fun without your participation and contributions. By the way, based on different counts around 80 to 90 people attended this event.

Vancouver Tazzu WordCamp

Vancouver Tazzu Wordcamp

To all the people who attended this event: THANK YOU! YOU GUYS ROCKED!

We would also like to take the opportunity and thank the people who have either funded this event or helped us spread the word around:

Organizers:

Thank you for sponsoring us:

Thank you for spreading the word:

PS: Did we miss you?! If you have blogged or flickered this event and your name isn’t listed as a media sponsor, please let us know and we will add your name to the list.

~

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Covering the Tazzu WordPress Camp

Published
by
Rastin Mehr
on April 30, 2008
in Announcements, Events, Rastin Mehr and WordPress
. 3 Comments

Update: Event was a blast. Some people have been so kind and taken so many awesome pictures:

Update 8:30 PM: John Chow did a fantastic presentation and we all headed to the Flux bar for a drink.

Update 7:53 PM: Greg Andres didn’t show up, I hope he is somewhere safe and happy. I tried to steal his spot to talk about blogs and blogospheres, but people really wanted to listen to John Chow instead, and who am I to steal the spot light from John Chow? I mean not yet. :P

The notorious John Chow is presenting now, and I’m sure many wished to be here.

Update 7:32 PM: Bruce Byfiled is presenting on joys of Amateur blogging. I am not the only one who has noticed that everyone here is using a Mac. Hey I just got a link from Jeremy. Watch the live presentation here:

http://www.justin.tv/jeremycostin

The password is: tazzu-test

I wonder where Greg Andrews is. He is our next presenter and I can’t find him in the room.

Robert made a great comment. When we use our own blog installations once we stop paying our rent (hosting cost) it could evaporate but when we use a service like www.WordPress.com we can hope that it will last forever and our grandchildren could learn about our observations.

Update 7:12 PM: Kulpreet Singh is presenting on using WordPress to create a custom library, catalog, or other mashup-type sites. Internet connection got a lot faster all of a sudden. Kulpreet’s presentation was quite impressive I must say.

Update 6:55 PM: taking a 20 min break

Update 6:35 PM: Duane Storey is presenting. about WordPress and mobile blogging ( mostly iPhone ). Rebecca (604) is wondering if there is a power outlet close to her, I guess we can relocate her seat after the break close to the power bar. The Internet connection is really slow here. Our friend Jeremy (Infinity) is recording or creating a steaming video. It would be nice if he could share the link with us so we could post it here.

Update 6:14 PM: Rebecca Bollwitt is presenting, and I’ll do my best to cover it. We had a little bit of issue with the projector connection.

Update 6:10 PM: Monica Hamburg was presenting using my laptop which is why I couldn’t blog ;). Her presentation was awesome.

Update 5:37 PM: Jeff Kee is presenting . Miss604 and I are live blogging the event. She is doing a far superior job than I do.

If you are uploading pictures of the event on the Flickr or Videos on the YouTube please tag them “tazzuwordcamp” so everyone would be able to find them.

Thank you :D

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Meet us at the Flux Modern Bistro after the Tazzu WordPress Camp

Published
by
Rastin Mehr
on April 30, 2008
in Announcements, Events, Networking, Rastin Mehr and WordPress
. 1 Comment

There has been a change of plan for the after party venue. We were initially planning to go to the close by Steamworks, but unfortunately they have been all booked. Steamworks is taken over by the accountants in the tax season, we had no idea there were this many accountants in town!

fluxbistro.pngInstead we are going to the Flux Modern Bistro (162 Water Street - 604.678.8800). Our friends at the Automattic have paid for the first round of beer for all the attendees. You’ll learn more about the after party at the Tazzu WordPress Camp.

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So are we all going to fit at the Network Hub?

Published
by
Rastin Mehr
on April 30, 2008
in Announcements, Rastin Mehr and WordPress
. 0 Comments

Ok, here’s the scoop… nearly 90 people have RSVPed on our Facebook event announcement, and the question that keeps coming up is whether or not all these people will be able to fit at our event location - The Network Hub.

The reality is that we were essentially planning the Tazzu WordPress Camp event for maybe 35-40 people, and had no idea that the concept would prove to be this popular. Especially, since the number of attendees suddenly peaked just recently, making it too late for us to switch venues.

In short: yes there will be shortage of room. We sincerely apologize for this. Please come early if you require a seat! There will probably be just enough seats for half of us. Although last week I had a phone conversation with Minna at the Network Hub and she told me that they’ve had events with more than 100 people at their location.

What is certain is that Jen, Ash and I will be at the Network hub ahead of time to move furniture around, gather every chair available to us, and perhaps maybe push the walls out a bit!

For the next Tazzu WordCamp, we promise to get a larger venue because now we know that a lot of us out there are quite interested in the concept.

Thank you for your understanding, patience and participation! See you there!

Once again the Network Hub address is:

3rd floor - 422 Richards Street
Vancouver, B.C.
V6B 2Z3

The Tazzu WordPress Camp Schedule

Published
by
Rastin Mehr
on April 27, 2008
in Announcements, Events and WordPress
. 11 Comments

Tazzu WordPress Camp was originally inspired by a group of Tazzu community members (here and here) after a series of Joomla Demo Camps we’d organized (here and here).

For the WordPress Camp, we were expecting at most 35 to 40 people to show up. But now we’ve found out that about 68 people have RSVP’d on our facebook event announcement. We have estimated that more than 70 people will be showing up at The Network Hub. There won’t be enough seats for everyone, therefore to get a seat you will need to arrive early. This event might seem a little crowded, but it is very likely that you may meet many of your friends there too. For future WordCamp events, we’ll make sure to consider a larger venue for our attendees.

I am also posting the Tazzu WordPress Camp schedule. I would like to thank the following 8 people who have stepped forward to share their knowledge with us in this event. If any of the presenters are not happy with their time slot, please let us know and we could perhaps arrange to make changes.

WordPress Camp Schedule

Event is from 5:30 to 8:30 PM on Wed. April 30th at The Network Hub

5:30 to 5:50pm - Jeff Kee
WordPress for total website development

5:50 to 6:10pm- Monica Hamburg
Blogging & Social Media

6:10 to 6:30pm - Rebecca Bollwitt
Adding photos [flickr, permission, links, gallery plugins, badges] to your WordPress

6:30 to 6:50pm - Duane Storey
WordPress and mobile blogging - i.e. how to read and write from an iPhone.

6:50 to 7:10pm - Networking Break

7:10 to 7:30pm - Kulpreet Singh
Using WordPress to create a custom library, catalog, or other mashup-type site

7:30 to 7:50pm - Bruce Byfield
The joys of Amateur Blogging

7:50 to 8:10pm - Greg Andrews
Good Typography in WordPress

8:10 to 8:30pm - John Chow
How to make money using a WordPress Blog

In our next post I would like to talk about the people and organizations who have made all kinds of contributions in order to make this event happen.

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Meet the Tazzu WordPress Camp Presenters

Published
by
Jen Duguay
on April 21, 2008
in Announcements, Events, Jen Duguay and Rastin Mehr
. 19 Comments

Preparations for the upcoming Tazzu WordPress Camp is well under way. We have 8 wonderful presenters, therefore we won’t be able to have more on the spotlight this time, so if you would like to show us the blogger genius in you, there will me many more similar events organized and hosted by the Tazzu community in the future so please stay tuned.

The presentation schedule will be posted within the next 24 hours.

Tazzu WordPress Camp Presenters

Rebecca Bollwitt

TOPIC: Adding photos [flickr, permissions, links, gallery plugins, badges] to your WordPress blog.She is a blogging and social media star. A Podcaster, hyper-local blogger, new media outreach wiz, mainstream media pundit ~ Vancouver’s new ‘blogebrity’ - Rebecca Bollwitt has been blogging about Vancouver since 2004 on Miss604.com, podcasting RadioZoom since 2005 and is a co-host of The Crazy Canucks Podcast. You can find Rebecca live blogging at many of the social media conferences around BC - watch for her!
www.miss604.com

Bruce Byfield

TOPIC: The Joys of Amateur Blogging.
Bruce is a contributing editor for the SourceForge sites Linux.com and the IT Manager’s Journal. Among other topics, he reports on the Debian Project, the Free Software Foundation, licensing issues, and office applications. He also writes a monthly blog for the Linux Journal website, which tends to center on varying aspects of OpenOffice.org, the free software office suite. In addition to his online publications, he has published in such magazines as Linux Journal, Maximum Linux, and The New Internationalist.
www.brucebyfield.wordpress.com

John Chow

TOPIC: How to make money using a WordPress Blog.
Residing in Richmond BC, and hailed as a Dot Com Mogule - John has received much publicity (The Province, Vancouver Sun, Entreprenuer Magazine, BC Business, Globe and Mail, and T.V.) for his ability to make money - LOTS of it - by blogging. His free eBook “Make Money Online with John Chow dot Com” is a huge success, and documents everything he did to take his blog from $0 to over $10,000 per month in just eight months.
www.johnchow.com

Monica Hamburg

TOPIC: Blogging & Social Media.
Monica is a Freelance Writer and Social Media Evangelist/Consultant who calls Vancouver BC home. Me Like The Interweb: Thoughts & Articles @bout Social Media (Crowdsourcing and more) is Monica’s blog where she writes engaging and insightful articles about her investigations and observations on this new phenomenon.
www.monicahamburg.wordpress.com

Jeff Kee

TOPIC: WordPress for total website development.
Jeff is a young, ambitious business man who owns Jeff Kee Companies and its subsidiaries, one of which is Synchronous Design & Marketing. His Synchronous website is ENTIRELY developed with WordPress - some people don’t want to believe it, he’s going to explain how he did this.
www.synchronous.ca

Greg Andrews

TOPIC: Good Typography in WordPress.
Greg Andrews is a Writer and Web Developer and for Techvibes. Born and raised in Edmonton, Greg was blogging about his high school drama long before it was fashionable. In the Spring of 2007, half a year out of school, Greg moved to Vancouver in search of interesting technology and the Canadian dream.
www.miscellani.ca

Kulpreet Singh

TOPIC: Using WordPress to create a custom library, catalog, or other mashup-type site.
Kulpreet is the Communications Manager at Creative Gift Solutions, and has extensive experience in web design, web progamming, graphic design, desktop publishing, copywriting, fundraising, public relations, advertising, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, social media optimization, blogging, content management systems, ebusiness, marketing management, and other types of integrated marketing communications.
www.creativegiftsolutions.com

Duane Storey

TOPIC: WordPress and mobile blogging - i.e. how to read and write from an iPhone
Duane is a Principal Engineer at CounterPath Corporation as well as freelance Photographer and Software Developer. Currently he offeres services in the fields of software development/testing/documentation, web development, Facebook application development, document layout and typesetting, writing, or general geekery.
www.duanestorey.com

This event is sponsored by

We would also like to thank our sponsors who have made this event possible. This event is organized mainly by the Tazzu community members.

WordPress is a state-of-the-art publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time. This project is maintained and funded by www.Automattic.com
www.wordpress.org

Invoke Media

Invoke is an Interactive Agency that specializes in transforming ideas into tangible results executed within a complete interactive brand strategy. As a full service agency, they ensure you receive the best of everything - from a world class website to effective marketing campaigns.
www.InvokeMedia.com

TinyMassive - shop compare share! Site to be launched any minute now!
www.tinymassive.com


Culinary Copik Multimedia is a distinctive company, offering reliable and cohesive Visual Communications for the Food and Beverage industry.
www.culinarycopikmultimedia.ca

BlueFur.com provides fast, reliable and affordable hosting for websites across the globe through advanced technology and knowledgeable support team.
www.bluefur.com

picture-1.png

Citizens Bank is a virtual bank owned by Vancity. Hi interest savings, low/no fee chequing and operates for the triple bottom line: people.planet.profits. It embeds corporate social responsibility into all aspects of its business, and gives a portion of its profits back to the community.

rmd Studio Inc. - Custom CMS & Social Media Technology Solutions

The Network Hub - Startup Launch Pad

JenTekk Web Solutions

PeerGlobe Technologies

Tazzu Business & Technology Community

Our Media Sponsors

Thank you so much for spreading the word!

Rebecca Bollwitt (Miss604): www.Miss604.com

Angela Hubbard (Hubbard Photography): www.hubbardphotography.com

Amanda Abrams (Professional Photographer): www.AmandaAbrams.com

Phillip Jeffrey (Fade to Play): www.fadetoplay.com

Lisa Bettany (Mostly Lisa): www.mostlylisa.com

Jeff Kee (Synchronous Design & Marketing): www.synchronous.ca

Ash Sanieyan (PeerGlobe Technology): www.PeerGlobe.com

Beyond Robson (Thank you Anna): www.beyondrobson.com

John Chow: www.JohnChow.com

PBase Media Ltd. (Presentation Solutions): www.PresentationSolutions.com

Raul Pacheco (hummingbird604): hummingbird604.wordpress.com
(Raul I am really really sorry I forgot your name on the schedule sheets! - Rastin )

Jeremy Costin (webLawg.net): www.weblawg.net
(Thanks Jeremy for the video webcast and archives of the event!)

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