I just got back last night from the inaugural php[world] conference in Washington, D.C., put on by the team at php[architect], and thought I’d share some of my thoughts and experiences:
Category: Career
Sadly, I’m not participating in Movember this year. It’s for rather selfish reasons, admittedly (I’m speaking at php[world] in Washington, D.C. this week, which is the largest speaking engagement of my career, and don’t want to be mid-‘stache during the conference), buthat doesn’t mean I don’t want to be involved with Movember. As I won’t be shaving off the beard for some mustache fun this month, I’d like to propose this alternative:
Today is my last day as a developer at Buckeye Interactive.
Beginning November 17th, I’ll be joining the team at 10up as a Senior Web Engineer. That’s after a week of recharging the mental batteries, then four days in Washington, D.C. for php[world]. I’m excited to be joining one of the top WordPress development teams in the world, taking on new clients and new challenges.
Built for the second annual National Day of Civic Hacking, Petition The People leverages the We The People Write API to collect signatures on WTP petitions. Petition The People makes it easy to collect signatures while canvassing or at events, and is built responsively so it looks as great on a phone or tablet as it does the desktop.
The app is targeted at advocacy groups and organizations who might want to draw attention to more than one issue at a time, so organizations are able to create what I named “Campaigns,” consisting of one or more petition. Each campaign has its own unique URL, and users are presented with the body of each petition. After selecting at least one of the campaign’s petitions to sign, a single signature form is presented. This enables a user to sign multiple petitions at once, rather than manually entering their information across several petitions.
At first glance, T-Pro Solutions is a pretty typical marketing site: hero carousel, big banner images on each page, and a whole mess of calls-to-action. There's nothing wrong with a site like this, but they're not always the most exciting to build. T-Pro's site, however, has a little bit of magic under the hood that's worth sharing.
Nathan Driver and Brian Retterer were nice enough to invite Phil Hoyt and I on the inaugural WP Decoded podcast, where we talked WordPress 4.0, WordCamp Columbus, and why “WordPress 101” sessions at WordCamps are a lot like Freshman Orientation.
Seicon Limited is an engineering company in Central Ohio that specializes in vibration and shock control. Perhaps best known for its vibration-reducing ØVIB Washer Stand, Seicon also offers a similar product for HVAC installation. Buckeye Interactive has been maintaining the various Seicon sites (seiconlimited.com, 0vib.com, and hvacisolator.com) for years, but in 2014 Seicon made the decision to combine its sites into a single, cohesive experience and offer a single store for all of its products.
Before taking a family trip to Disney World in the spring of 2013 with his daughter and nephews, Buckeye Interactive President Brad Griffith prototyped a quick application called Kid Turn In. With the application he would print a temporary tattoo with a QR code that, upon being scanned, would send an alert with the scanner’s location to the adults on the trip. These tattoos were applied to the children in the hopes that if they were to be separated from the group a good samaritan would scan the tattoo (the kids had been instructed to point out the tattoo if they got lost) and the parents would be more quickly reunited with the little one.
A bit late considering I gave two talks in the last week but I’ve added a “Speaking Engagements” section to the site. I’m relatively new to professional speaking but am looking for more opportunities to share what I’ve learned. If you’re interested in having me speak at your event, please get in touch!
In early 2013 the White House released an API for their We The People petition site. In the spring they announced the National Day of Civic Hacking, set for June 1, 2013, and to celebrate were accepting applications to attend a hackathon on the grounds of the White House. I submitted a proposal for a WordPress plugin to embed petitions via shortcodes and widgets. To my surprise my plugin was approved and I was invited to attend the hackathon in Washington D.C.
