Say āyubōvan to Yakapuu!

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A WordCamp is no fun without a Wapuu. We are very excited to introduce our very own Wapuu “Yakapuu” to represent WordCamp Colombo 2017!

What’s a Wapuu, you might ask? Wapuu is essentially the unofficial mascot of WordCamps. The idea was first floated in 2009 at the WordCamp Tokyo after-party, where Matt asked Japanese users for ideas to promote WordPress in Japan, and one of the suggestions was to create a mascot. One thing leads to another and finally, Wapuu was born! (Here’s the complete story for those who want to know more) Ever since then, almost every WordCamp has had their own Wapuu.

Yakapuu means wapuu wearing the “Gini Jala Raksha” mask. Wearing of masks in dance performances and the art associated with creating them are among the major cultural traditions in Sri Lanka. The masks being used in the Sri Lankan dances represent the four main types of our own ancestors:

  1. Yaksha
  2. Naga
  3. Rakus
  4. Deva

…and they are a representation of how they dressed to fight during the war.

In WordCamp Colombo 2017,  you will get to witness yourself, the “Ginijala Raksha Dance”. That is our “Wapuu Dance”!

 

 

Our Call for Speakers – Second Round!

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We are pretty amazed by the response to our first round of speakers.

Six speakers have been shortlisted so far, and we will be announcing their names soon.

Now, we have a few more slots remaining, and that warrants a second round of speaker applications. If you haven’t applied yet, now is a great chance — the deadline is midnight UTC, 9th August, 2017.

Click here to Apply

You will rub shoulders with our brilliant array of confirmed speakers who are joining us not just from Sri Lanka, but around the globe — from the United States, to South Africa and Japan!

The Topics

You could choose to talk on the following areas of WordPress – but you are welcome to suggest your own:

  • WordPress for Beginners
  • Design Thinking
  • Freelancing
  • Business growth
  • Community
  • Accessibility challenges
  • Content
  • Back-end development
  • JavaScript-driven Applications
  • Hosting
  • SaaS (software as a service)
  • UX (user experience)

The bottom line is, we want to hear your unique life experiences with WordPress!

Note: Our Call for Speakers (first round) has closed at midnight UTC, 9th August, 2017.

Grab a Jetpack at WordCamp Colombo 2017!

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We’re proud to announce Jetpack as our first Global Gold (Mahaweli) Sponsor!

One of the most popular WordPress plugins out there, Jetpack connects your site to the global services, community, and support provided by WordPress.com, so you can focus on the stuff that matters. It also automatically shields your site from the unwanted attention of spammers, hackers, and malware, while real-time sync and backup means you don’t have to worry about data loss.

Its straightforward traffic-building tools help you attract the attention of readers and search engines, and it allows your site’s pages and videos to be delivered at high speed from a global, ad-free content delivery network. Finally, Jetpack sends new content directly to your subscribers’ inboxes and shows readers related content, helping you increase page views per visitor and boost ad revenue.

Of course, there are tons of other features that you can take advantage of, when you install Jetpack for free, or purchase its advanced features.

If you haven’t tried Jetpack, the fact that it’s making WordCamp Colombo possible is a great reason to give it a go!

Call for Speakers

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Have a Great WordPress Experience to Share? You are Invited!

WordCamp Colombo 2017 is Sri Lanka’s first ever WordCamp, and being a speaker at this event will have a profound impact on our WordPress community. We are expecting to attract attendees from a wide range of interests within the WordPress world, and are therefore looking for an equally diverse array of speakers.

You don’t necessarily have to possess a decade of work experience to be a speaker. Remember, WordPress itself recently turned 14! Speaking is not even about dishing out tons of information while on stage — there is no shortage of information. It is not even about dazzling slideshows.

So what on earth are we looking for? We are looking to hear great, hard-hitting and memorable stories from your experience with WordPress. We want to motivate ourselves to deepen our understanding of the world’s most popular content management system!

If you need examples, check out the assortment of talks at WordPress.tv

The Topics

It would be wonderful to have talks related to the following areas of WordPress – but you are welcome to suggest your own:

  • WordPress for Beginners
  • Design Thinking
  • Freelancing
  • Business growth
  • Community
  • Accessibility challenges
  • Content
  • Back-end development
  • JavaScript-driven Applications
  • Hosting
  • SaaS (software as a service)
  • UX (user experience)

We’re welcoming applications from people in Sri Lanka and all over the world.

Presenting a talk at WordCamp is going to a fantastic experience for all of us involved. Even though WordCamp Colombo will not able to cover any travel or accommodation expenses, we will be available to support every speaker with advice in the run up to their talk.

Note: Our Call for Speakers (first round) has closed at midnight UTC, 21st July 2017.

 

A Conversation with Takayuki Miyoshi

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Contact Form 7 has been installed more than 3 million times and has an average rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars, making it one of the most sought after plugins in the WordPress ecosystem. It comes ready with REST API custom endpoints in its latest version.

Still, the author Takayuki Miyoshi is humble enough to call it “Just another contact form plugin. Simple but flexible.”

Contact Form 7

We were fortunate to have had an opportunity for a short, heart-to-heart conversation with Takayuki about his work, life and WordPress. Let us draw some inspiration from him:

First of all, could you tell us how your WordPress journey began?

Thirteen years ago, I was preparing to start a business. I needed to develop a web service, but I didn’t have enough skill to do it from scratch. I searched something I could use as a development base and found WordPress. Few people in Japan knew WordPress at the time.

Even now I discover new aspects of WordPress, and they always inspire me.

Takayuki Miyoshi

Takayuki Miyoshi, author of Contact Form 7

With 3 million plus active installs of Contact Form 7, WordPress would never have been the same without your contribution. What is your advice to WordPress lovers trying to draw inspiration from you, and make a similar dent in the WordPress universe?

You can learn a lot of great things from WordPress core design. Even now I discover new aspects of WordPress, and they always inspire me.

Could you share a few tips on being productive and efficient as a programmer?

I myself am not a productive or efficient programmer so I have no tip to share. I rather want to be a patient and deep thinking programmer who can make a difference in a large sense.

When you are not working with WordPress, how would you love spending your time?

Difficult question since I have no particular hobbies. Sid Meier’s Civilization often thieves my time.

We have seen a lot of local WordPress communities rising in various cities across the world. What advice would you give to these nascent communities, to help them keep rising and contributing to the global WordPress family?

I know maintaining a local community is really difficult. I’m not good at it. My advice is like this: Never mind if a meet-up doesn’t go well.

Finally, could we have a few words of guidance for young professionals thinking of building a career with WordPress?

  1. Keep the quality of your products high.
  2. Learn from quality feedback from users and other developers. That is essential.
  3. Keep your products open and free, both as in speech and as in beer!