Scott Voth GSLIS 747 – Queens College

Posts vs. Pages “Posts” Blog entries Dynamic Date Driven Archived Comments Trackbacks Can be Syndicated - RSS Pages Static (more or less) Not date oriented No trackbacks, RSS More like a traditional web page Comments also allowed Examples: e-Portfolios, About pages, CVs, library web pages, subject guides

Changing A Blog to a Website In the “Settings” tab on the WordPress dashboard, under “Reading” you can control how your blog opens. Does it show a collection of posts or a static page? And what page (if any) will display the blog posts. See below how to set:

WordPress as a Content Management System (CMS) What is a CMS Most simply – a way to organize, display, and maintain a collection Collections of books, pictures, articles, documentation, etc. May include a blog or not Drupal is another example of a more complex CMS Omeka is another example, specializing in digital images Open Journal Systems – example of CMS for Journals

WordPress 3.0 & Custom Post Types WordPress 3.0 –“Thelonius” released June, 2010 The 13 th major software release of the product major changes to the product No longer have only 2 choices (i.e. posts and pages) You can create custom templates that appear on the dashboard – for example, create a “book” post type You can create custom taxonomies. So for example, in the book template: you can include a “book type” taxonomy. So when you choose to “Add a Book”, within your template you are given a drop-down with book “type” choices: thriller, novel, poetry, self-help, etc. So each time you add a book, you can select a type.

How can this be used? Hypothetical Library Application Suppose you wanted to use WordPress to manage your library’s Book Club Create three custom post types, (1)Book, (2)Book Club Meeting and (3)Book Review. Then on your dashboard, you have the following options: “Add New Book” – you can use to add to your collection of Books to be read by book club members “Add New Meeting” – post news of future meetings, including time, place, google map of how to get there, which book to discuss “Add New Book Review” – members can go on-line and write a review, select a book from the list, select a 10-star rating, etc.

Multi-User environment WordPress allows two types of multi-user environments Single blog that allows different users to contribute (i.e. our sample Book Club Application) Installations which allow multiple, individual blogs (i.e. CUNY Academic Commons) Permissions are granular: Administrator – can do everything Editor – publish posts, manage other peoples posts Author – publish and manage own posts Contributor – can write own posts, but cannot manage posts Subscriber – can comment and get notifications

WordPress and Open Source Established Community of Developers, Testers and Documentors All code is totally available to modify as you like WordPress is divided into three sections: Core code – managed by WordPress Team and released incrementally Plug-ins – contributed by anyone Themes – contributed by anyone Typical “LAMP” application (Linux operating system, Apache Web Server, MySQL Database, PHP scripting)

Themes Themes change the way your blog looks. downloadable and interchangeable currently 1,236 free themes – available at Wordpress.orgWordpress.org At WordPress.com there are about 100 themes WordPress screens all theme before posting them. They are not allowed to show sponsorship, advertisement, etc. except for the creator of the theme. Different in WordPress.com where ads can be placed on your blogs to help pay for their services “Premium” themes are available at a cost from designers

Themes – cont. Modifying & configuring themes As open source code, users can simply copy and modify themes to create their own, customized themes “Edit CSS” on the dashboard lets you override CSS found in the theme. If you know CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) – easy way to change a color, make a font bigger, etc. Configurable themes – many themes offer options on the dashboard to change images. Atahualpa theme – totally configurable

Plug-ins plug-ins extend core WordPress functionality Currently 11,311 plugins available at WordPress.orgWordPress.org Plug-ins not available at WordPress.com Each plug-in shows stats to see how often it has been downloaded, and a five star rating Anthologize – case study how an open source community collaborates to create plug-ins One Week / One Tool – “digital barn-raising” Anthologize One Week / One Tool Other examples of plugins: Wiki append; Apture; Site Map; Slideshow;

WordPress & Pedagogy WordPress is widely used in colleges and universities Some major projects at CUNY Looking for Whitman - a "multi-campus experiment in digital pedagogy" involving four separate schools: New York City College of Technology (CUNY), NYU, University of Mary Washington, and Rutgers. Looking for Whitman CUNY Academic Commons – mashup of WordPress, BuddyPress and MediaWiki. Open to grad students and CUNY faculty. CUNY Academic Commons Blogs at Baruch “an on-line publishing platform platform" for the Baruch Community. Blogs at Baruch

WordPress & Pedagogy, cont. E-Portfolios at Macauley Honors College - students are encouraged to create e-Portfolios to collect school work, reflect upon it, and "present it to a range of different audiences." E-Portfolios at Macauley Honors College CAC.OPHONY (Conversations in communication across the curriculum) is "a weblog on communication- intensive instruction at the college level and its implications for students about to face the challenges of writing and speaking publicly in professional settings." CAC.OPHONY

WordCampNYC 2010 Baruch College, October – for info see this linklink Cost around $30 for both days – less for a single day Fascinating look at an Open Source Community in action Plugin developers Bloggers Theme designers Various ways to use WordPress Over 2,500 people attended last year