March is WordPress month with more WordCamps and WordPress Meetups than ever. Will April beat it? Lester Chan makes a WordPress PowerPoint Template for presentations. WordPress wins the Best Irish Blogs Awards. FeedBurner transfer deadline is this weekend. Adobe Flash security vulnerability found, impacting many Plugins and WordPress blogs. And a lot more WordPress news coming your way.

WordPress News

The Best Bloggers in Ireland Use WordPress: Donncha O’Caoimh attended the Best Irish Blogs awards and reports that WordPress powers the best Irish blogs. Cathal Garvey created a comparison chart that found WordPress and WordPress.com represented 66% of the nominees, followed by Blogspot, then Movable Type. Has another country done similar comparisons?

WordPress PowerPoint Presentation Template: In anticipation of presenting a WordPress program at Blogout’09 in Singapore, Lester Chan went looking for a WordPress style template for Powerpoint. He couldn’t find one. So he created the WordPress PowerPoint Template that uses the official WordPress Logos and Graphics and looks very WordPress 2.7. He offers it free for anyone else searching as he did. Thanks, Lester! read more

Can you spot a WordPress blog? Are you sure? WordPress 2.7.1 released. Improvements on the WordPress Plugin Directory search functions. Help for those transferring from LiveJournal to WordPress.com, and WordPress in the future. WordPress 2.8 development on track. WordPress iPhone app in testing for next release. WordPress.com gets a new data center. More WordPress Tattoo news. WordCamps in Miami and India this weekend, Denver next. Singapore starts its first blogger meetup, including WordPress fans. WordPress jobs, and tips for WordPress Plugin and Theme authors.

WordPress News

WordPress 2.7.1 Released: WordPress 2.7.1, a maintenance release, is out. If you are using WordPress 2.7, take advantage of the automatic built-in upgrade. If you are not, then consider upgrading to WordPress 2.7. Sixty-five files were modified with 68 bug and feature fixes and improvements, and I covered more details about the release on my blog.

Improvements in the WordPress Plugin Directory: At long last, the WordPress Plugin Directory now has a new and improved search function using Sphinx open source SQL full-text search engine to help you find the Plugins you need in the directory from the site as well as the WordPress Plugins panel.

Improved LiveJournal Migration: For those looking to migrate from LiveJournal to WordPress.com, there is now an even easier LiveJournal migration process that the WordPress.com team has come up with to help the ever increasing number of people moving to WordPress.com from one of the oldest blogging platforms in the world. The new technique is a step by step approach that improves the importing from importing by the month without comments to now include comments, handle “friends only” posts, private posts, improvements in tagging, link back to LiveJournal blogs, and connection to the LiveJournal API to download all posts and comments in one pass. One LiveJournal users helped test the importer which handled over 3,700 posts and nearly 200,000 comments. The new importer will be included in the next major release of the full version of WordPress. read more

WordPress 2.7.1 is out. The first ever permanent tattoo of the WordPress logo is embedded. BuddyPress helps change how WordPressMU handles Plugins. New WordPress Plugin development book due soon. WordCamp Germany this weekend, with Miami and Denver coming up. New insights into WordPress 2.8 under the hood. And more from WordPress.tv and WordPress fan blogs.

WordPress News

WordPress 2.7.1 Released: WordPress 2.7.1, a maintenance release, is out. If you are using WordPress 2.7, take advantage of the automatic built-in upgrade. If you are not, then consider upgrading to WordPress 2.7. Sixty-five files were modified with 68 bug and feature fixes and improvements, and I covered more details about the release on my blog.

Permanent WordPress Tattoo: Ed Morita of Baker’s Hours in Hawaii is the first to put a permanent tattoo of the WordPress logo on his body. In January, he invited readers and WordPress fans to tell him where to place the tattoo and the wrist was the most popular response. I covered the event live on my blog, on the WordCast podcast, on Twitter (@lorelleonwp and @NctrnlBst), and it was picked up by many, including Mashable. In Ed’s story about the tattoo, he explains that it is meant to represent what it would look like if his skin was torn off to reveal a circuit board underneath with the WordPress logo. There has been much debate over whether or not the logo is the “right” one, and Matt Mullenweg confirms that it is the correct logo. The news has prompted another person on Twitter to hold an auction to get a tattoo, and several news agencies have contacted Ed Morita to cover the story. read more

WordPress.tv announced. Know the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org? A Tweet sums it up. WordCamp Whistler this weekend. If you use the WordPress logo, Matt Mullenweg wants you to use the right one. Last chance to have your say on the first permanent WordPress tattoo. City saves money choosing WordPress. And more WordPress news and information.

WordPress News

Watching WordPress.tv: WordPress.tv is your WordPress channel for watching all things WordPress. It features videos put together by WordPress staff and others on how to use WordPress and WordPress tips and techniques. The tutorials cover the full version of WordPress and WordPress.com. There is also a WordCampTV channel to watch the videos from WordCamp events around the world.

WordPress versus WordPress.com Overheard: The difference between WordPress and WordPress.com was recently explained on Twitter as:

@TheGeneTeam Diff between wp.com & wp.org is freedom. Org is freedom to tweak. Com is freedom to just blog. :D One free, other free with expenses.

Matt Mullenweg’s New Year’s Resolutions and Birthday Celebration: Among Matt’s new year’s resolutions is to get the WordPress Community using the correct WordPress logo. He’s created a comparison image to convince everyone to use the right logo. He worked hard to come up with the current logo created a few years ago.

Update on WordPress Logogate: Many thought the issue Matt had with the community generated WordPress logo was the colors. Matt has corrected this with a clear graphic explanation of what his issue is with the community-generated logos and the trademarked, real WordPress logo. It’s not the color, it’s the font. He worked hard to get the right font for the “W” in the logo. You can color it whatever color you want, just keep that pretty “W” font in its place. Thanks for clearing that fine detail up for us, Matt.

Let’s help Matt make his new year’s resolution and goals come true and use the right logo. I’ll be updating them here in the next issue. read more

For the first time, the internet is a stronger source of national and international news in the US than the newspaper. This according to a study from the Pew Research Center, with a summary published online containing a lot more information for the number crunching media enthusiast. According to the study, 40% say that they get most of their news from the internet, while just 35% cite the newspapers as their source. Now, that doesn’t mean that they are bypassing the New York Times, they might just be reading it online. Television is down from 74% in 2007 to a mere 70% (!), and by far the strongest source of news in the US.

For young people, however, the internet now rivals television as a main source of national and international news. Nearly six-in-ten Americans younger than 30 (59%) say they get most of their national and international news online; an identical percentage cites television. In September 2007, twice as many young people said they relied mostly on television for news than mentioned the internet (68% vs. 34%).

If I was in the television industry, I’d be worried about now.

Yesterday, Twitter was used as a real-time news conference podium by the Consulate General of Israel in New York and featured on their Israel news and commentary blog, Israel Politik. In this ongoing series on Exploring Social Media and Social Media Tools, the politics in issue are not up for discussion, but the manner in how this popular social media tool was used to great a Q&A forum for discussion of a current event is worth discussing.

Called a Citizens’ “Press” Conference on Twitter, from 1300 – 1500 EST on December 30, David Saranga, Israel Consul of Media and Public Affairs in New York, answered questions regarding the situation in the Middle East regarding Israel and Gaza and all parties involved. Questions were submitted to their Twitter account, @IsraelConsulate and attempts were made to respond to the questions through the 140 character limit, with those requiring lengthy answers would be posted on the Israel Politik blog.

There were no rules, other than the typical “play nice” and all questions were welcome from any and all angles. While Mr. Saranga was the host of the Twitter event, I’m sure he had a lot of help from his staff at the Consulate to respond to the flood of questions.

Within a very short time, the “edited” version of the Twitter conference was posted in sections on the Israel Politik blog. They explained what they meant by “edited” as: read more

The first ever Teens in Tech Conference is January 31, 2009, at Microsoft San Francisco.

This unusual event, the brain child of Daniel Brusilovsky of Daniel Brusilovsky of Teens in Tech and Apple Universe, and his business partner, Sam Levin, will gather together some of the most brilliant teen minds, and former teen minds, in one room to talk web and multimedia technology.

This one day event in San Francisco will bring teen and adult participants together with some of the hottest teens and former teens in web technology, development, and multimedia technology. Speakers include:

• Daniel Brusilovsky of Teens in Tech
• Jake Jarvis
• Derek Johnson of Tatango
• Dom Sagolla of DollarApp
• Mark Bao
• Mazy Kazerooni
• Rishabh “Shooby” Kumar
• Kyle Neath
• Sam Purtill
• Sam Levin
• Adam Jackson of Daily Tech Talk
• Jessica Mah of Jessica Mah Meets World
• Eric Kerr
• Mark Dwight of Rickshaw Bagworks
• Adam Debreczeni
• Martina Butler of Emo Girl Talk

There are still some seats available, but the expectation is that this will quickly fill up. Register now. Ticket prices are USD $20 – 30 for those under 18 and those over, respectively.

The Twitter account to track for the Teens in Tech Conference is @teensintechconf. The hashtag is #teensintechconf.

In case you haven’t visited the Google homepage today (as if that were how you got all your news), it’s World AIDS Day today.

According to Google Blog Search, over 13,000 blogs have talked about World AIDS Day in the last 24 hours. That’s more than participated in Blog Action Day 2008, which focused on poverty.

Some indications of mass blog participation and the impact of social media on this event:

• BlogPulse is showing a major spike in mentions of “aids” or “World AIDS Day.”
• AIDS.gov has a blog at the official website for the US government’s AIDS prevention and information resource.
• Bloggers Unite, a service of BlogCatalog, has recruited the BlogCatalog user base of tens of thousands of people to participate in World AIDS Day.
• Technorati shows dozens of high-authority blog posts discussing World AIDS Day 2008 in the past couple of days.
• “World AIDS Day” is one of Twitter’s hottest phrases right now.

read more

Blog World Expo is in Las Vegas this weekend, September 20-21, 2008. I’m going to be there with Woopra, Layered Tech, and WordPress, and from the look of the Conference Schedule, so is everyone else.

The list of Exhibitors in the Exhibition Hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center this year is incredibly diverse. So many companies want to reach out to bloggers, and so many blog, social media, and web technologies are popping up everywhere – it’s going to be interesting to learn what’s hot, what’s not, and what will be the future of the web.

Some of the exhibitors I hope to meet up with include: read more

On the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall in the U.S., another storm named Gustav weaves a path through the Caribbean that could end in New Orleans as early as next Monday.

Here are some of the best places online to track Hurricane Gustav’s progress and impact.

Please share your links in the comments. Let’s make this a useful resource for people who may be affected by Hurricane Gustav. read more