I know, it’s been a while since I posted an article here at WordPress PAD. I have a good excuse, I’ve been hard at work developing websites using WordPress as a CMS (and blog). In the past few months I have learned a great deal about what WordPress can and cannot do…mostly what can be done to it with a little grease, time and patience.

With that said, working on a current project where I had to implement a bbpress forum with a current wordpress blog installation, I realized that bbPress, although a sister software of WordPress, is not the best solution for WordPress forum integration for two reasons. One, it’s quite buggy and two, it’s not a smooth integration.

If you don’t know, Hollywood writers are on strike. First it was Late Night TV shows like David Letterman and the Daily Show, then prime time TV production like The Office halted production. The last strike in 1988 lasted 22 days and cost production companies $500 million. This current strike “pits union writers, whose position has been eroded by reality television and galloping technological change, against studios and networks that are backed by big corporate owners. Ultimately, the two sides gridlocked over the writers’ insistence on a sharp increase in their residuals payments for the re-use of movies and shows on DVDs and on new payments for the distribution of such works on the Internet, over cell phones and elsewhere. Producers refused to boost the DVD payments and rebuffed demands related to electronic distribution, arguing that industry economics and still-shifting technology made accommodation impossible. ” (NY Times) This got me thinking, how do we define publishing given the numerous types of media used to display content on the Internet alone?

When I first started building websites and blogs I toured a few content management systems that were all but ridiculous to figure out. Though, at the time there were a few out there that were simplified for the non-designer or non-developer, me being me, I needed something more robust and endlessly flexible. Joomla and Drupal were a couple I explored but both, especially Drupal, were just so incomprehensible. Of course, the modules, extensions, etc. gibberish make sense to me now, but back then, I was just as lost as the average person trying to learn either a new language or a new system. In fact, looking back on those maddening weeks of hyper-research, I realized now, with Web 3.0 looming and Web 2.0 in full throttle, that it’s often language that is a barrier in learning, using and adapting any new way of doing something or any new system, especially on the Internet which is still very new to many people. At least, the way many of us use it now. In this article I’ll attempt to break down common gibberish (lingo) used to explain simple concepts in this new age of the Internet and put them in context.

‘Tis the Season for all the family mania. Who’s doing what, when, where and how. Thanksgiving is fast approaching and Christmas will be just around the corner, then New Year’s. Many of you are in the midst of planning where you’ll be spending the Holidays and with whom and for how long. Phone calls, email lists, letters, cards, yadda, yadda. Why not step into this new generation of online communication. Blogs, Forums and Social Networks are ideal for staying in touch, planning and updating family members and friends from across the globe, especially during the Holidays.

Think about it: events happen all the time; times and places are always changing; you often live in different cities, states, countries and continents; and when it comes to keeping in touch, we’re all a bit lazy and avoiding phone calls is a staple of being a part of any family (blood or non-blood related). Not to mention, your phone bills may decrease dramatically. You can love talking on the phone, but there are those certain friends and family members who simply do not. Enter the Internet. Emails are great, but they can get unruly when trying to plan trips, events and so forth. Enter, blogs, forums and networks.