Caroline Moore posted: "I'm happy to introduce two new themes in our collection: Affinity and Shoreditch. Affinity Affinity, designed by yours truly, is a classic one-page theme designed with weddings and family announcements in mind. Collect everything you need for your bi"
Affinity, designed by yours truly, is a classic one-page theme designed with weddings and family announcements in mind.
Collect everything you need for your big day on one easy-to-customize site — add an R.S.V.P. form, link to your favorite registries, or add stunning photos from the event itself. Keep your loved ones in the loop with a blog, and collect their messages and wishes for you in your guestbook.
However you use it, Affinity is an elegant solution for your wedding or family announcement.
Shoreditch, designed and developed by Thomas Guillot, is a responsive, and multi-purpose theme. Packed with a Panel Page Template and a Full-Width Page Temple, Shoreditch is a perfect solution for a company's online presence. Although its main purpose is business, Shoreditch looks great as a personal blog theme too, thanks to its flexibility and clean design.
Ben Huberman posted: "We love celebrating the achievements of those who use WordPress to share their talents with the world, so here are three recent success stories we thought you'd enjoy. If you're thirsty for more in-depth profiles of WordPressers and their accomplishments,"
We love celebrating the achievements of those who use WordPress to share their talents with the world, so here are three recent success stories we thought you'd enjoy. If you're thirsty for more in-depth profiles of WordPressers and their accomplishments, be sure to browse through our Discover features.
Modern love, modern families
Jerry Mahoney has been documenting the ups and downs of gay parenthood for years at his blog, Mommy Man (which also inspired a book by the same name). Last month he added another accolade to an already impressive list when his essay "Mom/Not Mom/Aunt" was featured on the New York Times' Modern Love podcast, narrated by none other than Modern Family's Jesse Tyler Ferguson:
Harmony France is a Chicago-based theater actor who's had enough of the body-shaming and narrow-minded casting decisions she's been subjected to in her decade in the industry. So she took to her blog to express her frustration -- and her hope for a better future for performers:
Theaters wonder how to stay relevant; how not to die off once their main audience literally dies off. This is how. We need to start casting in a way that looks like the world that we live in. Casting predominantly white and male is antiquated. It doesn't fly anymore. If we don't change with the times, we will become irrelevant. And worse, it's UNCREATIVE in a CREATIVE art form. We have so many more types of stories to tell with so many more different types of people. Let's do better.
The message of "Do Better" clearly resonated -- the post went viral on Harmony's blog as well as on the Huffington Post, and was written up around the web, from Mashable to the New York Times.
A book you'll want to judge by its cover
If you're like us, you may have wondered what Matthew Ramsay -- the chef and food stylist behind PornBurger -- has been up to. And why it's been so long since he shared any new, extravagant, gravity-defying burger creations with the salivating masses.
Well, the answer is here:
Ramsay's been hard at work on a new "cook-and-look" book, PornBurger: Hot Buns and Juicy Beefcakes, which is now available for pre-ordering (the official release date is May 17). That's quite a bun-to-blog-to-book success story.
What achievements have you and your blog been celebrating lately? Leave a comment to let us know.
Marjorie posted: "Automatticians, the people who build WordPress.com, participate in events and projects around the world every day. Periodically, they report back on the exciting things they do when not in front of a computer. Today I share my experiences meeting and ge"
Automatticians, the people who build WordPress.com, participate in events and projects around the world every day. Periodically, they report back on the exciting things they do when not in front of a computer.
CMS Africa Summit, where Automattic was a title sponsor, celebrates not only WordPress but open source software in general. The two-day event featured a jam-packed agenda of workshops, breakout sessions, keynotes, and even a hackathon, all targeting the fast-growing community of developers, business owners, startup founders, and bloggers in East Africa. Speakers from around the continent (and beyond) shared their expertise on building a business based on open source software and contributing to the community, to name just two topics.
My colleagues and I offered workshops on launching an eCommerce site and using Jetpack to expand WordPress' functionality. Job, Konstantin, and Gareth gave a joint keynote presentation on contributing to the WordPress project, while I offered tips on marketing a business both offline and online, based on my personal experiences running a successful startup for several years.
Job with fellow speaker Adedayo Ajibike and her family.
From left: Matty, Nelson Kwaje, Gareth (rear), David Wampamba, and Job.
Marjorie with an attendee.
Gareth and Job discussing open source with an attendee.
Yoza app founder Solomon Kitumba excelled as event emcee.
Grace Kokunda loves WordPress.
Matt Mullenweg made a «surprise appearance,» too.
Konstantin connects with an attendee.
Lunchtime!
The registration table.
Deborah chats with an attendee about hiring at Automattic.
Konstantin and attendee David Wampamba.
From left: Oduor Jagero (CMS Africa Summit co-organizer), entrepreneur Solomon Kitumba, and Job.
It was the most fun conference I've ever attended. How many tech events have you ever been to that included a giant "cash box," a tattoo competition, or, inexplicably, an enormous, glowing white orb dotted with the iconic W logo? My favorite part of the entire event was running into a young attendee in the women's bathroom -- she was applying what appeared to be a couple dozen of the temporary WordPress tattoos we'd brought along as swag giveaways. None of us were surprised when we learned that she ultimately won the competition. Clearly, the love for WordPress (and WordPress swag) runs deep here.
What we took away from the event, however, were the astounding energy, drive, talent, and intelligence that we witnessed during those remarkable two days, and the thirst we observed for open source software and what it can do to transform communities. Africa's technology sector is booming, and we're excited to have met many of its most passionate and inspiring pioneers.
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