We are very happy to announce Dan Milward, founder and owner of Instinct Entertainment as a speaker at WordCamp Cape Town. Dan will be hosting a Tech/Development track session on the WP e-Commerce plugin and the Open Source community.
Tell us a bit about yourself
I’m an entrepreneur from New Zealand. I’m into writing, technology, and computer games. I got into WordPress way back in the day before it was even called WordPress, a group of friends and I ran a technology blog on B2 which eventually became WordPress, ever since then I have used WordPress for various projects.
Why WordPress?
Because its the best framework to build a business on and it has a kick ass community.
What are your thoughts on the WordPress community as a whole? And the South African WP community?
I’ve been a part of the WordPress community for over 8 years and I’ve come to love it – its full of technically savvy and fun individuals.
My experience with the South African WP community is mixed, I’ve worked with innovating companies like LightSpeed WordPress Development that are amazing, and then I’ve worked with some not so innovative companies, I guess it varies. For the most part the WP community knows no boundaries – I work with people all over the world, maybe its just luck that some of the best I’ve worked with are from your part of the world.
Why did you decide to speak at WordCamp Cape Town?
Because I’m an advocate for our WP e-Commerce Plugin and I want to network with as many of you as possible. We’re building an ecosystem and we want your people to be a part of it.
What is your talk going to be about?
I’m going to show people a few of the things we’re working on at the moment. Then I’m going to talk about running a WordPress business and selling your own Premium Plugins online.
What are you most looking forward to at WordCamp Cape Town?
Has to be the opportunity to meet with and collaborate with Ashley and his team, Ash and his team have been supporters of the WP e-Commerce Plugin for a long time now and its about time we met in person.
What is the one thing you want people to walk away with from your talk?
That the WP e-Commerce Plugin is the only truly innovative and retail ready e-Commerce Plugin in the world, proof of this is that the competition are not doing anything particularly ground breaking and are basically copying in our footsteps, I honestly believe we’re literally years ahead of the pack.
We’re committed to innovating in the e-Commerce space, both in terms of new themes and new features. We’re not going away and we’re here to support our community.
What is your favourite WordPress theme and/or plugin, and why?
The WP e-Commerce Plugin of course.
Share one WP tip
If you’re a developer looking to get into WordPress then buy the book:
http://justintadlock.com/plugindevbook
Who in the WordPress community inspires you? Who do you follow?
John James Jacoby inspires me and I follow him. He’s a top chap with good morals and he’s a great coder.
What is the most exciting improvement to WordPress that you have noticed in the last year?
The bbPress template engine. It allows you to activate Child Themes for Plugins – Plugins have always needed a better “official” system for handling the HTML and CSS. John and Co have cracked that with bbPress.
Where do you see WordPress 2 years from now?
Faster with rock solid functionality around the media management. The Nux not Sux stuff is cool – its something we’re going to integrate with WPEC, and it actually ties into Game Theory which is something I’m quite passionate about.
One of the things that people talk about with Game Theory is UI and creating “Game Like” interface that rewards people and hints people in the right direction to ensure a positive and productive user experience.
