We want to welcome David Mugo as an official speaker at WordCamp Cape Town 2011. David is one of our international speakers, all the way from Kenya. The organizer of WordCamp Kenya, blogger, and social media & technology consultant, David will be hosting a session on WordPress as a CMS.
Tell us a bit about yourself
Am a 31 year old father of 2 lovely daughters, Charlene (7) & Charnele (5). I am an IT consultant and a social media marketing professional, these days seemingly more inclined to politics and governance. I have a Bsc IT but more than anything, I have learned a new thing each day since I started working online and interacting with people. So I would say I have a PHD in Life 🙂
Why WordPress?
The simplicity of WordPress. The elaborate database of plugins and themes. The ease to create anything off of it. The rapid development and growth. The SEO within the system. The fact that it takes me 5 minutes to train someone on how to update their site or blog on WordPress, because it is just the best content publishing system in the world!
What are your thoughts on the WordPress community as a whole? And the South African community?
Well, the rapid growth of WordPress whether in usage or in development is 100% attributed to the community. So I think its really a great community and so far it has moved us to a new level in publishing. About the South African community, I would prefer to talk about African… I am Kenya, I am African. The African community as it is with the entire growth in online presence is coming up very well and I can confidently say that Africa will take a global lead in technology very soon, especially in mobile and web applications.
Why did you decide to speak at WordCamp Cape Town?
Well, its a WordCamp in Africa. Its in South Africa and hey, Cape Town, I have heard quite a lot about it. It will be great to meet the WordPress community and also interact with the organizers as I am currently organizing WordCamp Kenya 2011 (http://2011.kenya.wordcamp.org) so for me, its a chance to share my experience with WordPress and also a learning experience.
What is your talk going to be about?
I will talk about using WordPress as a CMS, its advantages, its SEO capacities, how to pick a perfect theme, how to customize it to suit the need at hand and how to bring your social life into your business with WordPress. My talk will go deep into web marketing with WordPress as a platform and social interaction with your clients directly from your WordPress website.
What are you most looking forward to at WordCamp Cape Town?
Meeting the people of South Africa. Meeting the WordPress community and interacting with the organizers.
What is the one thing you want people to walk away with from your talk?
Well, it will be the fact that you do not just create a website to have a presence, its for it to work for you. The social interaction capabilities and search engine optimization in WordPress is just something to take and run with.
What is your favourite WordPress theme and/or plugin, and why?
That for me would be BuddyPress. This is because of the fact that besides interacting with the social community, it brings a community right into your site. Another reason for this is the fact that there is no other FREE social networking plugin or script with the power that is BuddyPress.
Share one WP tip
Well… PHP 5 & MySQL 5 – Best combination, no more worry about folder permissions and so forth. Just create your database and move on with the 3 minute installation.
Who in the WordPress community inspires you? Who do yo u follow?
Matt Mullenweg. Young and innovative. I like where Automattic is headed.
What is the most exciting feature/addition/improvement to WordPress that you have noticed in the last year?
Twentyeleven – the default theme. I think its amazing, even in my own blog, I did not see the need to change it. http://mugo.me uses the same theme.
Where do you see WordPress 2 years from now?
I guess with the current trend, WordPress will be in every little industry. It is currently used in all major industries and it is definitely moving far.
