In WordCamp Indonesia 2010, our Project Management ninja Setyagus Sucipto delivered a presentation. He spoke about WordPress as content management system (CMS).

WordPress itself is supposed to be the simplest blogging platform ever. Automattic team and the WordPress community have someway developed it that anyone can manage his own WordPress-powered site without a coding knowledge.

However, as Setyagus pointed out, with a proper CMS you can even further simplify your WordPress.

A proper CMS can help you:
- Simply and easily manage your site
- Hide complicated code and algorithm
- Automate templates
- Easily edit content
- Set scalable features
- Upgrade web standards
- Power up user role
- Manage workflow

“But why should we simplify the already simple WordPress backend?” The answer would be, “Why not?” After all, WordPress does has some limitations as in limited accessible user role and unhidden complicated code.

With the proper CMS you can bridge the plugin; it means you can modify plugins as you need them to be.

With the proper CMS you can, too, modify user role that a user has limited access to each category, or can only post to specific categories, or is prevented from any post unrelated to his privileges.

Ssst, this CMS is actually our own CMS. One of best things you’ll find here is the drag-dropping menu manager, a feature you’re about to see in the upcoming WordPress 3.0.

Here is Setyagus Sucipto’s presentation in slideshow:

Meanwhile, Beau Lebens delivered a presentation on the upcoming WordPress 3.0. As expected, we can and should expect some new features coming with the latest version although Lebens mention 3.0 as, “just another number.’ As in:

WordPress and WordPress MultiUser (MU) merge

With your very own WordPress you will be able to create optionally a single site (as you’ve done with WordPress) or multi-sites (as you’ve done with WordPress MU).

Custom post_types

WordPress users will be able to create multiple custom post as its type.

Menu manager

You will be able to customize menu simply with drag and drop.

New default theme

WordPress 3.0 is scheduled to be released on April, 13. While the public beta is on March, 1. You can check future releases here.

http://wordpress.org/about/roadmap/

Lebens also described what we are going to see in WordPress community throughout 2010. As in:

WordPress mobile app

WordPress is coming to iPhone and Blackberry.

http://iphone.wordpress.org

http://blackberry.wordpress.org

New committers

There will be 3 more WordPress warriors joining the WordPress core development team. Way to go, guys!

Trac workflow

Trac workflow is where/how you keep track on bug-killing in web development. WordPress is going to have its own Trac.

WPDevel.wordpress.com

http://wpdevel.wordpress.com

Here you can get the latest updates on WordPress development.

Core plugin

There are plenty of plugins out there, developed by the great WordPress community. But not all of them comes with great user support. You may find issue on your installed plugin, yet its developer is unreachable. Through the new core plugin, a one official stop for WordPress plugins, Automattic expects such issue can be eliminated.

Ideas forum

http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas

Here is you can share your brilliant ideas for WordPress. The community will rate them, and if that ideas of yours get nice rating, they may be included in future versions of WordPress.

New UI for WordPress.org

You can change but the change itself. WordPress is constantly changing its appearance, and YOU can become part of it. Contact janeforshort.

http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-ui

BuddyPress

Since WordPress 3.0 = WordPress + WordPress MU, Automattic is developing it further that you can install it on your WordPress. Awesome!

bbPress

http://bbpress.org

bbPress is a CMS bulletin board developed by Automattic. In future time it will be integrated with WordPress.

GlotPress

http://glotpress.org

The translation project by Automattic for WordPress has developed as vastly as WordPress itself. With this translator team coming from all over the world you can have your very own native language on your WordPress dashboard.

BackPress

http://
Here you can check the documentation on WordPress core function PHP.

CodePoet

Officially created by Automattic, here is where you can find WordPress consultants who specialize in building WordPress sites. In the list are WordPress web designers and developers from North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, South America and Africa. Care to join them?

Here is Beau Lebens’ presentation in slideshow:

Admittedly having a great fondness into WordPress, Valent Mustamin has successfully held two WordCamps in Indonesia. Here is a sneak peek into his mind, what he thinks and feels about Indonesian WordPress community.

In a web development term, what have you done with WordPress?

I don’t see myself as a web developer. I prefer being a WordPress evangelist. Sometimes I code, sometimes I design. I once designed some themes a bit better than Kubrick, modified some plugins just a bit here and a bit there.

But my greatest contribution to WordPress community is in fact how I’ve tried to introduce WordPress to almost anyone I met. I’ve been so thrilled in a debate on the best CMS. When a conversation on Drupal, Joomla, WordPress ever comes up, I’d be happy to go head to head with them.

Just about 2 years ago I developed the first Indonesian video portal site. Won’t drip details on the company. It belongs to a discharged cable TV, that’s all I can say.

WordCamp has been held in some countries, including Indonesia. What are the requirements?

To be frank, there is no special requirement. Every country can hold a WordCamp. It’s just… It seems like the Automattic peeps love to see stats. You know what I mean. Indonesia gitu lho.

When the first WordCamp was held here, the initial idea was… It was actually not the WordCamp itself, but the possibility of Matt Mullenweg coming to Indonesia. His name was surely a guarantee. After he’d committed to come, I prepared the event. In less than two months I did everything needed: registration, publication and other stuff. Thank God Matt responded to it positively. He was so excited to find out on his own the fact that WordPress users in Indonesia is statistically high.

At that time, I think WordCamp would’ve meant nothing if Matt Mullenweg wouldn’t come. But he did. So if you ask me about requirements, I’d definitely say: passion and statistic.

I’m sure you had ups and downs in organizing some event, especially the huge one as WordCamp Indonesia. What was the biggest obstacle you were facing while organizing WordCamp Indonesia?

Hahaha… Plenty, Dear, plenty. From the beginning I’d never thought of money. I organized WordCamp not to boost my bank account. I was really an idealist. Even if I had to throw in my own money to drag Matt onto the stage, I’d do it. Hahaha…

I just wanna have a huge international event in Indonesia. And the only thing I’m familiar with is WordPress.

Oh yeah, dunno what you’d call this, but when the words finally came out and peeps found out I organized it, they seemed surprised, as if a Valent Mustamin couldn’t have done it with such an international event, on WordPress, with Matt’s name printed on its invitation, hahaha…

In the end, for me, it felt like an up, not a down. I loved it when I tweeted, “Gue bisa mendatangkan Matt Mullenweg ke Indonesia #bestof2009.”

Please note that I’m not boasting here. I’m just glad that I could do it, while I’m in fact just an ordinary person.

As for WordCamp Indonesia 2010, I think it went quite well. Don’t you think?

How do you see the growth of Indonesian WordPress community?

Amazing. Insanely amazing. Too bad they haven’t exposed themselves to the world.

In the first WordCamp I tried to map the community. I found it was quite arguably “messy” since it’s been affected by the surrounding factors: social media, digital, blogging, developer, marketing, author, etcetera.

In this year’s WordCamp I found a better opportunity to actually map it. That was why I intentionally drove WordCamp 2010 to be more geeky.

If we speak about blogging, I’m sure everyone agrees that blogging community in Indonesia is the greatest. But the geeky side of it… Well, that one is quite unrevealed. Yet.

There are many talents in Indonesia, but sadly, they haven’t been managed well. Everyone seems to love working on his own.

I think it’s a shame… Spending our time on the screen without spitting it out to the world. I wanna see more active wranglers, as currently active end users.

That was why I didn’t expect Matt’s appearance in the second WordCamp. He’s been too business-thingy now. I invited Automattic’s wrangler (Beau Lebens, red) instead, hoping that he could inspire us all. I wanna show you that we, Indonesians, can do what those foreigners have done. That was why I proposed *censored* to come, to perform on the stage, hahaha…

We have great WordPress warriors with great work. Some themes have in fact won in international WordPress theme contests. What should we do to reveal those “hidden” talents to the world?

By having the courage to publish it. The courage to go head-to-head against ThemeSharper or CrowdFavorite, for instance. Make sure those work are Indonesian-made, by local talents.

For coders, I strongly suggest you to directly contribute in WordPress development. Speak out loud in WordPress mailing lists, both official and inofficial. Set your feet on WordPress support forums. By contributing directly and courageously, I’m sure you guys will be spotted.

Oh, one thing for sure, we have to support ourselves. Let’s build a solid WordPress community where everyone supports each other.

What does Automattic find in Indonesian WordPress community?

As I stated earlier, the statistic is amazing… You know, Jakarta is the largest city in the world accessing WordPress… I can say that Indonesia is one of the most important countries for them.

Please spoil us with your wishes for WordCamp and Indonesian WordPress community.

Wishes, eh? Fiuhhh… What can I say… I have so many wishes, hahaha…

But the greatest wish would be a greater involvement of Indonesian WordPress community in the next WordCamps.

Won’t go on details, I wanna keep some secrets here, hahaha… And I’m still tired, won’t think much of WordCamp now.

iCreativeLabs, one among few WordPress theme developers in Indonesia, was invited to WordCamp Indonesia 2010 held in Jakarta. Since we are kick-ass WordPress ninjas, sure, we’d love to come.

iCreativelabs’ ninjas, however, do not live in Jakarta. And frankly, it was quite a long, dangerous journey we had to take.

The CSS ninja Zam left his Malang home on Thursday afternoon. By 16-hour of train ride he finally got himself into the biggest city in Indonesia for the first time ever.

To avoid getting lost in Jakarta, Zam stayed in Istiqlal grand mosque. iCreativelabs’ long-time bestfriend, Deon, picked him up at 4 p.m. and took him to Anggi Krisna’s parents’ home in Bintaro, Tangerang. It was our emergency basecamp, set up specially for WordCamp Indonesia 2010.

The content writing ninja Dian Ara, due to a tiny miss communication, had not admitted herself to WordCamp 2010 till the last minute. Thank God she could be there.

With the rest of ninjas: Anggi Krisna, Ibnu Triyono, Sulaeman and Budi, she took a car ride from Bandung on Friday 6 p.m. It was raining so hard that Anggi, behind the wheel, had to drive steadily at 60 km/h for the 160 km journey, and we arrived at Jakarta almost 3 hours later.

Too bad the web design ninja Momo could not make it. She had another event going on in her Solo home.

Meanwhile Setyagus Sucipto, the Project Management ninja who delivered a presentation at WordCamp Indonesia 2010, went to Jakarta in a separate way. His 4-year-old son asked to play with him that very Friday evening, and he surely could not refuse it.

At midnight Agus called the 24-hour Bandung-Jakarta travel agency X-Trans but no seat was available. Too exhausted after being a good dad, he woke up at 6 a.m. and missed the 5 a.m. ticket. He finally got a seat at 7 a.m (thanks, City Trans!).

Back to the car-riding ninjas, finding the venue itself turned out to be harder than designing a WordPress theme. We spent an hour driving 15 km (Bintaro – Depok) and almost missed the last turn–we did wish there were some guidance banners. Add another hour for the back home driving; we were stuck in a traffic jam as Jakmania–Jakarta’s Persija supporters–were convoying on main roads.

But our journey was not in vain. We met great WordPress warriors in WordCamp Indonesia 2010, including Beau Lebens from Automattic. We have learnt so much things about WordPress. It was such a golden, unforgettable moment in our life. Can’t wait to see you guys again next year!

*Even while this article was being written, Zam was taking his way back home by bus. No train seat was available, and he almost lose the bus ticket he had previously booked as the bus drivers were on a strike. *faint* A long 565 km journey to Malang, with thunderous rain and a collapsed huge tree forcing his train to stop a few hours, we could only pray that he’d get home safe and sound.

WordPress is undoubtedly the most powerful blogging platform ever. It works really well with plenty of greatly useful plugins and CMS, allowing its users to have their blogs run as awesome websites.

Such state has built a solid WordPress community, proven by its annual WordCamp.

WordCamp is an international WordPress conference, held annually in various countries where WordPress enthusiasts gather to share their fondness and knowledge of WordPress. One of the respectable country is Indonesia.

WordCamp Indonesia is actually very young, though it does not diminish its significance. The first one was held in Jakarta last year. And the second is going to be held in that very same capital city of Indonesia on 2010, January 30th.

iCreativelabs, a well-known team of WordPress e-commerce theme ninjas, is invited to share experience and stories on WordPress CMS. One of the ninjas, Setyagus Sucipto, is scheduled to perform on stage, speaking about how WordPress can be so easy for everyone to use.

WordCamp ID 2010 host Valent Mustamin makes the right choice. iCreativelabs has released several WordPress e-commerce themes as AppCloud, which has received so many positive responds in only 3 months.

If you want to know (and why wouldn’t you?) about WordPress and CMS, be there. Join us in WordCamp Indonesia 2010. Lots of fun, we are sure of it.