This will be a very special presentation on FlashPress – Bridging Two Worlds. I have been working really hard on this project with a local firm in Toronto, OneMethod, and developers Ryan Andal (zeropattern), and Darryl Cheung (deezilla). This is a project that started over a year ago at PHUG with a bunch of students from Seneca College.

We did an alpha launch and presentation at WordCamp Toronto this year, and we are now ready for the beta  at WordCamp Montreal, you don’t want to miss this one!

Description: FlashPress is an extension to WordPress, which allows the ability to use an essentially PHP based CMS to communicate with a Flash site. The FlashPress project aims to develop a new WordPress bundle that will allow anybody to download, install, choose a template, and be up running with a fully CMS backed Flash site or blog in minutes. As part of this project we will be publicly documenting the process, code, and challenges along the way.

This will mark the first WordCamp in Montreal and so far they are off to a great start! They have landed an excellent location in downtown Montreal, SAT ( La Société des arts technologiques ), some really great sponsors, and an excellent list of speakers. I have also heard through the grapevine there will be an opening night party at the St. Sulpice.

So make sure you register for tickets now before it’s to late!

We’re making some changes! As you may already know, we’re currently re-modeling the main BackSpaceStudios website. As part of our new look we have decided to take BackSpace in a new direction. We are focusing our efforts on “Building Better Communities”.

What this this all mean? Our philosophy is simple. We believe in Open Source Design and technology and practice this philosophy in all our work. It’s about using Open Source Tools to create an interactive, engaging, accessible, and intuitive experience for every community.

It is our goal to bring Open Source to the commercial workspace, deliver alternatives, and change the face of design as we know it! it is our responsibillity to build a better web and help foster Social Media and Networking.

This new philosophy comes with new services, new staff, and re-branding. Our goal is to promote the use of open source technologies such as WordPress, Drupal, and Social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Ning, etc.

We have also re-organized our staff. Please welcome Nicole Kelly – Project Manager, Darryl Cheung – Technical Director, Justan Accaputo – Creative Director, and Jeff Knights – Client Manager.

And, finally, a new logo and name. This is just the first step of what is to come for BackSpace.

This year is looking to be the biggest year ever for WordCamp’s around the world. So many new cities jumping on board and many new changes being made by veteran WordCamp organizers.

I’m very excited about WCT 2009, it’s a lot more work than I had anticipated, but then again, go big or go home! This is Toronto’s second year hosting WordCamp and this year will be bigger, better, and AWESOME…

We’ve undergone a huge transformation in comparison to last years event. So, what changes have we made you ask…well…for starters we have a added a third day to the festival, 3 tracks of presentations instead of 1, and our favorite addition the WCT Awards! You can submit any work you have done with WordPress from plug-ins, themes, blog and site development, etc.

This year we want to explore WordPress to a higher degree. We have expanded the festival to include all walks of WordPress life, from commercial to non-profit, from amateur to professional bloggers, designers and developers, and we are exploring other ways in which WordPress is being used outside the blogging community.

We are also covering a range of topics including, social, community, business, and education.

We are also very excited about of key note speaker Nick La, the man behind the popular blog Web Designer Wall, Best Web Gallery, and founder of N.Design Studio.

We have an all-star lineup of speakers, Peter Flaschner, Erin Blaskie, James Walker, Jeremy Clarke, and Matt Brett, just to name a few…

So, make sure you don’s miss out on this event! You can register here >>> http://wct2009.eventbrite.com/ , find out more about the event at http://www.wordacmaptoronto.com.

Make sure you check out this months batch of cool wallpapers.

Here are a few of my favorites.

Past months:
January
February

Where does this leave us? The Social Web! This is how people socialize or interact with each other throughout the World Wide Web today.  There are so many different ways for people to socialize on the web today, from community driven sites, to blogs and forums, file sharing, friend finding, shared interest and hobbies, geographic location, job types, etc…

Without sounding repetitive, and to keep this short and sweet the Social Web can be described by the following:

• Identity: who are you?
• Reputation: what do people think you stand for?
• Presence: where are you?
• Relationships: who are you connected with? who do you trust?
• Groups: how do you organize your connections?
• Conversations: what do you discuss with others?
• Sharing: what content do you make available for others to interact with?

We all know Facebook, Twitter, Ning, blogger, MySpace, Last FM, YouTube, and sites like Digg, Stumble Upon, delicious, etc…

Social is viral, and grows in abundance daily. This week alone I came across 2 new social networks, Virb and Image Spark, i highly recommend you check them out, then blog it, tweet it, share it…you get the point.

Brendan Sera-Shriar @ Wodcamp Toronto from CCSAI on Vimeo.

The team over at WCT 2009 just announced the official winner of their logo design contest. The winner is Paul Morrison, a student at Seneca College in the Digital Media Arts Program.

What I really dig about the new logo is all the variants that Paul supplied, I see buttons, stickers, and other swag in the near future…

Congrats on an outstanding logo concept!

Also, don’t forget to submit your site to the WCT Awards!

I had to share this with ou all…

I thought I would be the first! This is the greatest geekiest thing ever, tattoo WP on yourself….absolutely wicked…

Check out the full teh story at Lorelle on WordPress.

This link came my way and I thought I would share it with you all. Happy bloggin and good luck!

http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2009/02/02/i-3-blogging-design-contest/