WordCamp is coming to Denver July 10th 2010.

If you have a WordPress website or you develop them you can’t miss this event.  The conference is still in the planning stages and will likely happen someplace near downtown Denver.

Visit the official website to: Get WordCamp Denver 2010 Updates

You can also follow what going on at Twitter.

What is WordCamp?

WordCamp is a series of day long conferences that happen throughout the year all around the globe.  It is a chance for all types of WordPress professionals, people who use WordPress, bloggers, and WordPress fans to gather and share information, strategies, ideas and best practices.  And it’s a lot of fun.

While there aren’t as many multimedia features as I expected, they did do a lot of work “under the hood”.  It’s a little harder to appreciate all of that work because it’s pretty invisible to most of us.  Even so, the team did some great work making WordPress even better.

Here’s a list of the main upgrades you’ll find in the Dashboard.

1. All plugins updates can be made at one time and you can check compatibility. In previous versions you had to update plugins one at a time.

Now when you see that you have updates available (in the example on the left the number 14 in the red icon indicates there are 14 plugins that have updates) you can go to the Upgrade option in the Tools section to see a list.

This list will also show the compatibility with your version of WordPress.

It is important to keep your plugins updated. Updated plugins make sure your website is operating correctly and is secure. In short, updated plugins avoid technical issues.

2. Image editor and alternate text added. Now when you upload a new image you can edit right there without using a separate photo editor. (See the Edit Image button below the Dimensions.)

You will also now see a separate option to add “Alternate Text” right below the Title. This has important SEO benefits.

The “Alternate Text” is also known as an “Alt Tag”. This is the snippet of text that pops up when you mouse over an image.   Be sure to use keywords in the “Alt Tag” it will help improve your chances of being found by the search engines.

3. New trash option. Previously if you deleted a page, post or comment it was gone forever.  If you got a little trigger happy with the delete button too bad.

Now you can put it in the trash. It will be there for 30 days if you change your mind.  After 30 days it’s gone for good.

4. Easier video embed. You can now simply put the URL of video you want to upload into the Visual Editor of the page or post you are editing.

Those are the big changes the core team has made for us “end users”.  You can see a full list of upgrades and changes here, WordPress 2.9 Carmen details.

Here’s the video from WordPress.org outlining these changes. It’s only a few minutes long.

The next release is scheduled for Spring 2010. In the January training we’ll be covering these new features. Enjoy.  What do think about these new features?  What do want to see in the next release?  Tell us in the comment box below.

We are pleased to announce that WordPress has won the Overall Best Open Source CMS Award in the 2009 Open Source CMS Awards. WordPress has won this Award for the first time in the past four years, earning itself a place in the Hall of Fame category for the Award next year.  More CMS Awards details

We humans like to complicate things.  It would be too easy if there was just one, wouldn’t it?

How they are the same: Both use the same software and the same Dashboard.  The Dashboard is the User Interface (UI) that you use to create and administer your website and blog posts and makes WordPress easy to use.  They are both open source = free.

How they different: WP.com is hosted by WordPress and WP.org is hosted by you.  Matt Mullenweg compares it to renting an apartment (.com) to owning a house (.org).

What does that mean?: The WordPress software is installed on the WordPress computers at .com and the .org version is installed on the computers at your hosting service.  You do not install WP on your own computer.

What does that mean to you?: Because WP.com is hosted by WordPress there are no monthly charges. There are special features you can add on for a small fee, such as using your own domain name instead of xyz.wordpress.com you can use xyz.com.  You also have email support.

The trade off is that you cannot use most advanced features or functionality namely the many WP plugins available and the number of themes you can pick from is limited.  For instance, up until recently you couldn’t use the code needed to sign up for most email newsletters.

You are also subject to the WP terms and services agreement relative to what you can do with your website and blog posts.  If  you violate the TOS WP can shut down your account/website.

Using WP.org means that you pay for a monthly hosting services and install the WordPress software on your hosting account.  The benefit is that you have full control of your website and blog posts.  And you have unlimited design and customization options and can implement all the functionality you need.

While you don’t have email support there is a great user’s forum, pretty good documentation and an international WP community you can use for support.

Which do you choose?: If you are not sure you want to start a blogsite or create a website using WP creating a .com account is not a bad idea for the short term (< 3 mos.).  You can get a feel for the Dashboard and how WP works.  And when you’re ready, you can export your content to your self-hosted WP site .

If you are going to use WP as a long term solution or you are building a website then the only way to go is to get hosting (usually $ 4 – 10 per month) and use the .org version.

Recommended WP Hosting Services*:

Hostmonster, BlueHost, and Host Gator

* SBWPT is an affiliate of the companies listed above.  I have hosted or worked on many client accounts at Hostmonster and Blue Host with tremendous satisfaction.