The WordPress Evangelist

I gave a crash course on WordPress last week during a digital activism training for organizations and causes. The Asia Foundation brought together various human rights activists from all over Mindanao to learn hands-on about online social media and how Internet tools can be employed in their line of work. The TAF consultant who helped put it together, Tonyo Cruz, hashtagged it #eactivism.

It was a very fulfilling experience, seeing the unabashed interest and enthusiasm the seminar participants displayed during my entire 3-hour talk. I had feared they would fall asleep due to their lack of foreknowledge in technical stuff, but it wasn’t that way at all. And I’m glad for it, because I’m involved in activism myself, so I’m more than happy to help my brothers in arms get themselves equipped with today’s online tools.

It helped a whole lot that the WiFi access at the venue, Lantaka Hotel by the Sea, was more than adequate. There were more than 20 of us accessing the Internet and yet the bandwidth didn’t seem to suffer much. Thanks also to The Asia Foundation for providing laptops to those who weren’t able to bring their own.

The participants came from Basilan, Tawi-Tawi, Cotabato, and other areas in Mindanao where Internet access isn’t all that reliable (to say the least). And yet, they embraced WordPress and knew instinctively what it could do for them. It was also very inspiring to see them immediately take to the other social media platforms presented to them by the other speakers. Twitter was a major hit!

I hope to continue this kind of WordPress evangelism, and hopefully I’ll be able to provide more hands-on training, especially for individuals and organizations who need to have their voices heard.

Some photos from the 2-day seminar held at Lantaka Hotel by the Sea, Zamboanga City.

I have promised to help the Digital Activism trainees further in their forays into the world WordPress. In particular, I will host any of them who might want to get a WordPress 3.0-powered website under the mindanaw.net domain.

Here’s the presentation I made for the seminar: Crash Course on WordPress.