Tag Archives: organizers

Get to Know Your Organizers: Phil Erb

Phil&Theresa1) What do you do for a living (company you work for, official title, daily responsibilities, etc.)
 
As a Systems Administrator & Programmer at the University of Scranton, I’m involved in a wide variety of technologies including out authentication and management systems, e-mail and collaboration platforms, and (of course) multiple WordPress installations for various blogs and sites.
 
2) How did you get into WordPress?
 
I used to have the notion that, as an IT professional, I should be coding my own sites. What usually ended up happening is that I never did much with my personal sites, because I didn’t have time to put into them. After playing with WordPress off and on with test sites, I finally made the jump to WordPress on my personal site (philerb.com) with WordPress 2.9 (December 2009). The more I dabbled, the more I realized the potential, especially with Custom Post Types in 3.0 and beyond.
 
3) What’s a great experience you had at a WordCamp?
 
My first WordCamp was Philly 2012. I’d only had limited interactions with the wider WordPress community up to that point (a couple of podcasts, browsing the forums, a little chat on Twitter), so this was a huge eye opener for me. I knew the software was great, but experiencing all those folks willing to share their experiences and knowledge – not only in sessions, but in hallway conversations, over lunch, exchanging e-mails – it’s incredibly exciting!
 
4) What are your non-WordPress, non-Computer related hobbies?
 
Living in a beautiful part of northeast PA, I try to get outside as much as possible to go hiking, camping, and playing in the yard with the kids. My other hobby is introducing my kids to all of the geeky greats – of course they’re ready for Star Wars Episode VII.
 
5) If you could be any fictional character, who would you be and why?

Scotty, from Star Trek – because I always multiply my estimates by a factor of four. How else could I be considered a miracle worker?

Get to Know Your Organizers: Joe Casabona

2015-06-19 15.44.36-1

1) What do you do for a living?

I’m a Front End Developer at Crowd Favorite, where we do enterprise-level development specializing in WordPress. I generally do things like theme and plugin development using HTML, Sass/CSS, Javascript, and PHP. I work with our Backend Developers to make super cool things!

2) How did you get into WordPress?

My freshman year of college (2003-04), my friend Steve Mekosh introduced me to this new blogging platform called WordPress. I checked it out and really liked. From there I started to play around with it, implementing it on my own blog first then doing some pilot programs with freelance clients I had. Around 2006-2007 I really started to push WordPress as a service since it was maturing, transforming from a blogging platform to a CMS. Now, it’s my go-to solution 🙂

3) What’s a great experience you had at a WordCamp?

Perhaps my most memorable experience is WordCamp Chicago 2014. Not only was there a great crowd at my talk and the conference in general, but Saturday I got to hang out with some really really great people, many of whom I now get to work with on a daily basis, including Chris and Karim! It was an incredibly fun night and the whole conference was a blast.

4) What are your non-WordPress, non-Computer related hobbies?

When I’m not in front of a computer, I like to spend time with my incredible fiancee Erin (pictured), play the drums, travel a bit, and I smoke cigars from time to time. I’m also a very big Star Wars and Disney fan; since my brother works at Disney World, I take a lot of opportunities to visit him 😉

5) If you could be any fictional character, who would you be and why?

Luckily the last question informs this one. I think I would be Obi-Wan Kenobi. He’s wise, a great fighter, strong with the Force. Oh and he’s a Jedi! What more could you want?