Back from WordCamp and OSCON

Over the weekend, I dropped by WordCamp -- the one day unconference for WordPress bloggers and developers. While the eBay Developers Program uses Typepad for our blog, I've long been a big fan of WordPress, and I switched over to using it for my personal blog early last year.

However, I haven't been a very active member of the WordPress community, so I wanted to check out all the latest developments and meet people. Fortunately, the event was only a 15 minute bus ride from my apartment, so I rode the 24 bus up the hill to the Swedish American Hall.

When I arrived, I was greeted by a number of happy BBQ eating volunteers, who pointed me upstairs to lunch and the rest of the gang. I spent the next few hours sharing time with over 300 people (give or take fifty), listening to people using WordPress in all sorts of interesting ways.

I must say the WordPress community is vibrant and strong, and it's made me all the more jazzed up to start hacking away on a few eBay-related plug-ins. Unless, of course, somebody beats me to it....

Two weeks ago, I attended the O'Reilly Open Source Convention. As usual, this was quite a bazaar of programming fun and excitement, as developers from many different communities -- Java, JavaScript/AJAX, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, and even Windows -- converged on Portland, Oregon. I had a great time!

One of the hot topics was the intersection between open source and Web 2.0. Does open source licensing need to evolve in a world where developers increasingly deliver software through web sites and web services APIs? And if so, how?

I gave a talk on the "Dirty Secrets of PHP 5's ext/soap Extension." Forty-five minutes of slides using real world examples to demonstrate how to use PHP and SOAP together. That includes, of course, eBay.

My code is just one of the many great ways to communicate with eBay from PHP. Check out our PHP Developer Center to learn more.

- adam