Blog

Scaling StoryCorps.me and the WP JSON API

on • 1 Comment

We had the privilege of working with StoryCorps to help them engineer a reliable, scalable WordPress implementation for their new, TED prize winning project. StoryCorps.me enables anyone to record and share powerful stories using an iOS and Android app; the app’s infrastructure is built on WordPress, and leverages the WP REST API.

We built a custom, elastic infrastructure on Amazon Web Services, provided strategic consulting and direction for the WordPress JSON API integration with the app, and comprehensive code review and auditing for the custom theme and plugins built by StoryCorps’s internal developers.

Even as the app was unveiled at TED, and picked up in subsequent press coverage from NPR, Fast Company, Recode, the Globe and Mail, Forbes, to name a few, the site and its deep app integrations have scaled and performed like a champ.

PostStatus published a detailed, insightful write up that describes the project and technical implementation, including kind words from their program manager:

Dean noted, “You have to be willing to completely submit to the process.” He says it wouldn’t have succeeded if 10up and [app developer] Maya weren’t committed as StoryCorps to the success of the project.

Be sure to check out their coverage, and try out StoryCorps.me. You can find the app that relies on their WordPress build on the iOS app store and Android Play.

10up turns four

on

Four years ago, 10up came to life with a couple of clients, and a centrally located team of one. Today, our 100+ team of engineers, designers, and strategists span the globe,  privileged to serve Fortune 500 (and 50… and 1…) clients, as well as an array of well respected startups and lesser known brands invested in first class technology solutions. Here are a few highlights since our last birthday:

Read More on 10up turns four

Drew Jaynes selected as WordPress 4.2 release lead

on • 1 Comment

Drew Jaynes at Write the Docs10up Web Engineer Drew Jaynes will be leading the WordPress 4.2 development cycle, slated for release in April 2015. WordPress’s releases come a few times a year and involve hundreds of people and thousands of lines of code. A release lead coordinates all of these contributors and contributions, while also managing schedules, priorities, and announcements. As a committer for the past year (with direct access to change the source code) and a driving force behind WordPress documentation, Drew has proven that he’s well-suited to the task, and we’re looking forward to this next release.

As a part of our commitment to the WordPress and open source community, roughly half of Drew’s time is donated to working on core and community initiatives. Building on my own experience as the WordPress 4.0 release lead and fellow committer, I’ll also be close at hand as a ready and willing mentor. We were really excited to be the first agency to sponsor a release lead, and we’re even more excited to do it again so soon. Please join us in congratulating Drew!

Gif the Halls: Holiday Cards Gone Wild

on • 2 Comments

When WP Engine came to us to help engineer Gif the Halls – part digital holiday greeting, part holiday art exhibition – we were more than a little intrigued.

The WP Engine Labs team commissioned six digital artists to create holiday themed animations, to be projected onto buildings in San Francisco – and they needed a way to collect holiday messages from the masses. Enabling visitors, directed from the exhibit, to build digital holiday cards on the (WP Engine hosted) website was the easy part.

Gif the Halls

First, we had to build an output system to project cards onto the buildings in San Francisco, and that output system needed a queue manager, so that only approved cards would appear. Still doesn’t sound too hard?

We also had to engineer remote controlled video capture. Collecting and displaying cards wasn’t enough: we wanted to capture reactions to the exhibit right on the street. Our set-up would determine when a camera should record, transcode that video recording, and share the reaction with the original card creator, who would in turn share the video with friends and family. Without getting too technical, we created a bridge between WordPress and a digital SLR so that when cards are presented, the camera in San Francisco begins recording.

You can check out the result of our partnership with WPEngine, featuring art curated by Grey Area and presented in partnership with YBCBD, by heading over to GiftheHalls.com and visiting the Humboldt Bank Building or Monadnock Building on Market Street between the hours of 6pm and 6am, December 20-22.

From West of the Hudson to East of the East River

on

They say good things happen in threes, and the next week of meetups in NYC are no exception.

At the WordPress NYC Meetup next Tuesday, August 19, I’ll be showing off a preview of the upcoming WordPress 4.0 and talking a bit about what it’s been like to lead the release.

On Thursday the 21st, I will be presenting “Code is Poetry: A Musician’s Tale” at the JerseyScript takeover of Brooklyn JS, which 10up is excited to sponsor. I’ll be giving a longer version of the talk at WordCamp San Francisco in October, so no spoilers here! Be on the lookout: our Director of Engineering, Taylor Lovett, will be in attendance as well.

Finally, Brooklyn JS will turn the tides and take over the JerseyScript meetup on Tuesday, August 26, also sponsored by 10up. I’m especially excited to be coming on board as a co-organizer for JerseyScript proper. We’ll be releasing another block of tickets soon, so get on the waitlist now if you’d like to join us and check out Jersey City, just a quick subway ride over from Manhattan.

If I won’t see you here on one of the sides of the rivers, there’s always WordCamp Boston the weekend in between. If you will be at any of these places, come say hi!

10uppers, Code, and Lobsters at WordCamp Maine

on

WordCamp Main 2014While four 10uppers are down south for WP Y’all in Birmingham AL, another contingent of three 10uppers is heading up north to speak at the first WordCamp Maine this weekend.

Fresh off his popular talk on modernism and responsive design at WordCamp NYC last weekend, CEO John Eckman will take the stage twice in Maine: first joining MaineToday Media’s Director of Digital Services to present Delivering the News – a look at their online relaunch, and second, to give the keynote address! Senior Strategic Engineer Rachel Baker joins the development panel to answer Maine’s toughest engineering questions, and I’ll be discussing empathy for our clients and teammates, and how that leads to better projects.

Tickets are still available – including a harbor cruise with the requisite lobster dinner – so it’s not too late to join us this weekend for some WordPress-centric learning and conversation during the beautiful Maine summer!

10up at WordCamp Birmingham – #WPYall

on

WordCamp Birmingham 2014On August 16th, Birmingham will have the chance to hear from 4 10uppers as we pay a visit to the Magic City. WordCamp Birmingham is the South’s oldest WordCamp, starting back in 2008. We say WPY’all loud and proud and look forward to sharing with this community.

Being local to Birmingham, I’ve had the pleasure of o-organizing the camp this year. I’ll also be talking to designers about How to Use WordPress to Present a Design in the Browser. Senior Designer Louis Dorman will be presenting his experience Designing for Growth, and Design Engineer Allen Moore will describe how 10up used child themes to quickly turn out big features on multiple sites in his talk, 3 sites in 6 weeks? WordPress can do that!

Last but not least, our President, Jake Goldman, will be giving the keynote address following lunch: Don’t Create For WordPress* (*Create With WordPress). He’ll inspire us to build the next great sites on WordPress by focusing on project vision, and worrying about tools like WordPress after the fact.

It’s going to be a great weekend in the Magic City and we’re excited to be a part of it!

WordCamp Seattle

on

WordCamp Seattle

Seattle, Washington

Attending Speaking

This weekend 10up will be bringing some sunshine (and ten 10uppers!) to the Northwest for the 5th annual WordCamp Seattle. Seattle is a two day WordCamp this year with a jam packed Saturday featuring speakers, panels, lightning talks and even workshops. Sunday is a special contributor day with a number of core contributors leading groups who will be contributing back to the WordPress project. If you’re in the Northwest and haven’t already picked up your ticket, don’t miss this massive, 700-attendee WordCamp!

Kicking off the day on Saturday, Kailey Lampert and Adam Silverstein will each be delivering a presentation as a part of the developer lightning talks. Their sessions will focus on the hidden treasures of WordPress core and working with WordPress revisions in Backbone. Kailey will be pulling a double feature on Saturday, also being a part of the How to Become a Better WordPress Developer panel with Kronda Adair, Jeremy Felt, Zack Tollman and Morten Rand-Hendriksen.

Next, Paul Clark will be running an excellent session on Performance, Scale and WordPress, using real world examples from 10up’s experience with sites like Ted.com and hosting platforms like WordPress.com VIP. For anyone considering WordPress and it’s application in an enterprise context, don’t miss Paul’s presentation!

At the same time as Paul, Taylor Dewey will be running a workshop on SASS, walking through real life examples and breaking down some of the complexities of the workflow. If you’re thinking about getting into SASS, or have started and need a good tutorial, make sure you check out Taylor’s workshop. Taylor is also pulling a double feature, and will be giving a lightning talk on Responsive Web Design Workflows.

In addition to the four 10uppers presenting this weekend Andrew Mowe, Zach Brown, Luke Woodward, Cole Geissinger, Drew Jaynes and myself will all be on-site organizing, volunteering and contributing to the event. We’d love to see you there!

Catch PushUp and 10up at WordCamp Chicago 2014

on

WordCamp Chicago

Chicago, Illinois

Attending Speaking Sponsoring

10up will be brewing up a storm in the Windy City this upcoming weekend at WordCamp Chicago, with wall to wall speakers supported by a John Hancock Sponsorship under the PushUp Notifications product brand.

Our rundown of speakers starts with Dustin Filippini presenting a Comprehensive Dashboard Walkthrough on Foundation Friday. On Saturday, Kelly Dwan kicks things off with A Walk Around the Loop, a study of the post loop from an advanced developer’s perspective. Alison Barrett takes the stage for a lightning talk at noon with Knowing What You Don’t Know followed by James Barrett on Wireframing Essentials.

On Sunday I’ll pause from organizer duties for an Introduction to IDEs and Debugging, which makes the case for IDEs by showing off the amazing powers they bestow. John James Jacoby will dive into Multisite and Multi-network, emphasizing the lesser used multi-network feature. Wrapping up the day on Sunday, Rachel Baker demonstrates how developers can Put Your Content to REST With WP-API, a look at the exciting new JSON REST API (WP API).

WordCamp Chicago 2014

In addition to our speakers, you’ll also find 10uppers Kara Buffardi and Gus Gerhardt at our PushUp sponsor table, showing off our website push notifications product. We’ll be on hand to demo the product, answer questions, and provision new customers as they sign up – and we’re offering a 99¢ sign up code (discounted from $14.99) for anyone who registers on the spot!

I’ll also be leading the Networking lunch activity at noon on Saturday; stop by and say hello!

Design visionary Louis Dorman joins 10up as Senior Designer

on

At 10up, we think that a truly outstanding web publishing experience happens at the intersection of great design, strategy, and engineering. We also know that the modern web requires talent that understands that great design is not just how a website looks, but how it feels across input interfaces and screen sizes. As we continue to grow our design team, we’re very excited to welcome a designer that embodies our vision of client-centered design, as innovative in its aesthetics as its interactions.

Louis Dorman has been designing for the web since the days of dial-up. After graduating from the Art Institute of Phoenix in 2001, he went on to be responsible for the design and manufacturing of millions of products around the world. Louis was one of the first employees at Mashable, one of the most popular WordPress-powered websites. As Art Director, he managed all areas of design, from the web presentation and UX to marketing collateral, as the company scaled to 30 million+ monthly unique visitors.

Louis was also a founder of AdCamo, which would become a pioneer in the development of background ad units under his direction. In addition to steering vision and project development, Louis hired and mentored creative and engineering teams, managed communication between sales and engineering, and created campaigns for clients like ABC, Comcast, Craftsman, MGM, Sony, and WWE, to name a few.

Read More on Design visionary Louis Dorman joins 10up as Senior Designer