I Am Blogie

Thanks to the International Visitor Leadership Program fellowship I received from the U.S. Department of State, I was finally able to visit the physical offices of Automattic in San Francisco last 4 February 2010. I was in the States primarily for the IVLP from 21-25 January in Washington, D.C.

Too bad, though, Matt Mullenweg wasn’t in town when I came calling — he was in Ireland then. But, I was happy to have finally met Maya Desai, who gave me a tour of their space in Pier 38. Here are some photos I took. I know, I know… I should’ve taken more. But I was just so excited to be there I neglected to do so.

The place is huge! And it doesn’t look anything like an office at all. The wide open spaces and the high ceiling gives it a comfortable, homey atmosphere. Maya tells me that it was actually meant to be a restaurant.

While in San Francisco, I was also able to spread the word about WordPress to a high school there. This was part of the IVLP, the San Francisco leg of which was arranged for me by the Institute of International Education, and it was for me the best part of the program.

At the high school, I was able to give a talk about blogging, WordPress, and the various opportunities online publishing presented to virtually anybody. It was a class of seniors, and it was very fulfilling indeed seeing the glimmer in the eyes of those young men and women. I hope that I was able to inspire at least a few of them to take up blogging and succeed in the endeavor.

I was in the cities of Zamboanga and Isabela from 17 to 20 October for a short vacation and to touch base with the bloggers there. Thanks to Yolynne Medina and Ryann Elumba, I was also able to talk to them about WordPress.

On 19 October, I was invited to give a talk at e.AXS Communications — Zamboanga City’s very first contact center. e.AXS is a wholly Zamboangueño-owned and -operated enterprise, which is very laudable on the part of its investors. Once this company prospers, they will pave the way for other BPO operators to come in. They are gearing up for SEO projects, and so they invited me to share my experience in SEO work. And since they are already offering website development services, I took the opportunity to introduce to them all about WordPress (and its SEO-readiness).

Ryann, a graphics designer, videographer and WordPress user, presented Hola Zamboanga! and his other blogs to the same group. It is our hope that more Zamboangueños will take up blogging using WordPress.

Some photos of the get-together, courtesy of Ryann:

In Isabela City, I was able to meet high school and college students from different schools, thanks to my host, RJ Ian Sevilla (who has promised to get a WordPress blog as well). My time on the island of Basilan was very limited (only about 5 hours), but I have promised to be back for a WordPress seminar in the foreseeable future. I am looking forward to that because I could see the excitement in their eyes when I told them about blogging and WordPress.

Related posts:

1. Automattic, Pier 38, SFO