WordCast: WordPress, Blogging, Social Media Guides and News

In this episode of WordCast Conversations we talk to Konstantin Kovshenin, a web developer from Moscow, Russia and Chief Technical Officer at Frumatic. A WordPress fan and web developer for over five years, he thrives within the code of the web, but he’s also fascinated by the social web, the marketing, mashups, and social network development. Living in Moscow, Russia, he brings with him a unique perspective on not just programming but the social web experience from the far east.

Kym Huynh talks with Konstantin Kovshenin about his work with robotics and his passion for WordPress, WordPress Plugins, APIs, and the WordPress Community he hopes to ignite in Russia.

Download this Podcast

WordCast Conversations is brought to you by Audible.com. Download a FREE audio book today!

Show Notes

Konstantin Kovshenin had an early fascination with computers, leading him to study robotics and software development for robotic control using Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio and working with robot controllers from Hi-tec, Kondo, Robovie, Robotis and others at Android Robotics Corporation, his current employer. In his free time, he’s a master of WordPress, developing WordPress Plugins, and writing up tutorials on how to use WordPress.

He admits to some serious fascination with APIs, and spends a lot of time digging through the many APIs of WordPress, Flickr, Twitter, Google Maps, etc. In June 2009, he released the Twitter app Foller.me, a mashup of the Twitter API and Google Maps to help people track their geolocation through Twitter. He also started development of WordPress Plugins, Widgets and more, taking advantage of his expertise and fascination with APIs.

In this episode, Kym Huynh talks with Konstatin Kovshenin about:

• Konstantin shares how he became involved with programming at age 13.
• Programming in English is difficult enough, Konstantin shares how he programs in English, Russian, and dealing with languages and the code.
• Konstantin talks about how he first thought WordPress was a “little blogging engine” similar to Blogspot. He learned a lot more when he decided to start blogging in English and discovered WordPress wasn’t your typical blogging engine but a powerful program and content management system.
• We talk about the WordPress community in Russia – it’s a little quiet on the eastern front, but he talks about his hopes for changing things with a WordCamp Russia.
• His advice to WordPress users: Don’t be afraid of WordPress, don’t forget to backup, and spread the word.
• His advice to WordPress developers: Please comment your code. Please localise your code. Don’t use wp-content in your code!

WordPress Plugins and Widgets he’s developed include:

• The Foller.me Widget WordPress Plugin – A WordPress Widget to display a tag cloud based upon your 200 latest topics, hastags, or mentions on Twitter, expanding your keyword coverage.
• Goo.gl WordPress Plugin – Short link creator for your WordPress posts using Google’s URL shortner API.
• Quick Flickr Widget WordPress Plugin – WordPress Widget to display Flickr images in your sidebar fast and easily.
• Retweet Anywhere WordPress Plugin – helps visitors retweet your blog posts through their Twitter accounts.
• Technical Support WordPress Plugin – creates a Technical Support dashboard panel widget for clients to submit tickets for direct email to you on issues they are having and troubleshooting.
• Twitter Friendly Links WordPress Plugin – Create your own TinyURL links within your own domain name to promote your content with your domain name on Twitter, Facebook, etc.