WordCamp Dayton 2015
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Transcript of WordCamp Dayton 2015
WORDPRESS FOR SCHOOLS
HOW WE SAVED TAXPAYER DOLLARS (AND YOU CAN TOO)
WordCamp Dayton March 21, 2015
WHO AM I? CAMERON BARRETT
Sr. Manager of Web Site Technology Newark Public Schools
Blogging since 1997 (Really)
CamWorld circa 1998-99
Sorry!
WHO? OLD SKOOL WEB GUY
BUILDING OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITY IN ENTERPRISE COMPANIES
WHAT? BUILT SITES FOR
SADLY… NONE OF THEM ON WORDPRESS
circa 2004 A young kid named Matt
BUT THEN… DRUPAL DEV WAS HELLA EXPENSIVE
.NET EVEN MORE DEAR LORD, WHAT A NIGHTMARE
REAL EXAMPLE 6 mos, 4 Devs, $1M Spent COMMUNITY SITE FOR
ARMY BOARD OF GENERALS
REAL EXAMPLE 6 MONTHS, $1M SPENT COMMUNITY SITE FOR
ARMY BOARD OF GENERALS
ARRRGH!
WAIT… BUT WHAT ABOUT SCHOOLS?
ONE MOMENT… JUST A TEENY BIT MORE ABOUT ME
TEACHING FAMILY I GREW UP IN PLACES LIKE THIS Parents were D.O.D.D.S. teachers
Pago Pago, American Samoa
TEACHING FAMILY I GREW UP IN PLACES LIKE THIS Parents were D.O.D.D.S. teachers
North Yorkshire, England
I CARE ABOUT OUR SCHOOLS
But I’m not a teacher, I’m a technologist
So, I decided to use my skills for the greater good and fix the web site technology problems in our public
schools once and for all.
14,000+ PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN U.S.
THEY ALL HAVE WEB
SITES
CORRECTION!
crappy THEY ALL
HAVE
WEB SITES
Crappy, they all look like this
WTF! Flash
WHY? NOT THE SCHOOL’S FAULT
SCHOOLS ARE BEING SOLD CRAPPY,
CLOSED-SOURCE, VENDOR-CONTROLLED, HORRIBLE, BARELY-
WORKING, CONFUSING UI, SaaS SOLUTIONS
WHICH LEADS TO SCHOOL WEB SITES THAT ARE:
NOT UPDATED FREQUENTLY ENOUGH Not updated because “It’s too hard”
Bad templates à Bad Design
Bad clip-art Mania (Ahem, MS Word)
Confusing Navigation and IA
TECHNOLOGISTS IN SCHOOLS SAY
“This vendor solution is closed-source. I could fix these issues easily but…
…I don’t have access to the source code!”
A WORD ON TAXES Bear with me here…
Federal E-Rate dollars
Monthly fees on your phone bill USF à FCC à E-Rate
E-Rate is used to pay for technology in schools (it’s FREE money for schools)
A WORD ON TAXES USF à FCC à E-Rate
A WORD ON TAXES This E-Rate money is going away in
2015-16 fiscal year! Which means school web sites will need
to be paid for by taxpayer dollars
YOUR TAXPAYER DOLLARS The vendors will need to either become way, way cheaper (not likely) or schools
will need to find less expensive solutions (likely).
THE SOLUTION
Migrate school web sites to WordPress
THE SOLUTION
Get local technologists involved in a Technology Committee who can make recommendations to the school board
and superintendent.
Fire your vendors! They are collecting taxpayer dollars and delivering a bad product/service.
CASE STUDY Newark Public Schools
40,000 students, 75 Web Sites
WordPress Multisite (Launched Aug 29, 2014 – Wahoo!)
CASE STUDY Newark Public Schools
Up-front Development Cost
$30,240
CASE STUDY Newark Public Schools
WP Development We used these awesome guys
CASE STUDY Newark Public Schools
Dedicated Server Hosting Cost
$14,400 10 million PageViews/yr
Across 75 sites
CASE STUDY Newark Public Schools
Hosting We used this awesome company
CASE STUDY Newark Public Schools
Year Two Dedicated Server Hosting Cost
$7,200 10 million PageViews/yr
Across 75 sites
CASE STUDY Newark Public Schools
Content Migration
$9,000 /plugins/schoolwires-importer.php
30,000 Pages, 100,000+ Media assets
(images, PDF files, etc.)
CASE STUDY Newark Public Schools
Year One Cost
$64,400 Proprietary Vendor SaaS Solution
$59,024 per year
CASE STUDY Newark Public Schools
Year Two Cost
$14,400 Proprietary Vendor SaaS Solution
$59,024 per year
CASE STUDY Newark Public Schools
Five-Year Savings of
$158,720
HOW MUCH? WordPress Saves us money!!!
I haven’t actually done the math for 14,000+ school districts but it’s easily:
$many millions
HOW MUCH? Which can then be used for
Giving raises to teachers Urban after-school programs
Restoring Arts & Drama Pre-K Programs
Fresh, Modern, Responsive Design
Fresh, Modern, Responsive Design
New School Sites, Too! (Where Shaq went to High School…)
Not Just Newark Granite Schools (School District in Utah): 92 Schools
Not Just Newark Granite Schools (School District in Utah): 92 Schools
Not Just Newark Montclair, NJ High School (Rest of District in 2015)
Mobile App! Powered by WordPress (with AppPresser)
Mobile App! Push Notifications directly to smartphones
Saving $$$$$$$$$ Native iOS/Android development for a Public Schools mobile app is
cost-prohibitive.
With AppPresser, we can do the dev in-house for less than $1000
WordPress as an Application Framework
This book!
What this means is: You can develop your own apps and 3rd-party connections
The power of enterprise systems with the freedom of open source
3rd Party Data Services & Apps
NOW WHAT?
http://k12presser.com
Now signing up districts for migration summer of 2015
14,000+ Public School Districts will have access to a free, open source, web site management solution built on top of WordPress
“WordPress for Schools” Service Company
AND THEN… Fire the vendors!
SUPPORT… Schools need technology help
Help migrate your school district to WordPress, volunteer to help train the staff on the Admin, fix design template problems, add
functionality, etc.
Stop paying expensive vendors
Q&A Let me have it
I will also be available tomorrow for more involved Q&A
THANKS! Contact Info
CAMERON BARRETT Sr. Manager of Web Site Technology
Newark Public Schools
[email protected] [email protected]
@camworld