1. Please tell us with a few words who you are and what you do?
I am Svetlin Nakov. I run the Telerik Software Academy – the largest training center for software engineers in Bulgaria. It trains few thousands software engineers in .NET development, HTML5 front-end, QUality Assurance (QA) and other professions. We have built alternate education system which trains the people starting from 4-5 class at school until their entrance into their first job in the software industry. We have 500+ training videos in YouTube, 26 free courses about diferent technologies (from C#, OOP and HTML to ASP.NET, XAML and Windows 8 development, mobile and coud applications). For more information see our website.
2. When and how you first found WordPress?
I found WordPress bask in 2005 when I had a static web site (just plain HTML + CSS + images) for one of my previous companies (the National Academy for Software Development). A friend of mine told me about WordPress and how it could be used to move my company web site into a CMS platform for easier maintenance and improved functionality. I tried WordPress and started one month-long project for moving the existing site along its structure, laoyout and content from static HTML pages to WordPress. In the next few years I found WordPress very easy to implement and I moved few other of my sites to this platform. Soon I felt with love with WordPress, its themes, plugins, etc. Generally I don’t like PHP but I feel that WordPress does outstanding job and you do not need to skow well PHP and fall into its bullshits.
3. Do you remember the first site that you build with WordPress? How does it changed your work?
Yes, I remember my first WordPress site. It took a month to migrate a statc web site into WordPress. It had a deep navigation menu (4-5 levels of sub-menus) and we needed to write a recursive traversal function into my first WordPress custom theme to render it. It was really hard to write it. I had a developer who did the job but I was around her for an hour every day. Finally we were very happy of the result because even our non-technical staff was able to post news and share resources at our Web site.
4. Why should business use WordPress for their sites?
To be honest I think that WordPress is the best solution fow small and simple web sites. In Telerik we have strong and heavy content management system called SItefinity and it does its job well for large web portals with thousands of users, content of millions pages and posts, with build-in forums, e-commerce, forms and other modules. But when it comes to built a simple web site of 4-5 pages + news + some form I always prefer WordPress and it takes less time to use WordPress than other approaches. I think the business should use WordPress in simple scenarios like corporate web sites of few pages + news + forms and other simple functionality. I don’t think WordPress will work well for big sites like Amazon.com or sites with custom functionality like our Telerik Academy course management system.
5. What is your favorite part about WordCamp events?
I like the WordCamps because of the people who come. I like to talk about different topics related to development, SEO, digital marketing and web technologies at these events. I want to see developers who I have not seen for years and to learn the news from the WordPress, CMS and SEO world and to be inspired by some distinguished speakers with own philosophy and way of thinking.
6. Where do you see WordPress in the next five years?
In the next few years I see WordPress as a leading CMS system and platform for web projects. I thinks it is a must-have skill for anyone involved deeply in Web development. Everyone should have WordPress skills to call himself web developer. I think it will continue to grow and will evolve from simpel blog system into very powerful web publishing platform with well integrated content management, forums, CRM, commerce, SEO, blog, new and marketing platform. I think WordPress will slowly move from platform for small sites to a platform for large and complex portals which developers will build in minutes.
7. Final comments?
I am happy that we will have again WordCamp event in Sofia. Congratulations to the organizers and the speakers.
Some day even the old grandmothers and grandfathers will use WordPress to publish their content on the Web. These will be the WordCamp visitors from all over the world. WordCamps are great place to learn the latest technologies, to find friends and have a fun. Enjoy. Come at 20th October in the Sotware Academy to share the inspiration of WordPress and the modern web!
One Reply to “Svetlin Nakov – The Host at Telerik Academy”
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