I've been working with well known LibDem blogger Mark Pack, whose day job is with PR company Mandate, to migrate the website of the Cancer Campaigning Group over to WordPress. It's a fairly modest little site, and I was under orders to keep the design broadly as-was. But it's got one specific feature I'm very excited about.

Nearly four years ago, I wrote about the increasing adoption of the iCal standard for calendar sharing. With Outlook 2007 set to embrace the format, I foresaw a rush of websites publishing event data in iCal feeds, allowing you to subscribe with a single click, and then see someone else's dates alongside your own.

The, ahem, optimistic assessment would be that I was well ahead of the curve. Four years on, you'll struggle to find many (mainstream) sites offering such feeds - although I've noticed a slight increase of late. The BBC, for example, had a feed of World Cup fixtures; the Arsenal site has a similar service for its new fixture lists, including the Reserves, Youth and Ladies teams. Why? Maybe it's the growing prevalence of smartphones by Apple and Google, both of whom were quick to adopt the format.

And then suddenly, the opportunity presented itself to build an iCal-enabled site of my own. The Cancer Campaigning Group's previous site had an 'events' section, although it wasn't anything special. WordPress 3.0, released just over a month ago, includes the ability to create 'custom post types'; and I only recently discovered its little-documented 'add_feed' function, introduced as far back as early 2007. A little jQuery on the front- and back-ends, and we had all the ingredients we'd need.

So I've written some code to create a custom post type called 'Event', and added it into the WP back-end interface. You enter event details just as you would enter a post or page, with a title, body text and optional excerpt. There's a special 'event type' categorisation; and a pop-up date picker for simplicity and consistency.

Then to call the calendar into a page, you use a WordPress shortcode - [calendar]. You can also specify the range (past or future), and the view (simple text list or javascript-enabled grid), plus the 'type' (if you're using them). This actually gives you remarkable flexibility, only some of which is obvious on the Cancer Campaigning Group site.

And of course - there's the iCal feed. If you take the feed URL into your calendar app of choice, you should be able to subscribe to it. And then, as the site admin adds new events, these will simply appear alongside your own personal appointments.

It hasn't been easy: and to be honest, I'm not entirely confident that we've captured and resolved all possible issues. The biggest problem has actually been with Google Calendar: Google caches the feeds for an indeterminate period, and there's no apparent way to force a refresh. So if there's an issue with your code, you may not realise for several hours; and it may take a further few hours for your fix to feed through. I'm also fairly sure that the code, as it currently stands, won't scale too well.

So for now, I'm watching the Cancer Campaigning Group site to see what happens. If it goes OK, I've got a couple of much higher-profile clients waiting in the wings.

On the very day that the Times puts up its paywall, the Guardian goes the complete opposite direction - and unveils a WordPress plugin intended to gets its content out there, on as many other people's sites as possible, free of charge.

Once you've installed the plugin, and signed up for an API key, you get effectively a subeditor's view of the Guardian's archives. If you find a story you like, and want to republish, you save it down to your own WordPress installation, then edit and publish it as normal. It even checks stories for updates. Much neater than a DIY solution based on something like the FeedWordPress plugin, and without the potential for licensing headaches... as long as you're happy enough to leave the credits and adverts in place.

The blogger (or whoever) gets free, simplified access to the Guardian's content, without licensing worries; the Guardian gets additional attention for its material, a wider spread of advertising impressions, and a PR victory over its Murdoch rivals.

If it sounds like something you'd be interested in, you can download it from WordPress.org.

Update: worth noting Public Strategist's problems with the plugin: 'Nowhere in those extensive conditions does it state that the Guardian claims the right to extend that control to the host blog.'

This year's event takes place on 17-18 July - yes, just a few weeks away; and we're being hosted by Manchester Metropolitan University Business School - right in the heart of the nation's computing capital (historically speaking at least!). As with last year, it'll be a full two days, with sessions in two rooms simultaneously; and I'll be doing a session on... er, something. Haven't quite pinned it down yet.

'Life-changing' may be too dramatic a word; but certainly, good things have happened for me in the aftermath of both previous WordCamps that simply wouldn't have happened otherwise. I've met new and interesting people; learned new things; pooled new ideas; developed working relationships; and formulated grand plans. And there's every reason to believe that this year's event will be similarly stimulating. That's why Puffbox is continuing its sponsorship of the event: because, by throwing a few quid into the pot, we ensure it all happens again.

The running order (still in development) will include sessions led by leading lights of the UK WordPress community like Simon Wheatley, Mike Little and Dave Coveney; plus at least one person, possibly two, from WP's parent company, Automattic; and Peter Westwood, one of the core development team behind WordPress. (Regular readers of this here blog might be interested to note quite a few speakers with public sector experience, too.)

If you'd like to join us - and you'd be most welcome, of course! - the tickets are a modest £20 each if you book now, rising to £30 after the weekend.

The latest release of WordPress pushed the version number from 2.9 to 3.0. Usually that 'point-zero' means it's a significant release: but you'd be forgiven if you ran the automatic updater, and struggled to see what was different. Sure, the admin interface is a little brighter, and a few of the labels have changed. But if you were expecting new extra-powerful menu options, you'll have been disappointed.

But the new release is a big deal. Among its additions:

• the long-awaited merger of the solo WordPress product with WordPress MU ('multi user'). Previously I've tended to steer people clear of MU: although an excellent product, it was definitely second priority to 'WordPress proper', and the usability wasn't brilliant. Updates were slower, and plugins didn't always work. Although there's still a way to go on usability, I'm much happier recommending it as a safe platform - and I've already started hosting some of my lower-profile projects in a single 'multisite' installation.
• custom taxonomies and custom content types. In fact, previous versions have had the ability to create multiple sets of tag- or category-style classifications, or tweaked versions of the 'post' and 'page' core content types - but the implementation was awkward and clunky. Based on some early experiments, I'd say they're finally ready for industrial use.
• custom menus, allowing you to create navigation bars containing your preferred combination of pages and tags/categories. Amazing flexibility, but be warned: most themes won't be ready to use it (yet).
• a new default theme which isn't especially significant in itself, but it's something for developers to bear in mind. Previously, if a theme didn't have a specific file, you could rely on WP reverting to the version in the 'default' folder. But new installations won't have that 'default' folder; and you'll need to explicitly define a 'parent' theme for fallback purposes. Worth bearing in mind if you've lost any functionality after upgrading.

But here's the thing. The two most significant aspects, 'multisite' and custom posts/taxonomies, only become available to those prepared to get their hands dirty in the PHP code. You won't see them, or perhaps even know they exist, until you start hacking. In the case of multisite, for example, you'll need to edit wp-config, then edit htaccess, then edit wp-config again... not to mention the likelihood of changes to file access permissions, Apache's httpd.conf and/or your DNS setup. Scary stuff for the vast majority of people.

In other words, to really get the full benefit out of WordPress, you need decent coding and server admin skills. And as such, that feels like a subtle departure from the previous scenario, where a 'power user' could accomplish almost everything via the WordPress interface and a few plugins.

Of course, there's nothing to stop those power users creating magnificent sites using v3.0, without having to get their hands dirty. And indeed, there are no extra options to intimidate the nervous author or editor: the WordPress experience remains unchanged. But the addition of that extra power, underneath the surface, effectively creates a new higher echelon of 'WordPress guy'. It becomes a platform on which you can do some very serious development, if you know what you're doing. Graphic designers calling themselves WordPress experts might want to re-evaluate.

On occasions in the past, I've worried about my business model's longevity. All the difficult things I'd taught myself to do in WordPress kept getting easier with each new release: this time, for example, the new Custom Menu feature renders some of my smartest workarounds obsolete. But with all the new 'developers-only' potential, it looks like the path has a lot longer to run.

A bit of a tricky moment this morning. As you might have spotted, Downing Street has launched an initiative asking 'public sector workers' to help the government find ways to implement the massive spending cuts proposed in Tuesday's budget 'in a way that is fair and responsible'. And as has become the norm for such initiatives, there's a comment-enabled website dedicated to it, built on WordPress. A 'hooray' is obligatory at this point, although to be honest, that's getting a little predictable.

In fact, it's a return to an initiative launched by Nick Clegg last summer:

The people who are best placed to tell us where money is not being well spent are the teachers, nurses, social workers and other public servants who work so hard day and night on our behalf. Politicians should stop talking over the heads of public servants. We need to listen to the people in the know on how we can better run public services, making sure that every penny of taxpayers’ money is well spent. That’s what ‘Asking People In The Know’ is all about.

... but since it's all happening again, and since the 2009 website is now giving 404 errors, one must assume it wasn't especially fruitful.

Anyway... If you have a look at the new website, you'll note a startling resemblance to the Programme For Government site which I built a few weeks back. It's very obviously a derivative work, based on my code. I didn't build it, and I didn't get paid for it. My contract gives the Crown the right to reuse my work; and in fact, I'm very glad they did. It's entirely in keeping with the open-source spirit... not to mention the need to find cost savings.

But as anyone following me on Twitter may have spotted, there was one slight hiccup. By convention, WordPress themes include details of their author. The original PFG theme notes me as its originator - obviously. But the derivative theme didn't. My name had been deleted, and replaced with the names of two people I've never met or spoken to: at least one of whom appears to be a direct commercial competitor.

I was not best pleased. I sent out a tweet to that effect: and to the credit of one of the individuals concerned, he subsequently added a line of acknowledgement. My name is duly checked, and I'm happy again.

I am absolutely not suggesting there was any attempt to infringe my intellectual property rights, or deprive me of a deserved payment. I'm perfectly prepared to accept that it was a simple oversight. But I needed to make the point.

Acknowledgement is the currency of the open source movement. There are communities of developers spending their free time building these tools, not to mention businesses freely handing over the fruits of their labours, resulting in you getting phenomenally powerful tools for £0.00. Saying 'thank you' is really the least you can do; and it's often the only 'payment' that the open-source contributor receives. Don't forget.

Not for the first time, Steph Gray lays down a good model to follow. On every page in his Commentariat theme is an explicit credit for the Whitespace theme by Brian Gardner; and there's a note of thanks to my regular collaborator Simon Wheatley in its style.css file.

And in case anyone's interested: yes, I do plan to write something for the consultation - it's also open to 'private sector partners working within public sector'. Now, I wonder what I might propose?

He writes: 'We are demonstrating that globally standard programs can free mainstream journalism from the complex bespoke set-ups of the past.' And his colleague Jack Riley tells Journalism.co.uk: 'WordPress is infinitely more customisable, which means that we can adapt it all as we go along. By bringing it all in-house it also means our development and editorial teams can work closely on getting the features that readers and bloggers want live as quickly as possible.'

I must admit, I always had my suspicions that the Independent's former arrangement with LiveJournal was driven primarily by the personalities involved, former Downing St colleagues Ben Wegg Prosser and Jimmy Leach (now back in Whitehall, of course).

Worth mentioning too that the Telegraph has gone deeper into WordPress just recently, with the migration of its My Telegraph user community. Its blogs.telegraph.co.uk site, for journalists and commentators, moved over to WP about a year ago.

Out of the blue last week, I got a call from COI: was I available for an immediate, rapid turnaround WordPress job? I was a bit startled, and detail was lacking; but since this was precisely the kind of rapid-response thinking I've been trying to foster around WordPress for a couple of years, I couldn't really say no.

As it turned out, the project in question was the Coalition Programme for Government: and the mission was to build a commentable version of it, by the next morning. COI's initial proposal was to use Steph's Commentariat as a base; but given the document's structure, it didn't feel like a good fit. Plus to be honest, I knew I'd be more comfortable working with my own code, as opposed to unpicking Steph's - and time was too tight.

The theme came together fairly quickly, helped in no small part by the source document's fairly plain design - which I basically mimicked, with a couple of tweaks for better web usability. Extracting the text from the supplied PDF was excruciating, as you'd expect. But by the time I got to bed at about 2.30am, having barely left the keyboard since lunchtime, the site was ready, and my part of the work was basically done. It went live at 9:30 the next - well, technically the same - morning.

Now... I'm going to skip over the next bit, because I'm not the right person to tell the story. Suffice to say, people came in their many tens of thousands. And although measures had been taken to handle the expected load, the platform wasn't ready for quite that volume of interest.

But now, a couple of days older and wiser, the site has been re-enabled: and the comments are starting to come in. This in itself presents some interesting challenges: the document is, by its very nature, more party-political than most, and the comments will be too. The civil service's usual get-out clause - about the government being democratically elected, on the basis of its manifesto (singular) - doesn't really work this time. Thankfully, applying the moderation policy is someone else's problem.

Of course it'd be nicer if things had gone perfectly smoothly on launch day. To some extent, we've missed the boat in terms of the immediate wave of interest; but arguably, the comments might be more considered, with the benefit of a weekend to reflect and cool off. (Well, not 'cool off' given the mini-heatwave, but you know what I mean.)

And regardless of what went wrong, there's still a great story to tell, in terms of what went right. An interactive document, designed and coded from scratch, and delivered by bedtime. That's why we love WordPress.

But one or two departments have taken advantage of the situation to revamp their web presences: and it's been our pleasure to assist with one of these already - with more, perhaps, to follow.

In the run-up to Polling Day, we were asked by COI to provide cover for any 'emergency' web building which might result from the arrival of a new administration. Steria provided a hosting environment, with WordPress MU pre-installed; and I worked with Zed1's Mike Little to develop a theme which could be deployed and managed centrally, ideally very rapidly - but still be easily customisable for each individual site which used it.

In the end, there weren't any major Machinery of Government changes which required it: but Defra recognised the opportunity, and are using it as a base on which to start rebuilding their corporate website. They've worked with Puffbox on a few WordPress-based microsites already this year, so it's familiar territory for them - and in truth, I think it's been coming for a while.

The theme is fairly plain, sober and generic: inevitably, given that we had literally no idea who might need to use it, or how. There's a rather nice homepage carousel, managed via the WP media library; a widget-ised sidebar and 'fat footer'; plus special page menus at the top and bottom. It makes for quite a nice little site: certainly enough to get things started.

But whilst the design itself might not win awards, the behind-the-scenes stuff is pretty smart. We've enabled WordPress's 'custom header' functionality on the theme: users simply need to create a graphic of predefined dimensions, upload it into WP, and it'll be used as a full-width banner across the top (with the search form and - optionally - department name overlaid). In Defra's case, they've gone for a fairly plain black logo on white; but it could have been a lot more creative if they'd wanted. When we've tried this in test, we've found it can produce quite dramatically different 'feels' to the theme.

And then there's the colour palette. The theme's style.css file avoids defining most of the colours used on the page. Instead, there's an options page in the WordPress backend, where you can enter the colours to be used for specific page elements: links, the 'blobs' in the sidebar and 'fat footer', and so on. These are saved in the database table of options for that specific blog only; and the custom CSS gets added to the top of each page as it gets generated. (It's effectively an evolution of the work I did for BIS on Science & Society, but it takes the concept to a whole new level, and opens up all sorts of possibilities.)

But of course, the most significant aspect is the centrally managed hosting environment, and the official recognition of WordPress as a suitable tool for the job. Precisely what I've been proposing on these pages for ages. And you know what? I think it actually worked.

All of which makes it a good moment for a blog post I've been meaning to write for some time now, on the subject of WordPress in government.

I've been banging the WordPress drum up and down Whitehall since late 2007. At first, it was small tactical builds: the Darzi NHS Review in November, followed by the Wales Office in February 08. From there, over the road to Downing Street, and thence to half of central government departments - thanks in no small part to Steph Gray's Commentariat theme, first published in February 09.

So what exactly is it about WordPress in particular, that makes it so attractive for government in particular?

Cuts out (the worst excesses of) procurement: In my experience, procurement teams are very good at explaining why their role is crucial, and why they need to be invited to all your meetings. But when the best available product is available free of charge, you can instantly cut out a large portion of your project schedule.

Cheaper and friendlier suppliers: So far at least, WordPress has been the domain of the small-scale agency, or even the solo operator. We don't have tiers of business analysts and project managers. We don't have CMS solutions we built at significant expense several years ago, from which our product executives are trying to milk every last penny of profit. Generally speaking, the guy you speak to is the guy doing the work. No intermediaries, and minimal overheads.

Speed of implementation: WordPress's finest hour in government circles surely came in June last year. One Friday, two departments - BERR and DIUS - were unexpectedly forced together by a Cabinet reshuffle. By the Wednesday, and for minimal cash outlay, the newly merged web team had built a WordPress-based site for the new department. An almost incredible achievement, given the usual glacial pace of Whitehall web development. It just shows what can be done.

Focus on content, not process: For me the key strength of WordPress is that, as soon as you log in, you're looking at an authoring screen. If you haven't seen many CMSes, that may sound odd. But believe me, most platforms would much rather you waded through several layers of menu before you even get close to writing some words. And that's what policy officials and press officers are paid to do: not worry about taxonomies or systems admin.

More than you bargained for: Time and again, I find new things WordPress can do, which I hadn't previously known about. Things I'd never have thought to request in a tech spec; but because someone else did, or because it was a happy bi-product of something else, or because a geek somewhere fancied coding a quick plugin to do it, it's in the package. And one day, you'll suddenly be very grateful.

And last, but definitely not least:

The 'open source' principle: Open source does mean cheap code, but its true merit lies in what comes next. When government spends public money on IT development, the public has a right to expect to derive the maximum benefit from it - and that can mean so much more than simply getting a prettier or more efficient website out of it. In the same way that taxpayers now have a right to raw data, the same can - and I'd say, should - apply to software development. The use of other people's code - in the form of themes and plugins - is fundamental to WordPress; and it provides an easy framework to introduce the notion of releasing HMG-commissioned code.

If you've ever wondered why I've pushed WordPress so hard all these years, the answer is encapsulated in that last point. It represents a gentle introduction to some potentially huge concepts. I've seen too many people trying to pitch the concept of open source in philosophical terms; it rarely works. WordPress makes it real, and has already delivered tangible results. And we've only just got started.

Footnote: this post was prompted by Dave Briggs's reference to this video of author and blogger Aaron Brazell talking about 'WordPress and government' - which doesn't really say anything specific to government. Still worth watching though.

If you have any interest in Northern Ireland politics, you'll be familiar with Slugger O'Toole. It's by far the best known blog in the province, and manages to pull off the impressive feat of appealing to both sides of the sectarian divide - even to the point of winning awards at ceremonies in both the UK and the Republic. And as an Ulster exile myself, it's a site I've followed for a long, long time.

Late last year, Slugger received investment from Channel 4's 4iP fund, to take things to the next level. In practice, that meant an update to a design that was really showing its age; and a move from Expression Engine to WordPress. But things didn't work out with their initial Belfast-based designer; and a few weeks ago, they got in touch to see if Puffbox could help. The no1 website from my part of the planet, wanting to move to WordPress? How could I possibly refuse?

The brief was to reflect the rough and robust nature of the site's conversations; and pretty quickly,we found a visual style which seemed to strike the right note. But when it came to wireframing, we hit an interesting question: did Slugger want to be more of a blog or a news site?

Our initial templates were definitely more bloggy in nature, but they just didn't feel right. Like a lot of sites, Slugger's traffic has always been driven by news events. And as I think I'd always suspected deep down, we eventually concluded it had to be more newsy - and started again.

Most of the effort went into the homepage - and specifically the opening frame (or two), which could well be from a newspaper site, if it weren't for the 'torn edges' effect. And therein lies the aspect of the project I'm most proud of: the self-managing 'front page'.

If it was a newspaper, it would have an editor (or probably several) tasked with choosing the right order for the stories, tweaking the headlines, crafting snappy summaries, selecting suitable imagery, and so on. But Slugger is run by a loose bunch of volunteer contributors, and couldn't commit to that kind of management overhead. So instead, we've programmed WordPress to select the stories, and sort them, based on a number of predefined rules.

It selects stories based on their date of posting, the editor's manual identification of 'important' stories, whether or not it's got pictures, and most interestingly, the volume of comments. So a story will almost always get some top-of-page exposure when it's first published, but will soon drop 'below the fold'. However, if it generates a good number of comments, it will jump back up to the top - and in all likelihood, even higher than before.

Sure, it's not quite Digg or Google; but I think it's interesting that the site's readership can influence the homepage almost as much as the editor. And it seems entirely in keeping with the ethos of a site whose true strength is in its sense of community.

On the technical side, it's been really pretty tricky. Thousands of already-registered users, tens of thousands of posts, hundreds of thousands of comments - and the server procured by our predecessors on the project just wasn't up to the task. Things were agonisingly slow on launch day, no matter how many magic tricks Simon Wheatley performed: so we had to make hasty plans to move it somewhere beefier (and as it turned out, cheaper). Thankfully though, we seem to be in calmer waters now.

Knowing the Slugger readership as I did, I feared the worst when it came to reader feedback. In fact, it's been overwhelmingly positive. People seem to like the visual approach, and appreciate what we're trying to achieve with it. We're fixing the (relatively few) bugs which have arisen, and the contributors are getting used to the new interface and the new functions at their disposal. And of course, this is really only the start: having moved everything over into WordPress, all sorts of possibilities now open up.

Several gold stars go to Simon Wheatley, for going far beyond the call of duty on this one; and thanks to Matt at Dunston Graphics, for getting the design just right, and coping admirably with my outrageously late change of strategic direction.