November 1st, 2010 by Mike

First off, what is WordPress? WordPress is a open source, content management, website framework designed for ‘blogging’. Looking at these components, one at a time. First is open source. That means that the ‘source’ code is open. Open in that is NOT propriety in that one must purchase it or a license to use it. The WordPress source is open, visable and there for others to use. And with this, many other people or often called 3rd Parties have developed features that can be added to WordPress to make it better. But more on that in a later post.
Secondly, is content management. That basically means that the content, the meat and potatoes of your site is easily maintained by the owner, an employee or a web guy without the need of special software or tools. And for the most part, now ‘web’ training is necessary. However, I will say now, and explain further in a later post, that the more you learn about how a web page works and WordPress operates, the better your site will be.
Lastly, a website framework designed for blogging. The quickest analogy that I can give you is that think of these as the framework of a house and the type of house. There are many types of homes, one-story, 5-bedroom, duplex etc. Thus the WordPress framework is build around the ‘blogging’ features. And as I stated, it is only the framework. How you make it look, depends on what are called Themes, which are basically developed by the user, or 3rd Parties and made available to you. The Themes basically define the way the site looks and feels. Much like that of home where the theme would define where the walls go, and the interior design.
Because of these features, WordPress has become a very large community. There a millions of people who use, there are tons of 3rd Party folks who have created custom Themes and Plugins to enhance the product. And with that, there becomes a great support community. There are untold number of books, but the best support comes from the web itself.