This page links through to some of the other things I’m involved with and passionate about. Some are commercial, others are not, but they’re all close to my heart and are things that I believe in and work towards. I hope you’ll take the time to explore them and to contact me if you want to know anything more.
Zend Certification Questions Pack
I’ve been teaching ZCE for quite a while, originally the 5.0 and 5.3 versions and now the 5.5 certification too, and I hold both certifications myself. One of the hardest things about preparing for the exam is the lack of sample questions available for the 5.5 certification, so I decided to share the set I use with my own ZCE courses. This 60+ page PDF contains some background on the exam and links to resources you will need, plus a set of 70 example ZCE questions (completely unofficial, the aim is to give you an idea of style and content) – complete with correct answers and explanations of those answers.
You can buy the pack from Leanpub: https://leanpub.com/zce
There are a few other things I have published which may help you to prepare (and these don’t need your credit card!). When I published this pack, I wrote a blog post giving my best advice for preparing to take the ZCE exam. Also over the last few years I have collected and actively curate a set of links to articles covering some of the topics in the ZCE syllabus, which may be helpful to anyone studying for it. I am also available as a ZCE trainer, offering both public courses and training specifically for your team, just get in touch or take a look at my upcoming courses.
Joind.in: Open Source Event Feedback
I’m a project lead on this open source project. The aim of the site is to make it easy to collect feedback from attendees to any event regarding the talks and the event itself. Using this site, conference organisers get feedback, speakers get feedback, and attendees can see what everyone else thought too – and it’s all open and happening in real time.
In particular I’ve taken on aspects of community management and code quality in this project – and replaced the existing API with a newer, more robust and flexible version. Joind.in was actually the first open source project I contributed code to; seeing others take their first steps here is an aspect of the project that I find really rewarding.
PHPNW: Community Conference
PHP North West is a community-driven conference running in Manchester, UK, every year. I’ve been involved with organising three out of the four events so far (and keynoted at the other one!) and have seen the event grow from an idea to “we need a bigger venue!” and beyond. I’m a regular speaker (and occasional organiser) at other events, but this one is absolutely special. For the standard of the schedule, for the affordable prices, and (perhaps as a result of the two) for the fantastic atmosphere at the event! Best of all – it’s a cracking conference and brings great knowledge and collaboration to everyone who becomes part of it.