Get To Know Zack Tollman
Zack Tollman is Application Architect on the WIRED tech team. Before joining WIRED, Zack worked as Technical Lead at the Theme Foundry and Senior Web Engineer at 10up. He received a bachelor of arts degree from Lawrence University and PhD from Washington State University. He currently lives in the Bay Area with his wife and dog.
We’re thrilled Zack will be speaking at WordCamp Sacramento 2015 on the topic of understanding TLS and HTTPs.
Speaker Q&A With Zack
Why do you think understanding TLS and HTTPs is important?
My talked is “HTTPS is Coming: Are you Prepared?” The web community is in a state of transition from HTTP to HTTPS. Major initiatives have begun to push web developers toward deploying HTTPS only websites in the last few years. Browser vendors are at the forefront of this change and are locking certain features to HTTPS only websites. In the coming years, HTTPS configuration will be an essential web development skill. After setting up WordPress, you will need to configure a TLS certificate and ensure that your site works over HTTPS. My talk aims to fill the knowledge gaps about TLS that developers may have missed if they were paying attention.
What is your history or experience with TLS and HTTPs?
I became obsessed with understanding TLS and HTTPs after maintaining The Theme Foundry’s website and transitioning the site to HTTPS only. Through that process, I learned that HTTPS is not easy and developers have to put in a significant level of effort to understand how TLS works. Since that time, I have been writing and speaking on the subject, with the goal of making some of these difficult subjects more accessible. I even released a WP plugin to help detect mixed content issues on HTTPS websites.
How did you get started with WordPress? Why WordPress?
I became a huge WordPress fan after having built countless interfaces for managing posts and content in general for websites. It got really tiring to continually maintain this code. When I finally understood how easy it was to customize WordPress, I was so excited to never have to write the basic post management code ever again. Instead, I got that for free and could start focusing on the more exciting features for the particular website.
What is your favorite thing about WordPress?
The community. We have such a diverse and exciting community. It motivates me to continue to work on plugins, core, and education efforts.
Can you share a couple WordPress plugins that you love or recommend?
I’m a huge fan of Query Monitor, a plugin that provides important performance related information for each page load. It is conveniently displayed in the admin bar and focuses on the most important information to allow you to understand how your post is performing.
Resources or recommendations?
Fortunately, the WordPress community has Post Status, which tracks news in our community. Brian Krogsgard compiles a daily newsletter that pulls together the best posts from the day, as well as his commentary on hot topics in the community. I find that if Brian is talking about it, it is important and it is something you want to read. I highly recommend it to stay in touch with the latest developments and resources in our community.
Check Out The Speakers
WordCamp Sacramento 2015 is bringing you an awesome line up of speakers from not only our greater Sacramento region, but throughout California and beyond. Check out our speakers page to see the 2015 WordCamp Sacramento Speakers, and be sure to follow them on Twitter.