Read the full details at CodeIgniter.com.

That’s right, we’re giving away a ticket and entering to win is easy.  What does the full conference ticket include?

These tickets grant access to all presentations at the EECI2010 US conference and any Monday MasterClasses of your choice as well as the Monday Night “Welcome Drink” and the Tuesday “EECI2010 PartyEE Night”.

How to enter

To enter to win the full conference ticket to EECI2010, just Tweet your favorite thing about either ExpressionEngine or CodeIgniter, including the full name of the product, the #eecifree hash, and the bit.ly link to this blog post (http://bit.ly/cEAhqM).  Example:

ExpressionEngine rocks because it doesn’t mess with my HTML #eecifree http://bit.ly/cEAhqM

Additionally, for your entry to qualify, you must follow @ellislab on Twitter.

When can I enter?

The contest opens immediately and will remain open until Monday March 8 at midnight Pacific time.

But I already paid for a registration!

Don’t worry, you should still enter.  If you win the prize and have already paid for an EECI2010 registration, EllisLab will reimburse you in full after confirmation of registration and payment.  If you purchased regular tickets, we will upgrade the ticket for you to a full conference ticket and reimburse you for your amount paid for the regular ticket.

How is the winner selected?

The winner will be selected at random from all entries.  Multiple submissions do not increase your chances; your account can only enter once, so make your Tweet memorable!

We will announce the winner of this contest at the EECI2010 SXSW preParty on the 15th.  You do not need to be present to win, but if you are, we’ll have something extra for you!

Saturday, March 13, 10 - 11am Distributed development: how do you guys do it?!
The primary topic will be that of working with a distributed team.  EllisLab has team members in European countries, and all throughout North America.  How do we work together?  We’ll talk about technical, logistical, and human challenges of working tightly in this environment.  If you have a distributed team and either need help or would like to help others from your experience, this is the group for you!

Saturday, March 13, 4 - 5pm Module building from experts, the EllisLab team
As described from UserVoice: “The EE team talks about extending EE 2 with a walk through of a module with a Q&A from attendees.”  We’ll go a step further and talk about ExpressionEngine 2.0’s new add-on types, on choosing what type of add-on to build a particular feature with, as well as the keys to successfully distributing and marketing an add-on to the ExpressionEngine community (both free and commercial).

Sunday, March 14, 2 - 3pm CodeIgniter Web Apps with ExpressionEngine 2.0
As suggested from UserVoice: “Before EE2.0 was released developers were getting very excited about EE2.0 being developed with CodeIgniter…Developers from both EE and CI camps were told of “dropping in” EE into a CodeIgniter build and harnessing the power of EE within a CI application. This discussion would be an overview of how CI works inside EE and how to extend it.”

At all three discussions, we’ll make sure that we have time for general discussion on various things you may wish to talk about that are not necessarily on topic for that group event.  Thanks to everyone for the suggestions and votes!

Saturday, March 13, 10 - 11am
Saturday, March 13, 4 - 5pm
Sunday, March 14, 2 - 3pm

If you do not have your own recommendation then use your voice to vote for an existing suggestion.

We’re looking forward to hearing what you want to discuss with us, and where we should have those conversations.  Don’t miss this chance to choose what we do together at SXSW!

We have worked with the great folks over at EE Calendar to list our events and keep them updated.

Furthermore, we have posted an EllisLab SXSW 2010 calendar via iCal Exchange.  We will keep this updated and recommend subscribing to that calendar to automatically receive those updates.

Don’t forget to speak up at UserVoice to vote for where we should go and what we should discuss.  These are your events, and we look forward to seeing what the community chooses for us.  The deadline for submitting your ideas via UserVoice is March 2nd, so get your ideas in early!

Where?  The Library on 6th Street (map)

When?  Monday March 15, 7pm

What?  Beer and pizza for ExpressionEngine and CodeIgniter users, and even some free tickets to the EECI2010 conference courtesy of Whoooz Webmedia!

Can I come?  Absolutely - no SXSW pass is required, and all ExpressionEngine and CodeIgniter users are welcome.  However, space is limited to about 100, so you must register for a free ticket.

At this party, we’ll be announcing the winners of our own contest to send you to EECI2010.  Wait, contest?  Did I miss something?  No, but you don’t want to miss this, so stay tuned to the ExpressionEngine Blog for details on how to enter and for more news on the upcoming EECI2010 event.

For those of you not attending SXSW, don’t worry. You don’t have to go to SXSW or the EECI Pre-party to enter the contest. We want to make sure everyone has the opportunity to come join the fun in San Francisco in May with us and as many of the EE Community as we can round up.

See you there!

This is a great move for EllisLab and for the community; there is an immeasurable value to this discourse.  This year we are excited to continue with this format and to add to it; this year, you, through the services at UserVoice, will have the opportunity to choose where we meet and what we discuss.

First we will be offering Lunch with EllisLab to exceptional contributors to the community, including those who run ExpressionEngine or CodeIgniter community sites, third party add-on developers, and Pro Net members.  This is your opportunity to tell us what we can do to support your endeavor while enjoying a meal on our tab.

Next, we will be at the following locations around the Austin downtown area - come and join us!

Saturday: 2-3:30pm
Austin Duck Adventure  We have a private charter Hydra Terra vehicle, touring Austin and Austin Lake.  We can take about 30 guests, and will be leaving from the Hilton for this unique experience, boarding at 1:50pm.

Sunday: 10-11am
Circus Mashimus  Lounge on the first floor of the convention center with cushy seating, drinks and snacks on us.  If you like, we’ll cruise the Screenburn Arcade next door.

Sunday: 4-5pm
ELEVEN API Lounge - Hilton Room 406.  This lounge is new to SXSW this year.  With its convenient location, if for some reason it is overly crowded or noisy, we can sneak away to the lobby or the executive lounge.

Lastly we have setup specific time slots for which you will be able to choose the venue and topic on our UserVoice forum.  These are listed below:

• Saturday: 10-11am
• Saturday: 4-5pm
• Sunday: 2-3pm

Where will you send EllisLab?  One of SXSW’s official lounges?  A comfy hotel lobby?  The Hilton Executive lounge (we have access)?  A walk through of the trade show with you?  Which venue we choose from your suggestions will be determined by the number of votes at UserVoice factored in with the logistics of us pulling it off (distance from Hilton, expense, etc.)  We can talk about whatever you like.  Business opportunities, implementation woes, how to get all three coins in world 9-7 of Super Mario Brothers for Wii, whatever you want.  Don’t forget to include the day and time that you’re requesting!

In order to facilitate discussion, all groups will be kept small, so sign-up early; spots will fill up fast.  Available locations and dates can be found in our SXSW 2010 forum.

• Saturday, March 13, 10 - 11am UserVoice
• Saturday, March 13, 11:45am - 1:30pm Lunch with EllisLab
• Saturday, March 13, 2 - 3:30pm Austin Duck Adventure!
• Saturday, March 13, 4 - 5pm UserVoice
• Sunday, March 14, 10 - 11am Circus Mashimus
• Sunday, March 14, 11:45am - 1:30pm Lunch with EllisLab
• Sunday, March 14, 2 - 3pm UserVoice
• Sunday, March 14, 4 - 5pm ELEVEN API Lounge
• Monday, March 15, 12:307pm   ExpressionEngine 2.0: Total Domination!
• Monday, March 15, 7pm EECI2010 preParty @ SXSW

We’ll be keeping our evenings largely free for spontaneous meetups, with the exception of late Saturday night, where we will be attending Ok Happy Cog’aoke 2, a fantastic karaoke event hosted by Happy Cog that we’re proud to be an official sponsor of.

And on Monday night you won’t want to miss the EECI2010 preParty @ SXSW!  Free beer and pizza, and even free tickets to the event!  Register soon, as space is limited.  During the conference, you’ll want to follow us on Twitter as we’ll be making frequent updates as to our whereabouts.

This year builds on our fantastic success last year with the mini “meet and greets”; we are excited to grow our relationships with those at the forefront of our communities, and to see what you will come up with for us to do, together.  It’s going to be a great SXSW!

We have some exciting plans for this year’s SXSW, including the ability for those attending SXSW to influence our schedule. This is the first time that we will offer the community the chance to have a say in where we are, and what we discuss; we’re excited to make this an EllisLab event for you, the community.

We will also be attending what promises to be a great panel: ExpressionEngine 2.0: Total Domination.

We’ll have more details coming to you soon.

See you at SXSW!

ExpressionEngine 2.0 Public Beta Change Log
Discussion Forum Change Log
Multiple Site Manager Change Log

And if you like staying up to date in an instant, you may also subscribe to our delicious feed for the Builds announcement forum, which is simultaneously updated when a new build is released, including an overview of the changes.

You can find the details on the EllisLab Jobs page.  Below are some quick tips to help with your application:

- You are a self-starter, able to learn and act independently, yet capable of interacting with a team on a regular basis.
- You have experience with ExpressionEngine. There is no way around this. It helps if you’ve built several sites in ExpressionEngine: the more the better.
- You have a presence within our community and a history of helping others.
- 100% of the job is written communication. You must be responsive and able to communicate well in the English language.
- Patience and good humor are practically requirements when engaging in support.

Good luck!

Since we’ve got a number of new people to the EE Community I think this would be a good time to let you know the best way to stay current on EE updates. EE releases come in two flavors, Versions and Builds.

A Version, also called a Point release, is considered a substantial update and can be identified by a change in the Version number.

ExpressionEngine 2.0.0—> ExpressionEngine 2.0.1

Version updates typically contain fixes, updates, and possibly new features. The bigger the change in Version number, the more substantial the changes.

A Build is an update to ExpressionEngine within the same Version/point number. For example, ExpressionEngine 2.0.0 has Build 20091207 and Build 20091211. A new Build usually contains minor fixes and updates. The Build number is simply the date the Build was released making it easy to identify how current the Build is. Builds also have their own update instructions when updating within the same Version.

All first party ExpressionEngine software works this way.

The best way to stay on top of new ExpressionEngine, Discussion Forum, and Multiple Site Manager updates is to subscribe to the Builds Forum feed (Builds RSS). We post all updates to the Builds Forum so if you’re subscribed, you’ll get notified immediately of new updates.

Notable releases are typically posted on the EE Blog as well but usually a day or two after the initial release and we don’t blog about all Build updates.

If you maintain an EE site, subscribe now! If you have an EE site but someone else maintains it for you, make sure they read this post and subscribe.

Until next time, see you on the boards!

I’m writing this update from an undisclosed warm weather location where Rick Ellis, Derek Jones, and I are convening to plan out the next year. Yes, its our annual World Domination Summit. There is energy and excitement in the air (along with the promise of good Brazilian BBQ). We think 2010 is going to be special, but let’s start by reviewing what’s happened in the last 30 days.

Let’s start this update by welcoming Jamie Rumbelow to the EllisLab Team. If you spend any time over at CodeIgniter you probably already know Jamie. Since EE is now on CI I want to formally introduce Jamie to the ExpressionEngine community. Jamie is our new CodeIgniter Chieftain. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting Jamie in person you know that its a title that fits him well and will be a great win for the community due to his passion and commitment to code and people.

I was extremely pleased to discover that Ryan Irelan’s ExpressionEngine 2.0 Quick Start Guide was Pragmatic’s top selling direct online sales book for December. A big thank you to every one who bought it and a big congrats to Ryan!

During the first week of EE 2.0 Beta’s release our dev team performed as promised. There were four build updates within 7 days as our team diligently responded to community feedback. The blog has been quiet but anybody in the beta knows that we’ve been very active on the forums working closely with the community.

We are now 30+ days into the EE 2.0 Public Beta and the dev team is putting the finishing touches on ExpressionEngine v2.0.1. This will be the first significant update to the Public Beta as it includes the implementation of the Custom Field API and its documentation for third party developers. This will open up a more focused conversion path for 3rd party developers that need their add-ons to integrate with the Publish/Edit pages.

There are also additional bug fixes along with a few highly requested UI tweaks. 

After EE 2.0.1 our focus will shift from primarily responding to issues to focusing on a few of the larger goals for the beta.

Let me also give a big, heartfelt thank you to the EE Community. The high quality feedback that started way back in the Developer preview, and then in both phases of the private beta, has continued in the Public Beta.

Your ability to ferret out issues, file good bug reports, tell your use case stories, and work closely with our staff and team to resolve issues is a testament to how communities should work together. We’re very proud to be working for you and we’re blown away that sales have exceeded expectations.

What I want to emphasize to the community is that this is a beta and that means you have the opportunity to influence the final result. That’s the entire purpose of the beta and part of what made EE 1.X so special. This opportunity is now yours for EE 2.X. Many of you are already taking advantage of this opportunity and I encourage you to continue that with your feedback and the conversations we’re seeing on the forums and elsewhere.

This also includes the chance to influence your favorite 3rd party developer. Make sure you talk to them about what you want them to do with EE 2.X. The EE dev community is awesome. If you’ve never checked it out before start by heading over to EE Insider and Devot-ee.

Together we can make 2010 the year of ExpressionEngine.

I need to close this update with a public thank you to our tireless support staff. On December 2nd they were handed a very big challenge, and have been doing a fantastic job. They put in overtime, worked extra shifts, and went beyond the call of duty to support the release. In the space of 7 days our community grew at an accelerated pace and our support team handled it like artisians.

Ingmar, Sue, John, Greg, Adam, and Lisa, thank you!

See you on the forums, next update in two weeks.

One part of this that you may have already noticed is EE Live on our home-page, where you can find next three upcoming events.

Opening today is the Event Listing where you can see all upcoming events.  You can also add your own events to this listing by using the new Add Event form.  To allow for coordination and discussion, there is a new Events Forum.

New events will be lightly moderated, and creating a forum post prior to adding your event will allow the Events Listing to link to your discussion.

These new features can be used for any gathering centered around ExpressionEngine and/or CodeIgniter, from an informal chat over coffee, to a multi-day conference, to a training class, please feel free to add your event.  An EllisLab team member may also unexpectedly show up.  Myself, and the rest of the team, love getting to know the community better!

(Photo copyright Michael Swindler)

The EllisLab dev team got together and reviewed beta participation. It was a difficult decision because a lot of people made great contributions and the overall quality of feedback was stellar. But the dev team agreed that two people really stood out during the private beta. And, fortunately, there are two EE Mugs left, not one like I originally thought.

A hardy congratulations go to Ender and DaveNZ for their outstanding contributions during the private beta! You’ll receive an email today with the details on claiming your EE Mug.

The Public Beta is going very well. Sales are strong and the majority of the initial feedback has been positive. Perhaps more importantly, the negative feedback has been constructive and insightful. The combination of these three has us excited as we steadily work toward EE 2.1.

As promised we’ve been responding swiftly to bugs and issues with no less than 8 new builds since release (that’s EE + Forums + MSM). You can keep track of Build updates by following the Build Forum’s RSS feed.

Last time I said we want to continue doing these updates on a regular basis. To make sure that happens we’re going to move the updates to Fridays starting on January 8. I’ll try to sneak in another update or two prior to that but the holiday schedule might make that a little tricky.