WordCamp Dallas was productive for all who went. I had a great time with fellow RefreshAustin peeps Paul Menard,Jen Simmons, and Ryan Joy. Unbeknown to me, WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg would kick things off by giving a speech on WordPress 2.5, which was launched just 20 minutes before he started. What impressed me the most was Matt Mullenweg’s commitment to making WordPress easy to use for wordsmiths like me yet robust enough to be a powerful CMS.

Not only is Mullenweg accessible, but he was eager to take as many questions as possible and was available throughout WordCamp for questions, comments and conversation. It was a real treat.

If you haven’t read an overview of WordPress 2.5 already, I suggest taking a look at Aaron Brazell’s comprehensive post on its features, or check out Mashable’s live stream of Mullenweg’s hour-long speech.

I too filmed the speech, but 1.) Mashable already had this streaming live, so I didn’t see much point in posting it too and 2.) I’d rather give you the goodies that were ONLY covered at WordCamp–plans for WordPress 2.6.

Here’s an overview:

We’ve all heard of Utterz and Qik for moblogging on the go, but if you don’t want to stream every waking moment of your life, Matt Mullenweg plans for you to be able to publish a WordPress blog from your phone. Apparently, an undisclosed device maker is even creating a phone to accommodate this. This should be available for version 2.6.

Other plans for version 2.6? A template gallery, a way to check plugins before installation, the ability to post outside the WordPress admin, and an easier to use interface, and more security. Check out the details in Matt’s speech on how WordPress will be “meaner, lighter, and faster” here :

**photo of Michelle Greer and Ma.tt courtesy of Anuj Bhatia.