Peter Meth and Chris Hartjes, organizers of the popular Canadian PHP conference True North PHP have created a kickstarter for the latest generation of ehePHPants they hope can join the family - the woolly mammoth (complete with tusks and a nice fuzzy coat).

There's no arguing that people in the PHP community love their elephpants. The announcement of a new elephpant being available in a new colour sends people reaching for their wallets or using their network of connections to try and get one (or often more) for themselves.

As the True North PHP conference moves towards it's 4th edition we wanted to create our own unique elephpant to give away to attendees and allow others to obtain as well. So of course we thought of a Woolly Mammoth.

The kickstarter is only running for three more days, so if you'd like a chance to pick up a woolly mammoth elePHPant to call your own, be sure to head over and pledge for your package of choice. There's just a few days remaining and it's getting down to the wire. They won't get made unless the goal is met, so grab yours now!

The Seattle PHP User Group has decided to follow along with the example set by many other PHP user groups in the past several years. They have officially announced the Pacific Northwest PHP Conference and a Kickstarter campaign to help raise the funding to help make it a reality.

The Seattle PHP User Group (SeaPHP) has been around for over 10 years. We love PHP, and we want to build up our local PHP community even further by hosting a PHP developer conference here in Seattle—the technology hub of the Pacific Northwest and cloud computing capital of the world. We invite PHP developers everywhere, and of all skill levels, to come learn, network, and hack together with us in the Emerald City at the first Pacific Northwest PHP Conference (PNWPHP).

The goal of the campaign is to raise some of the initial funding needed to generate more interest for the event, presell tickets and even attract sponsors. The conference itself is planned for September 11th and 12th of 2015 there in Seattle, Washington at the Impact Hub coworking space. If you'd like more information about the conference and updates as they come along, be sure to subscribe to their mailing list and consider helping the PHP conference community grow and contribute today!

If you've been around the PHP community for any length of time, there's a pretty good chance you've seen the language's "mascot" floating around - the elePHPant. This mascot has even been made into a stuffed toy in various colors - blue, red, yellow and now thanks to [php]architect, orange.

Ready to add, or start, your collection of elePHPants? We started a KickStarter campaign to produce a run of Orange elephants. [...] There’s much more information over at our Kickstarter project. The campaign is set to a short timeframe and ends on February 3rd as we need to get our production order placed as soon as possible. So get over there and claim your orange elePHPant before time runs out!

The Kickstarter campaign, originally fully funded at $1,000 USD has now reached an amazing $16,000+ USD. There are still plenty of spots left open if you want to pledge and get in on this purchase. Options range from a simple $1 USD for support all the way out to a $250 USD option that gets you a "zoo" (ten small elePHPants and one large elePHPant).

A while back Alan Forbes started a Kickstarter project to write a PHP book, "The Joy of PHP". This book was targeted at those that wanted to learn PHP and "have some fun along the way". The book has been finished and, in a special promotion, is being offered free of charge through Amazon and for the next five days.

The book "The Joy of PHP" by Alan Forbes now available as a Kindle book on Amazon.com. Starting today (or tomorrow, depending on Amazon) and lasting only 5 days the book will be absolutely free. The only "catch" is that the author is asking for reviews. In other words, once you've taken a look a the book please go back to the book listing on Amazon and give it a star rating from 1 to 5 to help the author build momentum for the book.

You can find out more about the book on its website and, if you don't want the Kindle version, pick up a copy of the PDF version for just $12 USD.

UPDATE: the free offer for this book has been extended and is available for no cost for a limited time!