In Case You Missed It – Issue 22

WordPress Foundation is Taking Submissions for The Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship

For the third year in a row, the WordPress Foundation will award a woman contributor with financial need who has never attended WordCamp US the Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship was created in memory of Kim Parsell who passed away in 2015.

The scholarship covers the cost of the following:

Travel to and from Nashville from the recipient’s home city,

Hotel stay for the duration of the event,

A ticket to WordCamp US 2017.

The deadline to apply for the scholarship is Tuesday, August 15th at 12a.m. Pacific.

https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/kim-parsell-memorial-scholarship-2017/

The WordPress Economy is Fine

In a guest post for Post Status, Joshua Strebel, founder of Pagely, explains why he’s not worried about the WordPress economy.

In all channels, new market entrants or existing small shops are being out-gunned by the established players, or the buyers needs are being met upon install.

So is the WordPress ecosystem shrinking? Yes, segments of it are and will continue to do so. It’s like in any industry: the car replaced the horse and the robot replaced the factory worker. What was successful in the New Market phase may not work in the more mature, ‘Existing Market’ phase we are in.

It’s a good read and it’s interesting to think about what new segments will be created that don’t exist.

WPCampus 2017 Videos Are Now Available

WPCampus has published all of the videos from its 2017 conference. They’re available to watch for free either on the site or the organization’s YouTube channel. If you attended WPCampus 2017 or watched the livestream, please consider taking the following survey that will help organizers plan for future events.

WordPress Case Studies Needed

The WordPress marketing team has published a survey seeking case studies from agencies, enterprises, and clients who use WordPress. The team has provided a sample Case Study that can be used as a template. The case studies will help determine how WordPress is being used and help focus future marketing efforts.

WordPress Agencies: We Want Your Case Studies

New Preferred Languages Prototype

Pascal Birchler unveiled an updated prototype of the preferred languages project. The project adds UI to the WordPress backend that allows users to select multiple preferred languages. WordPress will try to load the translations for the first language that’s available. If it’s not available, it will fall back to the next language in the list.

Birchler is seeking feedback on the newest version of the plugin and is working towards it being a merge candidate for WordPress 4.9.

Preferred Languages: The Prototype

WordPress’ Emerging Dominance as a CMS of Choice for Law Firms

Kevin O’ Keefe explains why WordPress is likely to become the dominant CMS of choice for law firms.

Just as Word has replaced WordPerfect as the word processing solution of choice for law firms, WordPress is likely to replace other content management systems for law firms, both large and small.

WordPress 4.9 Expected This November

In the last developer’s chat, WordPress 4.9 development kicked off and is expected to be released in November. This release will focus on editing code, managing plugins and themes, a user-centric way to customize a site, and improvements to features recently added. Mel Choyce and Weston Ruter are co-release leads.

Dev Chat Summary: August 2nd (4.9 week 1)

Volunteers Needed for WordCamp US

https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/2017/08/01/wcus-needs-you-volunteer-applications-are-now-open/

A Visit From St. Gutenberg

Perhaps the greatest one-star review on the WordPress plugin directory.

Minniepuu and Wapauul!

In what is a traditional part of this series, I end each issue by featuring a Wapuu design. For those who don’t know, Wapuu is the unofficial mascot of the WordPress project. Minniepuu and Wapauul, designed by Michelle Schulp, are the mascots of WordCamp Minneapolis 2017 that’s taking place this weekend.

Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN are commonly referred to as the Twin Cities and the city’s Major League Baseball team is the Minnesota Twins.

WordCamp Minneapolis 2017 Wapuus

That’s it for issue twenty-two. If you recently discovered a cool resource or post related to WordPress, please share it with us in the comments.