On the podcast today we have Angela Jin. She’s the Head of Programs and Contributor Experience at Automattic, where she oversees the work of multiple teams dedicated to the WordPress open source project. Several weeks ago, Angela wrote a blog post entitled The Next Generation of WordCamps. It laid out how WordCamps have been run…
In May 2023, WordPress’ Community Team announced that it would be evolving the WordCamp format to promote adoption, training, and networking for professionals, leaving the flagship events to focus more on connection and inspiration. This major shift opens the door for more experimentation through varied formats. In a recent update, the team shared that progress…
Q&A segments at a live event are a valuable point of connection where attendees have the opportunity to gain the undivided attention of the speaker or panelist and get answers to important questions. Inevitably, people who abuse the format can lower the quality of the experience for everyone. A Twitter thread addressing this chronic problem…
After a lengthy discussion, the Community Team has decided to make it easier for organizers to apply for regional in-person WordCamps. These are events that pull in a community from a geographical area larger than one city or metro area. In past years, WordPress Community Support (WCS) saddled regional events with numerous additional requirements beyond…
On the podcast today we have Evangelia Pappa & Bernhard Kau. They’re two of the WordCamp Europe 2022 organising team. They are here to talk about the upcoming event, happening during June, in Porto, Portugal. We talk about the measures that they’ve put in place to ensure that the event is as safe as possible.…
Earlier this month the WordPress Community Team proposed stricter guidelines for hosting in-person events, as the pandemic continues to warrant vigilance and a nimble approach to ensuring attendees’ safety. The updated guidelines were published today with an important change that relieves volunteers of the burden of enforcing the safety measures. The new mandatory guidelines require…
WordCamp Birmingham’s organizers announced today that the in-person event planned for the first week in February is now postponed until April or May. Organizers had been planning the event since August 2021 and had just announced the last group of speakers a week ago. “In the last 30 days, our local COVID-19 numbers have risen…
Mounting concerns about loose safety protocols at upcoming WordPress events, and the prevalence of the highly transmissible Omicron variant, have prompted the Community Team to be more explicit in its COVID-19 safety guidelines. The team is proposing additional measures previously not required. Currently, in-person attendees are required to be fully vaccinated, recently tested negative, or…
WordCamp Birmingham is the first in-person WordCamp on the schedule for 2022. The event will be held at the Sidewalk Film Center and Cinema in downtown Birmingham on February 4-5. It is one of the first cracks in WordPress’ iced over event landscape after the pandemic brought in-person gatherings to a halt. “WordCamp Birmingham was…
WordPress is restarting its in-person WordCamp program after more than six weeks of discussion on a proposal for how the WordPress community can return to hosting events. Applications are now open for in-person WordCamps, provided they meet the Community Team’s updated guidelines for organizing WordCamps during the pandemic. Local communities that have hosted meetups prior…
On the podcast today we have Robert Jacobi. Robert is Director of WordPress at Cloudways. He’s been working with open source software for almost twenty years and so today we have a broad discussion about his ‘Gutenberg First’ approach as well as how the project is evolving. We also chat about WordPress events and Openverse.
Earlier this week, the WordPress Biratnagar Facebook group announced a WordCamp scholarship in honor of Ujwal Thapa. The goal is to honor the legacy left behind by one of Nepal’s leaders both inside and outside of the WordPress community. Thapa passed away a month ago at age 44 from complications with COVID-19. He was a…
Now that COVID-19 vaccinations are becoming more widespread, many hope that in-person WordCamps can once again be a reality. There is no official path forward just yet, and decisions will likely be locally based in the coming months. Angela Jin, a community organizer for Automattic, announced an open discussion around the topic. Currently, all WordCamps…
The WordPress Community Team is discussing banning companies from sponsoring WordCamps if they advertise competitively against WordPress. A WordCamp organizing team recently brought the concern to community deputies regarding a potential sponsor that is advertising its product in such a way that it puts WordPress in “an unflattering light.” This particular instance is prompting community…
Tulsa’s first ever WordCamp, which was scheduled for August 29-30, 2020, has officially been canceled due to uncertainty surrounding the pandemic. The event would have been the second WordCamp in Oklahoma in four years, following WordCamp OKC in 2016. “We were trying to go for a hybrid event that was live streamed and included an…