Josepha 7:43 pm on January 19, 2024
Tags: ,   

Big Picture Goals 2024

It’s been exciting to see how this community of contributors has come together in the past year to rebuild so much of what we lost in the wake of covid. It has not been an easy journey, but it has certainly been rewarding. With this renewed foundation, I invite you all to join me in focusing our energy on engaging and attracting users of closed-source products.

A Quick Caveat

There are always unexpected projects that arise over the course of the year. And there are big projects to move forward over multiple years. This project is too big for me to see everything all the time, and I rely on the information from team reps and the vision from both Matt as project lead and Matías as technical architect to help navigate any surprises.

Keep in mind that even if a project isn’t listed here, many unmentioned ones still contribute significantly to the overall success of our work.

The Top Focuses

Projects

There are three focuses for our projects this year:

  • CMS: Test, iterate, and ship Phase 3 of the GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ project
  • Community: Continue to support the community through learning, events, and mentorship of current and future contributors
  • Ecosystem: Address the difficulty in moving platforms through the Data Liberation project as well as streamline existing review processes across repositories

Obstacles

  • Growth: Our new installations are stagnant year over year. The time to encourage the use of open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. software solutions like WordPress is now. Our project is pro-business and pro-commerce, and we’re committed to aiding in our users’ success by providing access and opportunities to those who might not have them otherwise.
  • Differentiation: Our event series needs to grow past a “one size fits all” strategy. With more advanced topics and more focused events, we can meet our community where it is—in a moment where time is valuable and joining an event should clearly help them reach their goals.

I believe that the WordPress software, ecosystem, and project can be the open source alternative of choice to any proprietary system you need to get your business going. And I need your help to get us there.

How Can You Help?

Code isn’t the only indicator of our achievement. If you already know what type of contribution you’d like to make, you can check out this list of teams (with links to their community sites) and team reps. If you’re not yet sure, here are a few teams and the areas they fall into:

  • Development, Technology, Code: CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress./Editor, Mobile, CLICLI Command Line Interface. Terminal (Bash) in Mac, Command Prompt in Windows, or WP-CLI for WordPress./Tide, Security, Performance
  • Design, Product, UXUX UX is an acronym for User Experience - the way the user uses the UI. Think ‘what they are doing’ and less about how they do it./UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing.: Design, AccessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility), Test, Triage
  • Community, Extending WP, Education: Community, Themes, Plugins, Polyglots, Training
  • Contributor Experience: MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress., Docs, Hosting, Privacy
  • Communications: Marketing, Support, WPTV
#goals, #planning
Birgit Olzem 2:20 pm on May 31, 2024
Tags: , , , ,   

WordPress Project Contributor Handbook v2

In March 2021, Josepha introduced the proposal of a WordPress Project Contributor Handbook. This handbook was intended to be an overarching resource and place for policies, best practices, guides and other foundational content related to open-source and the global WordPress project.

Imagine it as a comprehensive map that will guide every contributor through our beloved WordPress landscape.

As the founder and spearhead of the DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging) working group, I’m excited to update you on an exciting development: we’ve committed ourselves to a revamp of the Contributor Handbook into the next iteration. This handbook – like every other handbook – is a living document and needs to grow alongside the project and its community. 

The Value of a Unified Guide

The new Contributor Handbook aims to be the quintessential resource for everyone in our community. It will provide a bird’s-eye view of where to find key information and how different aspects of our community interconnect. From community engagement rules to technical guidelines, this handbook will cover it all, making your journey as a WordPress contributor clearer and more structured.

Scope

The Contributor Handbook currently includes pages on AccessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access�� (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility), Privacy Policy, a DEI Statement, the Community Code of Conduct, and Incident Response Team. Pages or parts of documentation that require legal consideration, like the Privacy Policy, will not be included in the scope of this work. Wherever required, the intention is to collaborate with teams that are most familiar with the page, for example, the Community Code of Conduct with the Incident Response Team. 

Collaboration Across Teams

Enhancing the handbook is a collaborative effort involving several key teams:

  • Community Team: Focusing on integrating community interaction norms and event guidelines.
  • Documentation Team: Ensuring that the handbook is comprehensive and easy to navigate.
  • Project Leadership: Offering strategic guidance to align the handbook with broader WordPress objectives.

This cross-team collaboration ensures that the handbook serves as a holistic guide to the WordPress ecosystem, tailored to meet the needs of all contributors, new and seasoned alike.

Progress and Acknowledgments

Thank you to @chanthaboune and @angelasjin for the first iteration of the Contributor Handbook, and for suggestions provided by @jeffpaul, @tobifjellner, @dd32, @juliacanzani, @poena, @sereedmedia, @joedolson, @ryelle. 

Also thanks to @milana_cap, @j9magayanes, @TantienHime, and @CoachBirgit for their foundational work moving the needle forward at the CloudFest Hackathon. Their efforts led to the creation of a GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ repository, which is now officially part of the WordPress organization, thanks to @dd32 and @leogopal. This repository is the new home for our ongoing development and collaboration on the handbook.

Call to Action: We Need Your Voice!

Your involvement is crucial as we refine and enhance the handbook:

  • Review and Feedback: Dive into the Contributor Handbook GitHub repository to explore the drafts and contribute your suggestions.
  • Join the Discussion: Comment below to discuss how the handbook can better serve as your go-to resource.

Conclusion

Our goal is to not just create a handbook, but to foster a living document that evolves with our community. Your involvement will help mold it into a dynamic resource that reflects the needs and knowledge of all WordPress contributors. Together, let’s build a resource that not only guides, but also inspires and unites us in our shared mission.

Next Steps

We’re committed to making the Contributor Handbook a fundamental tool for everyone in our community. Let’s work together to create a resource that not only informs, but also empowers.

Props to @angelasjin for reviewing and contributing to this announcement post

#DEIB #DEI #discussion #handbook #WPDiversity

Angela Jin 4:05 pm on May 13, 2024  

Let’s try out online DEIB course content!

The WordPress community has long advocated for diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) training. Over the years, teams have explored various avenues, usually engaging diversity consultants. While this has been a valuable experience, extending such training to our vast and diverse community has been challenging, given our global community and the many timezones we cover. 

Today, I am excited to share that Automattic has added 100 licenses to their Paradigm Reach account for WordPress community members. While this isn’t a full solution, I am optimistic that it is a step in the right direction. Paradigm Reach offers a comprehensive suite of online coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. workshops, microlearnings, and resources created by professional experts from around the world. Their platform allows for customization of learning content for users. 

Some recognized limitations and future hopes

In reviewing Paradigm Reach, there are a few limitations I’d like to note. Firstly, only 100 licenses are available. However, the licenses can be reassigned, meaning that when a contributor completes assigned courses, their access can be removed and granted to another contributor. Second, because the usual audience for Paradigm Reach tends to be businesses and employers, some of the examples used are in a more corporate or work setting. However, the content itself is still valuable and principles can be applied to collaboration and engagement in the WordPress community. Lastly, the content is in English, and there are no translations of the material. 

While these limitations are very real, I still believe there is a net positive in introducing Paradigm Reach and that it will help the WordPress community get to a more conscientious and equitable future state. My hope is that through this initial online training, enough community members around the world are able to participate in high quality and consistent DEIB training, and begin to build shared language and understanding around DEIB. Then, a working group of members who have participated in this training can leverage what they have learned to create online DEIB training specifically for the WordPress contributor community, which can be translated and made available at any time, to any one. 

Some more immediate next steps

For starters, it makes sense to try out two courses, an “Intro to DEIB” and an “Advanced DEIB” course. Because the licenses are limited, I’d like to invite the following contributor groups to try out this async training:

  • Contributors who mentor or guide other contributors, like mentors for the Contributor Mentorship Program
  • Contributors who handle sensitive mediation work, like Incident Response Team (IRT) Members (all IRT members are required to complete DEIB training)
  • Contributors who communicate with large, international audiences, like Flagship event organizers
  • Contributors who want to provide DEIB training to others, like DEIB working group leaders
  • Contributors who have never experienced DEIB training previously

While the content should take no more than 3 hours to complete, participants will be given 8 weeks to finish assigned courses. Participants will also be asked to provide feedback on the content and recommendations for improvement. 
If you are interested in taking online DEIB training through Paradigm Reach, please fill out this form. Have questions or comments? Leave those in the comments below!

Lauren Stein 2:07 am on March 23, 2024
Tags: , WC Asia, WC Asia 2024   

WordCamp Asia 2024 Q&A

WordCamp Asia 2024 took place from March 7 to 9 in the vibrant city of Taipei, Taiwan. Over 1,300 attendees came together for three days of collaborating, learning, and community-building to celebrate connection and innovation in the WordPress project.

Following an exceptional lineup of speakers, workshops, and a busy Contributor DayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/. was the finale: a Q&A session featuring WordPress Cofounder Matt Mullenweg, who took live questions from the audience. You can read more about the event or watch the full recording of the session:

Matt Mullenweg answers questions from a live audience at WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Asia 2024.

There’s no more passionate community than WordPress, and with that comes an abundance of insightful questions. As with past events, this post gathers questions that Matt was unable to answer live—with answers from WordPress leadership and contributors.

Q. In what ways do you believe we can make the open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. model of WordPress more sustainable for times to come?

By continuing to build, iterate, and innovate with WordPress. There’s high-impact, exciting work happening across the project to transform the WordPress experience and how users approach creating on the web. You can find it in projects like the Admin redesign or other elements of Phase 3 in the product roadmap, which focuses on collaboration and workflows. 

By unlocking the web and making data as readily and easily portable as possible. The Data Liberation initiative, which Matt introduced at State of the Word 2023, is focused on creating one-click import and migrationMigration Moving the code, database and media files for a website site from one server to another. Most typically done when changing hosting companies. tools for anyone to move to (or from) WordPress. Data Liberation is an ecosystem-wide effort that can bring more people to WordPress and the values driving open source software. 

Finally, by growing the community and welcoming more perspectives. WordPress events and meetups have always been an essential part of the project. They’re evolving to better serve the needs of attendees, including events with more specific programming or themes, offering niche experiences within the broader community where attendees can learn and connect on a deeper level.

Q. How can we leverage a wave of generative AI to make WordPress better?

Matt’s discussed a number of ways generative AI can help improve WordPress and everyday life. Matt stands by his recommendation to learn AI deeply, whether it’s for building smarter plugins, experimenting with new content, or finding and fixing bugs faster.

Q. How can we better support working mothers [and all parents] in organizing events?

Organizing teams can take steps to support working parents by offering flexibility and creating environments that allow them to prioritize their lives and families. Simple actions include promoting asynchronous collaboration, having flexible meeting times, and recording meetings to allow parents to participate independently. 

Employers can also support organizers and employees by sponsoring their work through Five for the Future. This can provide needed financial resources and time to contribute to the WordPress community, and is a great way to support the future success of WordPress events. 

If you have other suggestions or ideas for supporting working parents in organizing events, please join the Community Team and share your thoughts.

Q. The Annual Survey saw a drop in contributor satisfaction and competitiveness, what steps are being taken to reverse this trend?

Along with continuing to encourage a culture of recognition within the WordPress project, there are a number of active programs and initiatives dedicated to evolving the contributor experience. These include the Contributor Mentorship Program, which provides mentorship and guidance to new contributors, and Five for the Future, which welcomes companies that offer sponsorship for contributions. 

If you’re interested in improving the contributor experience, you’re invited to join the Contributor Working Group meetings to share your ideas.

Q. How does the WordPress team prioritize which new features or improvements to work on?

As an open source project, WordPress welcomes anyone to submit a Trac patch or GitHub pull request to add new features. Features that align closely with the vision and product roadmap established by project leadership have a stronger chance of being reviewed and merged sooner. If you have an idea for a new feature or improvement, being familiar with the roadmap is a helpful first step.

Q. Are there any plans for establishing proper product marketing for WordPress itself?

There are a few existing initiatives in the project that are helping transform how WordPress is positioned in the market. The ongoing website redesign for WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/, along with the launch of the new Showcase, are a couple of ways the community is able to take on these kinds of challenges organically. The Developer Blog is another example, reaching a more targeted audience with product-related developer-focused content, published by our own talented contributors. 

If you’d like to join these efforts, or pitch new ones, join the community of contributors making WordPress in https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.

Q. Can we finally curate the dotorg theme directory?

The beautiful thing about the WordPress project is that opportunities for change are ready when you are. If you’re passionate about themes or have ideas about the organization of the Theme Directory, you’re invited to get involved with the Themes Team.

Do you have a question? Comment below, and join one of the many teams making WordPress for answers.

#qa, #wc-asia, #wc-asia-2024

Angela Jin 11:52 am on February 21, 2024  

Adding WordPress to adopters of the Contributor Covenant

The WordPress open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. project adopted its Community Code of Conduct in mid-2022. The Code of Conduct was forked from the Contributor Covenant, a template commonly used in many open source communities. 

Recently, WordPress contributors noticed that WordPress was not listed on the list of Adopters of the Contributor Covenant! To remedy this, a pull request to add WordPress to this list has been submitted. As of this post, it has not yet been merged. 

In an effort to better communicate our project’s Code of Conduct as widely and consistently as possible, an abbreviated version of the full Code of Conduct has been committed to the .github repository under the WordPress organization. Repositories with this name are treated differently by GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/, with all supported files being used as the defaults across the entire organization.

If a repository has its own CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md file, that file will be used instead of the new, default one. Pull requests have been submitted to remove all repo-specific CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md files from unarchived WordPress organization repositories. Once merged, the default CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md file will be displayed. A full list of all related pull requests can be found on WordPress/.github#1.  

If any maintainer feels the abbreviated or full length Code of Conduct does not adequately address their concerns, please reach out to the Community Team before merging a repository specific CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md file.

As a reminder, the Code of Conduct is a living document. Edits can be suggested by emailing support@wordcamp.org. 

Props to @desrosj for all the help with this, from everything GitHub to writing large parts of this post.

Julia Golomb 9:17 pm on February 2, 2024  

Incident Response Team: Call for Nominations

Update: The 2024 Incident Response Team cohort training is postponed from Q2, and will instead be held during Q4 of 2024.

Summary: Submit your Incident Response Team nominations by February 14, through the button below.

The WordPress Project Community Code of Conduct helps WordPress community members and contributors understand how we aspire to work together in “official” WordPress spaces. When people see behavior that doesn’t match the Code of Conduct, the Incident Response Team can assist in determining if the Code of Conduct has been breached and addressing situations that are in question of doing so. The Incident Response Team does not actively search for or monitor behavior. Instead, this team is a resource to the community for when things don’t go as expected. The Incident Response Team handbook captures the team’s current practices.

The first Incident Response Team cohort was onboarded to the team in December 2022, and it’s now time to train and onboard a second cohort of Incident Response Team members!

The work of taking and responding to incident reports requires a high degree of professionalism and emotional intelligence, and it is often invisible and difficult work. Because of this, individuals are vetted and need to successfully complete a 6-session, cohort-based training prior to joining the WordPress Incident Response Team. Read on for all the details! 

How to Join the WordPress Incident Response Team

To best serve the community, Incident Response Team members need to be able to remain calm when faced with difficult situations and possess exceptional listening and communication skills. When responding to incidents, they need to be able to maintain confidentiality* wherever possible and think objectively.

Because of this, new members join the team through a nomination, vetting, and cohort-based training process. Please complete the form below to submit your nomination of who you think would be a good candidate for this team. Nominations are due by February 14.

Note: The Community Team also offers online training for incident response, covering topics like expectations when doing this work, how to take incident reports, and how to respond to reports. This training is available on Learn WordPress for everyone who is interested.

By Feb. 14: Nominate a WordPress community member to the Incident Response Team

Nominations will go through a vetting process similar to how the Community team vets organizers. For Incident Response Team members, vetting will include:

  • Making sure they are in good standing with WordPress
  • Familiarity with WordPress and open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. practices is a plus
  • Perfunctory review of social media
  • Checking for compliance with the GPLGPL GPL is an acronym for GNU Public License. It is the standard license WordPress uses for Open Source licensing https://wordpress.org/about/license/. The GPL is a ‘copyleft’ license https://www.gnu.org/licenses/copyleft.en.html. This means that derivative work can only be distributed under the same license terms. This is in distinction to permissive free software licenses, of which the BSD license and the MIT License are widely used examples.
  • Reviewing any examples of excellent communication
  • Further, it is important that the Incident Response Team be diverse to reflect our global community, and this will be a consideration for the final make up of the team. 

The vetting will be done by myself (@juliarosia), @adityakane, @angelasjin, and @samsuresh, and @chanthaboune will give final approval.

It is our hope that Incident Response Team members can commit to being on the team for one full year. Depending on the volume of incident reports, they can expect to contribute anywhere between 2 to 15 hours a month. In addition, to help Incident Response Team members be well prepared, they are expected to successfully complete the required training prior to joining the team.

Training for the Incident Response Team

While anyone can complete the incident response training on Learn WordPress, potential Incident Response Team members will complete additional training alongside peers in a cohort. The cohort will meet synchronously six times (one hour-ish each), across the span of seven weeks, to discuss Incident Response Team training modules and practice through role play. There will be optional, highly recommended office hours and additional opportunities to practice learned skills. 

In addition, Incident Response Team members will be required to complete DEI training that is applicable to WordPress’ global contexts. 

The time commitment for this training will be approximately 2-3 hours per week at minimum, across seven weeks. Each session will be offered twice, to accommodate APAC, EMEA and AMER timezones.

As with any team, we will continue to bring on new team members over time. We aim to train and onboard a new cohort every 12 to 18 months.

Questions? Comments? Feedback?

What questions or feedback do you have? Share them in the comments below.

*A note on confidentiality: While the WordPress project tries to work transparently and in public spaces as much as possible, for the safety of community members, incident response needs to be treated confidentially wherever possible. However, anonymized, annual reports are published.