This Week in WordPress
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WordCamp Asia Wrap-up
I know you’re wondering. And yes, I showered.
As a matter of fact, the WordCamp Asia team was very deliberate in considering disability needs from the start of Contributor Day through to the announcement of WCAsia 2024 at closing remarks. The hotel was perfect. The venue had elevators and automatic doors (or security stationed to open doors). I couldn’t have asked for more.
WCAsia By the Numbers
You can see by this screen that WCAsia succeeded in attendance and contributors. In addition, there were 60 speakers, 53 orgainzers, over 80 volunteers, and 29 people on the AV team.
Contributor Day
I was fortunate to be a table lead for Contributor Day. We onboarded many photographers who submitted photos to the WordPress Photo Directory for the first time. Topher DeRosia and I moderated almost 250 photos in one day, while discussing with contributors what makes a good photo, what isn’t allowed to be added to the directory, and how every contributor gets a badge on their .org profile.
From what I heard from other table leads, every one of the teams onboarded new contributors and accomplished their goals for the day. It was truly inspiring.
Sponsors
Instead of being off in another part of a building, the sponsor area was in the center of it all. To get from point A to any other point you either had to go through or around the edges of the sponsor booths. I imagine this was incredibly helpful for sponsors, and, honestly, it made it the perfect place to run into people, make connections, renew connections, and grab some awesome swag.
The Selfie Challenge
I put out a challenge that if people posted selfies with me I would donate $5 per selfie to Big Orange Heart. (Up to $500 total.) I’m please to say that not only did I meet that goal (with well over 100 selfies with our amazing community) but Carl Hancock of Gravity Forms matched it, and Vikas Singhal of InstaWP matched it at 50%. All told we raised $1250 for BOH!
Q&A with Matt Mullenweg
I asked a question to Matt during the Q&A Friday morning.
With the wave of layoffs and hiring freezes we have seen in the WordPress community lately, what do you think we, as a community, can do to create more jobs in our ecosystem and stop the anxiety and fear that comes with layoffs like this?
Matt’s reply was a bit less than I hoped, basically encouraging anyone who has been laid off to sharpen their WordPress skills, market themselves as freelancers to build a portfolio, and encourage local businesses to get on WordPress.
Some of the people who have been laid off are already big names in WordPress and have a portfolio to back it up.
So it still begs the question – how can we support those who have recently lost jobs in massive layoffs and what does it say about the adoption of WordPress if companies are scaling back? While I don’t have the answer, I’m watching closely.
And if you find yourself job searching in WordPress here are a few resources:
Photos, Photos, Photos
To see how truly impactful the first WordCamp Asia was, one has only to look into all of the smiling faces captured in selfies and more.
Here are a few places to look:
Thanks to the Organizers and Volunteers
WordCamp Asia seemed to go off without any issues (though anyone who has ever organized a WordCamp knows there are always hiccups). If there were, the attendees didn’t see them. (Other than the technical glitches in the Q&A with Matt Mullenweg, which was still handled very well.)
I would add my thanks to all of the voices praising the organizers and volunteers that made WordCamp Asia so amazing. From the updates on the website to the after party, you all provided information, hospitality, and an incredible warmth to the event.
Thank you a million times over.
WordCamp Asia 2024
And to the organizers for WC Asia 2024 – wishing you the best as you continue this new legacy. I know you’re up to the challenge!
WC Asia 2024 Team (photo credit Ratnesh Sonar)
Upcoming Post Status Events
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Community Roundup Week Ending March 24
It’s Not About Luck
“If you’re going to tell me about all the good luck I’ve had to get to where I am, then are you also going to talk about the bad luck I had to overcome to get here?”
~Michelle Frechette to Allie Nimmons on the Underrepresented in Tech podcastA few weeks ago on an episode of the Underrepresented in Tech podcast, Allie Nimmons and I talked about the hard work that goes into being able to do some of the things we have done (speak at WordCamp Asia, for example).
It’s always been interesting to me how people see me speak at a WordCamp and say “you’re so lucky you get to do that.” Privilege aside (and I do acknowledge my privilege), luck had very little to do with me getting to where I am. Or for any accomplishment of any other person in our community. Indeed, there has been a lot of hard work, participation, and drive to do things like podcasting, speaking, and to have the roles that each of us in the community has.
So today I’m acknowledging all of your hard work and efforts to be where you are and have achieved what you have achieved. I know it wasn’t luck. I see your struggles. I see how you’ve earned your success. And I know what it takes to get to where you are – and where you’re going.
In the Spotlight
Post Status professional member Marcus Burnettte is in the spotlight this week. Marcus Burnette is a WordPresser with GoDaddy Pro, team co-rep for the Photos team, a podcaster, and first-and-foremost, a family man.
Join Us on Meetup
Join the Post Status meetup here: meetup.com/post-status/ and then RSVP for the meetups that best meet your needs (one, two, or all three). March’s meetups will be posted soon!
Quick Links:
- Podcast: Press the Issue Openverse, Block Styling and WordPress 6.2
- Podcast: WPWatercooler – Nothing is certain but CPTs & taxes
- Podcast: The WP Minute – Cloudfest WordPress hackathon, changes at Yoast, and “thanks” to the plugin team
- WordCamp Bogota March 31
- WordCamp Switzerland April 1
- YoastCon May 11
- WordCamp Europe June 8-10
Check out more WordPress events on WP.Events, a site I curate through StellarWP.
Photo of the Week
Today’s photo of the week comes from Shinya B on WordPress Photos.
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Community Roundup Week Ending March 17
Events are Back
WordCamps, summits, and other conferences are back! In the last few years the roster of WordCamps on WordCamp.org have been sparse, to say the least. As of today there are eighteen upcoming WordCamps on the schedule, and more are in the beginning planning stages. And other events like YoastCon offer in-person events, too.
In addition to official WordCamps, online summits like the recent Pagebuilder Summit and Kadence Amplify, and the upcoming Atarim Summit continue to reach niche audiences online and encompass anyone anywhere they have a wifi connection.
I, for one, am pleased that online events continue in a post-lockdown world. Not everyone is able to travel to in-person events, or feels that it’s safe enough at this point. We continue to hear of COVID cases following in-person events, and for some, that itself is reason enough to stay home.
If you have upcoming events (online or otherwise), we’d love to hear about them. DM Michelle on Twitter or in Slack (or via email) and let us know!
In the Spotlight
Post Status professional member James Giroux is in the spotlight this week. James has been in the WordPress community since 2006 in many roles, most recently as the mastermind behind TeamWP.
Join Us on Meetup
Join the Post Status meetup here: meetup.com/post-status/ and then RSVP for the meetups that best meet your needs (one, two, or all three). March’s meetups will be posted soon!
Quick Links:
- Podcast: Audacity Marketing – Audacious Brand Affinity
- Podcast: WP Tavern – #67 – Talisha Lewallen on How CertifyWP Is Hoping To Offer WordPress Certification
- Podcast: WPBuilds – 318 – Rob Howard on what they’re doing at MasterWP
- BlogPost: MasterWP – WordPress releases a Field Guide for 6.2
- WordCamp Phoenix March 24
- YoastCon May 11
- WordCamp Europe June 8-10
Check out more WordPress events on WP.Events, a site I curate through StellarWP.
Photo of the Week
Today’s photo of the week comes from Topher DeRosia WordPress Photos.
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Tech Roundup Week Ending March 17
GPT-4: Everything we know so far
GPT-4 is the latest in a series of natural language processing models created by OpenAI, one of the world’s leading AI research organizations. The model is designed to generate human-like text and can be used to create content for social media posts, emails, blogs, articles, and other forms of written communication. GPT-4 has been trained on a massive corpus of text data. It utilizes an advanced neural network architecture to capture context and generate accurate replies to given prompts. It can also create original content, such as stories and descriptions that rival those written by humans. GPT-4 provides developers a powerful tool to help automate tasks such as writing engaging content quickly and efficiently.
Appwrite Cloud Is Now in Private Beta
Appwrite Cloud is an all-in-one backend platform for developers that enables them to create and deploy their web and mobile applications quickly. The platform provides tools and services to help developers get their projects up and running without requiring coding skills or expertise. It offers enterprise-grade services, including authentication, user management, data storage, serverless functions, hosting, and deployment. Appwrite Cloud also easily integrates with third-party platforms such as Slack and Stripe. With its robust feature set, Appwrite Cloud helps developers make the most out of their projects by offering full capabilities that make development easier, faster, and more secure.
InfoWorld: Optimizing video for UX: What a developer needs to know
Developers must understand the ‘video data hierarchy of needs for incorporating video into their websites, applications, and mobile apps. Steve Lyons breaks down what you need to know at InfoWorld.
• Local 6.7.0 includes the highly requested Site Grouping feature, allowing users to organize their sites into custom groups in the sidebar of the dashboard page.
• Users can start, stop, restart, and delete all sites in a group from its context menu and sort them by how recently they were used.
• WP Migrate full-site exports and imports auto-select the PHP, web server, and database version most similar to the production environment if available.
• This release also includes bug fixes related to existing site settings not being applied when importing or pulling.