WordCamp Europe 2021 has concluded its three-day run. It seemed to be received well as an online event. Organizers reported that 3,290 people registered (with 1,841 logged in at once) from 121 countries. 🌐
Among the 48 speakers, Matt Mullenweg and Matias Ventura showed off the latest features in Gutenberg with a video that featured block patterns and inline cropping. Matt observed that “with Gutenberg, we are getting to intelligent context-based editing in WordPress.”
Afterwards, Matt sat down with Brian Krogsgard to answer some questions, including a few from the live audience. Some highlights:
- How can governance in WordPress be enabled so it lasts 100 years?
Response: “If we can maintain our culture – giving back, humility.. some parts of WordPress (like early days of Gutenberg) need strong leadership… other times and other sections require more community consensus.” With Josepha Haden in the role of executive director, Matt notes that “he is more invested in [the] outcome than in control [of the project].” - What’s the biggest contribution WordPress companies can make?
Response: “Having full-time people contributing to core. After that, marketing WordPress.” - Are agencies used to doing WordPress projects a certain way being squeezed out by Gutenberg?
Response: “No. Those being squeezed out are people who haven’t evolved.”
Discussing Tumblr‘s main audience today, Matt said its “Primary demographic is 13-24, not people who used it 10 years ago. Youth is flocking to them, half of them don’t use another social networking platform.”
Matt also observed that “WooCommerce isn’t the biggest part of Automattic… yet.”
