November 16, 2016 — Everyone’s taking about the WordPress REST API. Everyone says that it’s going to transform WordPress. But what actually is it? This talk is aimed at non-developers; it will introduce you to the concepts behind REST and APIs, look specifically at the WordPress REST API and the potential impact it could have on WordPress development, and talk about the implications it could have on your business.

June 30, 2016 — Ever been baffled by an online comment? Said something online that’s blown up in your face? Communicating through text alone is a challenge, but communicating in text in real-time in a multinational context is insane. This talk will address the challenges of online communication and look at how you can communicate effectively through just the medium of text.

Presentation Slides »

April 5, 2015 — Two flash talks from Sara Rosso & Siobhan McKeown:
Grow a Community: the Community Life Cycle – Sara Rosso
The WordPress Community Through the Years – Siobhan McKeown
Followed by Q&A for each of the presentations, and general Q&A and discussions about community inside and outside of the WordPress world.

November 22, 2014 — This is the story of WordPress’ admin. It’s a heart-breaking, heart-wrenching tale of how, through immense trials and tribulations, WordPress’ admin was born, and how it became what it is today. How through ten years of trying, WordPress managed to craft not just a design, but a design process.

October 20, 2014 — It’s said that ideas have power, but an idea’s power lies in its capacity to have an impact on our lives. Some ideas flicker and disappear, others have such force that they underpin everything that we do.

This presentation explores the philosophical underpinnings of WordPress, ideas like freedom, simplicity, and democracy. It looks at these ideas in their most abstract, tracing how they become concrete in the software and the community.

Presentation Slides »

August 21, 2014 — Design in an open source project isn’t easy. Complaints about “design by committee” abound. Everyone is afraid of “too many cooks”. It takes blood, sweat, and tears to craft a design that gets the approval of a community.

This is the story of WordPress’ admin. It’s a heart-breaking, heart-wrenching tale of how, through immense trials and tribulations, WordPress’ admin was born, and how it became what it is today. How through ten years of trying, WordPress managed to craft not just a design, but a design process

July 31, 2013 —
It’s been ten years since the first release of WordPress, and even longer since its predecessor, b2, caught the eye of a small group of bloggers. Thousands of lines of code have been written, hundreds of hours have been spent in online discussions, and many, many itches have been scratched.

This presentation is the story of the itch. It will travel back through time to trace the itch, from the very first scratcher, to the people who caught the itch, until it became contagious and hundreds of people were scratching furiously and somehow they solved a problem for millions of people all over the world.

Presentation Slides »

September 4, 2012