March 12, 2017 — Episode 15

I throw out the idea of a new interview series that would feature chats with the various leaders of the Make WordPress Teams.

We take a look at the Community Team and news about the various stages that WordCamps are in.

From the Accessibility Team, we take a quick look at the Handbook.

March 6, 2017 — Jenny Beaumont is a multicultural, multidisciplinary maker and writer of things. She is a leader of people and of projects, who values communication above all else as a means to successful collaboration.

Jenny and Paolo Belcastro, are the co-organizers of WordCamp Europe. She is the team lead of the local WordPress Community.

March 3, 2017 — This episode we take a quick look at Marketing and Accessibility.

Marketing has made a call to action asking that WordPress Meetups record quick video testimonials. A “testimonial” category has been added to the WordPress TV Video Submission page.

https://make.wordpress.org/community/2017/03/01/meetup-video-testimonials-we-need-your-help/

Accessibility (and other Teams) are making plans and taking suggestions for topics to be discussed at the Contributor Day at WordCamp Europe.

https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/

February 6, 2017 — Tsetan Dolkar lives in Dharamshala, India and is a designer / developer at Tibetan I Tech.

She became interested in computer technology while spending time in a cyber cafe.

February 4, 2017 — This is the story of how I became involved with WordPress, and the WordPress community, and also how attending WordCamp Sydney 2014 changed my life.

It will give examples of how giving back to WordPress can be beneficial in many ways, and also hopefully inspire those just embarking on their WordPress journey to follow their dreams, and maybe even some tidbits for seasoned WordPressers.

Presentation Slides »

January 7, 2017 — Bridget Willard started her career with office work, earned a teaching degree, but returned to the office where she carved out a career in social media and marketing and ended up at a WordPress Plugin Development Shop. Currently, she is the Marketing Manager for WordImpress, whose flagship plugin is GiveWP — an online donation plugin. She is also the co-host of WPblab, and co-organizer of the Women in WordPress meetup in Huntington Beach, California. She blogs about social media and, of course, WordPress on her site at http://www.bridgetwillard.com. Please check out her blog and give her a warm Cincinnati welcome!

Presentation Slides »

January 2, 2017 — Jeff Chandler and Marcus Couch host the WordPress Weekly podcast, which covers all things WordPress. They also interview a variety people who make up the WordPress Community.

Marcus Couch has been a WordPress developer for more than 12 years. Besides being the co-host of WordPress Weekly, he is the cohost of the WordPress Plugins A-Z Podcast with John Overall. Marcus also helps people plan, develop and implement membership sites at Membership Site Coach.

Jeff Chandler launched WordPress Weekly in January of 2008. In that initial episode, Jeff talked about the release of WordPress 2.3.2 and running WordPress locally. He resides in Ohio and has been writing about WordPress since 2007 at the WPTavern. When he attends WordCamps, Jeff can mostly be found taking part in the Hallway Track.

We had a great time talking WordCamps and the WordPress Community.

I do need to apologize to Jeff and Marcus. This is the first time that I had two guest being interviewed. There are times where you can see that Marcus and Jeff’s face are blocked. I did not realize this happened until I was processing the video.

December 23, 2016 — The WordPress community is wonderful, but working with and in it can be a very frustrating experience. You can come to feel that no good deed goes unpunished, that no one listens to your opinions, or that all the hard work you’ve done just gets ignored. This is true whether you’re a multi-year core contributor, a business owner, or just a passionate user trying to make your site do things which feel like they ought to be simple, but turn out to be unexpectedly complex or confusing.

Often in such situations we fall into bad patterns of miscommunication and misunderstanding, faulting others in the community for ignorance, rudeness, or outright hostility.

The Four Agreements, a self-help book published to great acclaim nearly 20 years ago, actually offers a surprisingly helpful and accurate set of tools for helping you navigate your way through these waters. Matt Mullenweg himself recently called it “an excellent book” and said he had “enjoyed it.”

We’ll review the four agreements:

1. Be Impeccable With Your Word.
2. Don’t Take Anything Personally.
3. Don’t Make Assumptions.
4. Always Do Your Best.

We’ll also cover how to operationalize these in the context of working with an open source community.

Presentation Slides »

December 21, 2016 — Cath Beaton (Phase Creative) and Troy Dean present their ideas and experiences of how they have developed and grown as individuals in their respective businesses by being prepared to get out of their comfort zone.

The amazing online community spirit that is synonymous with WordPress has allowed them to feel supported whilst they navigate the tricky terrain of growing up as business owners. WordPress truly is unique in that it unites people and allows niche communities to develop very quickly. This sense of belonging fosters collaboration and nurtures relationships which quite often result in new friendships, business partnerships and enormous self-development. Their talk will inspire other WordPress users to find support in their own online communities so they too can evolve and develop in whatever field they choose. They will also touch on some of the technology behind this growth (BuddyPress and bbPress).

December 19, 2016 — Miguel Useche is a developer at webdibs.com, a professor at the Universidad del Táchira, an open source advocate and an avid skateboarder.