Welcome to the official blog of the community/outreach team for the WordPress open sourceOpen SourceOpen 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!
This team oversees official events, mentorship programs, diversity initiatives, contributor outreach, and other ways of growing our community.
If you love WordPress and want to help us do these things, join in!
Getting Involved
We use this blog for policy debates, project announcements, and status reports. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to comment on posts and join the discussion.
You can learn about our current activities on the Team Projects page. These projects are suitable for everyone from newcomers to WordPress community elders.
You can use our contact form to volunteer for one of our projects.
Communication
We have Office HoursOffice HoursDefined times when the Global Community Team are in the #community-events Slack channel. If there is anything you would like to discuss – you do not need to inform them in advance.You are very welcome to drop into any of the Community Team Slack channels at any time. four times a week in the #community-events channel on Slack: Mondays & Wednesdays 22:00 UTC, Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:00 UTC.
We also have regular Community Team meetings on the first and third Thursdays of every month at 12:00 UTC and 21:00 UTC in #community-team on Slack (same agenda).
Events WidgetWidgetA WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user.
Many thanks to everyone who participated in the proposal on how to return to in-person WordCamps. There were many excellent thoughts on that post, as well as new concerns and questions raised. The conclusion of that post, however, is that the WordPress community should be getting prepared to restart the in-person WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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. program.
Tl;dr:At this time, the Community team will start accepting applications for in-person WordCamps. For your application to be approved, you will need to follow the guidelines listed below.
Guidelines for In-Person WordCamps
The WordPress community team is not expecting or requiring local organizers to organize in-person WordCamps for only fully-vaccinated people — we’re simply removing the barrier to doing so under one these two sets of conditions:
If:
local public health authorities say people can gather in person, AND
go ahead and hold in-person WordCamps, following local health guidelines!
OR… If:
local public health authorities say people can gather in person, AND
your region doesn’t pass the in-person safety checklist, BUT
vaccines or COVID tests are available for anyone who wants one in your region,
THEN, local community organizers can (if they want to) plan in-person WordCamps!
Who could attend the in-person WordCamp?
If an in-person WordCamp is happening, the Community team expects that attendees (including organizers, sponsors, and volunteers) participate only if they:
are fully vaccinated,
OR recently tested negative,
OR recently recovered (in the last 3 months)
Additional Guidelines for In-Person WordCamps
Pre-pandemic meetupMeetupMeetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. communities can organize a WordCamp without the requirement of organizing several events the previous months. Note: This new guideline would only apply to a local community’s first WordCamp post-pandemic. Note 2: Brand new communities would be asked to organize meetups instead of a WordCamp right away.
WordCamps need to be prepared to raise 100% of the expenses for their WordCamp.
Note: Global Sponsorship Program for 2021 does not currently include WordCamps. However, the conversation for Global Sponsorships for 2022 has begun, and funding for WordCamps will be considered. Having communities apply for a WordCamp (whether online or in person) will help add to those conversations.
Venues should be fully refundable in case of anycancellation. Note: if organizers can’t find any venue that offers fully refundable deposits, Community DeputiesDeputyCommunity Deputies are a team of people all over the world who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and generally keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about deputies in our Community Deputy Handbook. will evaluate venues on a case by case basis to avoid as much financial risk as possible.
In all cases, always follow local health guidelines!
Recommendations
Experiment with format ideas (both at online and in-person events), and share with the community what you learn in the comments of this post!
Avoid high expenses where possible: try to get together in a free or low cost (+ refundable) venue, encourage organizers not to provide food, and be financially responsible.
Half-day WordCamps with snacks/refreshments and not a full lunch might also be a good offering and a cost-effective way to organize an in-person event.
Next Steps and Feedback
The Community Team will add the new guidance to all the appropriate places in the WordCamp organizer handbook, and write a summarized version of this decision for the next meetup organizer newsletter. If you have questions, concerns, or feedback… Please share them in a comment on this post!
Do you want to apply to organize an in-person WordCamp following the guidelines described above? You can do it by submitting this form now!
The Community Team bi-weekly meeting is happening today. The meeting is meant for all contributors on the team and everyone who is interested in taking part in some of the things our team does. Feel free to join us, even if you are not currently active in the team!
Below is a preliminary agenda for the meeting. If you wish to add things you’d like bring to into discussion, comment below or reach out to team reps @sippis or @kcristiano. It does not need to be a blog post yet, the topic can be discussed during the meeting nevertheless. We use the same agenda for both meetings.
DeputyDeputyCommunity Deputies are a team of people all over the world who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and generally keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about deputies in our Community Deputy Handbook. / MentorMentorSomeone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues. / Contributor check-ins
What have you been doing and how is it going? What you got accomplished after the last meeting? Are there any blockers? Can other team members help you in some way?
Opportunity to bring things into discussions that weren’t on the meeting agenda and if anyone has something they would like to share with the team. If you have a topic in mind before the meeting, please add it into the comments of this post.
Hope to see you on Thursday, either on Asia-Pacific / EMEA or Americas friendly version of the meeting!
Welcome to the September 2021 edition of the MeetupMeetupMeetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. Organizer newsletter! Read on to stay updated on the latest tidings from the WordPress Community this month.
Newsletter contents:
Updated Guidelines for In-person WordCamps
Online event updates
Tuesday Trainings
News from the WordPress world
🔙⛺️ [Announcement] Guidelines for returning to In-person WordCamps
The Community Team published new guidelines for returning to in-person WordCamps in regions where in-person events are allowed by the local public health authority. You can now organize in-person WordCamps for fully vaccinated, recently tested negative, or recently recovered folks (in the last 3 months) — provided your region passes the in-person safety checklist OR if vaccines and/or COVID testing are accessible to all. If your region does not meet these criteria, please continue to organize online events.
Does your region meet the updated in-person WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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. guidelines, and do you want to apply to organize an in-person WordCamp following the guidelines described above? You can do it by submitting the WordCamp application form right away!
Check out our Tuesday Trainings (#TuesdayTrainings) where the Community Team publishes a different topic on our blog each week to help organizers and interested community members:
Is there a question you’d like to see answered, or a topic you’d like to see discussed? Send an email [email protected] with the subject line “Tuesday Trainings”!
🗞 News from the WordPress world
WordPress 5.8.1 is out! The CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Team is actively working on WordPress 5.9: Don’t miss the roadmap and planning posts. The team aims to ship the release by December 14.
We launched GutenbergGutenbergThe 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/ Version 11.3 and Version 11.4 this month
Help the Test Team explore BlockBlockBlock is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. Theme switching by sharing feedback on the process.
If you have any questions, Community Team deputiesDeputyCommunity Deputies are a team of people all over the world who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and generally keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about deputies in our Community Deputy Handbook. are available to help. Please send an email to [email protected] or join the #community-eventsSlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel. Thanks for everything you do to grow the WordPress community. Let’s keep sharing knowledge and inspiring each other with our contributions!
How to Own Your Expertise & Start Speaking at WordPress Events IST
Does the thought of speaking at one of our meetupsMeetupMeetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. or WordCamps intrigue you? Do you identify as a person from a marginalized and underrepresented group (in terms of gender, race, class, sexuality, ability, age, etc.) who is thinking about speaking at a meetupMeetupMeetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. or WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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. in India or a nearby timezone? Do you think you don’t know or have anything worth speaking about?
Friday, September 24 to Saturday, September 25, 2021 @ 9am-11am IST
Empower Women Speakers For Your WordPress Events in India
Have you ever had trouble getting women to speak at your WordPress meetups or WordCamps in India?
We will teach you how to run the 4-5 -hour workshop that has been proven to increase the number of Women speakers in WordPress Communities all over the world. You will learn to:
Understand some of the reasons why women aren’t submitting talks
Help the women in your communities overcome their personal barriers to public speaking at your WordPress events
Help them create a talk title, pitch, outline, bio, and slide deck
Give the new women speakers motivation and confidence to start speaking
Increase how many women are giving talks in your community
If there’s a question you’d like to see answered, or a topic you’d like to see discussed, please share it in the comments or email [email protected] with the subject line “Tuesday Trainings”. Now onto this week’s topic!
What is a profile badge?
If you look at any contributor’s profile page on WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe 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/, you’ll notice that they have colorful badges on their profile, as seen in the image below. These badges represent their contributions to WordPress.
I’m glad you asked. 🙂 The Community Team has many ways to contribute, and there are badges to indicate those contributions.
The Community Team badge will be manually assigned to all Community DeputiesDeputyCommunity Deputies are a team of people all over the world who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and generally keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about deputies in our Community Deputy Handbook. who have been active for at least 6 months (active deputiesDeputyCommunity Deputies are a team of people all over the world who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and generally keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about deputies in our Community Deputy Handbook. are listed on this page). You can find out more about the DeputyDeputyCommunity Deputies are a team of people all over the world who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and generally keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about deputies in our Community Deputy Handbook. program (and how to get involved) in the Community Deputy handbook.
The Community Contributor badge will be manually assigned to all WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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.MentorsMentorSomeone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues., as well as those who provide valuable contributions to the Community Team. Mentors are all listed as “MentorMentorSomeone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues.” on the Community Deputies list. In the future, mentors will be auto-assigned this badge when they begin mentoring their first WordCamp (removing the manual administration side of things). You can find out more about the WordCamp Mentorship program in this previous Tuesday Trainings post, or in the Deputy handbook.
The MeetupMeetupMeetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. Organizer badge is auto-assigned to all members of Meetup organizing teams for meetup groups in the official chapter program. The list of WordPress.org usernames for each meetup group is manually updated by Community Deputies.
The WordCamp Organizer badge is auto-assigned to all members of WordCamp organizing teams, provided their WordPress.org username is added to their ‘Organizer’ post on any WordCamp.org website.
The WordCamp Speaker badge is auto-assigned to all WordCamp speakers, provided their WordPress.org username is added to their ‘Speaker’ post on any WordCamp.org website.
What about badges for other teams?
All the other contributor teams have badges specific to them, and there are two types of badges: Contributor and Team. What’s the difference between the two?
I think my profile is missing a Community badge, what do I do?
Community Team or Community Contributor badges are manually assigned to contributors and usually need to be requested, as the system doesn’t allow us to add the badge to your profile until a request is submitted. To make a request, please go to the Community Team or Community Contributor pages and request membership for the group. Community Deputies will then review/approve the request. Since this process is manual, the change may take a short time to complete.
WordCamp Organizer, WordCamp Speaker, and Meetup Organizer badges are automatically assigned based on contributor status. As long as you have your WordPress.org username in your WordCamp Organizer or Speaker profile, or the Meetup Tracker, the badge should appear automatically.
Note that there is a known bug that has caused WordCamp Organizer and Speaker badges to mysteriously disappear from profiles (this bug can be tracked on Meta). If this has happened to you, try the following if you have the ability to edit the Speaker (or Organizer) profile on the WordCamp’s site:
Remove your WordPress.org username from the Speaker (or Organizer) profile, then save.
Add your username back in and save again.
Refresh your profile page—your badge should re-appear like magic!
If you do not have the ability to try the above steps for WordCamp Speaker and Organizer badges, or they did not work, please contact the Community Team so a deputy can assist you further. Please be sure to include your WordPress.org username, as well as the WordCamp city and year that you organized for.
If you are listed as Meetup organizer on your chapter meetup group, and your profile page does not have the Meetup Organizer badge, contact the Community Team. Please include the URLURLA specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org of your meetup group and your WordPress.org username.
For both of these cases, Community Team deputies can be reached at [email protected], and please include “Profile badges” in the subject line.
Display your profile badges with pride, and thank you for all your great contributions!
Hello to all our DeputiesDeputyCommunity Deputies are a team of people all over the world who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and generally keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about deputies in our Community Deputy Handbook., WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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. organizers, MeetupMeetupMeetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. wranglers, and WordPress Community builders! You were probably hard at work this weekend. Tell us what you got accomplished in our #weekly-update!
The WordPress Global Sponsorship Program (born in 2013 as the Multi-Event Sponsorship Program), provides financial support to WordPress community events around the world. It’s time to analyze the program yet again and come up with a proposal for the 2022 edition!
Our Global Sponsors have been flexible and gracious through the various changes that the program has seen throughout the pandemic, and the upcoming year is no exception. Given the complexity of the ever-changing situation, this year’s working group will include deputiesDeputyCommunity Deputies are a team of people all over the world who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and generally keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about deputies in our Community Deputy Handbook. with history and experience with the Global Sponsorship program. That said, the group will have the following members: @kcristiano, @sippis, @angelasjin, @harmonyromo, @_dorsvenabili, and @courtneypk.
The group would like to share a proposal for the 2022 Global Sponsorship Program no later than 7 October 2021, with the hopes of finalizing and sharing the program with sponsors by 28 October. The timeline would look like this:
15–30 September: 2–4 hours of independent program analysis and two 1-hour Working Group meetings
7 October: Share program proposal
8–15 October: Office hoursOffice HoursDefined times when the Global Community Team are in the #community-events Slack channel. If there is anything you would like to discuss – you do not need to inform them in advance.You are very welcome to drop into any of the Community Team Slack channels at any time./open meetings for input
Ways to promote our upcoming workshop: Empower Women Speakers For Your WordPress Event In India, Sept 24 & 25, 2021 (blog post) (registration). There was a lot of great discussion on this.
Upcoming workshop: Diverse Speakers workshop for India on September 18, 2021 @ 7pm India time. @onealtr is coordinating with and training up the facilitator @rahuldsarker
Upcoming event: The first Allyship program cohort has an “Allyship for Event Organizers” Coaching and Accountability SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. meeting in the #community-events Slack on September 16, 2021 @ 5-6pm UTC. Our special guest coach will be @alliennimmons. Other event organizers and contributors are welcome to lurk and also participate in the discussions.
The #diverse-speaker-support channel will be more active soon when we start inviting past workshop participants to it
If you haven’t joined our two channels for our two new programs yet, we’d love for you to join:
#community-events is where we are holding Allyship for WP events discussions.
#diverse-speaker-support is where we’ll be connecting with Diverse Speaker workshop participants for mentorship on their talks and for networking with WP event organizers to encourage people to speak at events.
[Edit: Anyone who has watched the workshops live with us or on their own time are welcome to the Coaching and Accountability Slack chat in the #community-events channel on September 16 @ 5-6pm UTC.]
If there’s a question you’d like to see answered, or a topic you’d like to see discussed, please share it in the comments or email [email protected] with the subject line “Tuesday Trainings”. Now onto this week’s topic!
Organizing a WordPress MeetupMeetupMeetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. group or WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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. can be a lot of work! If you want to grow and develop your local WordPress community, you will need others around you to help. But how do you find the right people to join your organizing team?
Meetup Organizers
As stated in the Five Good Faith Rules, WordPress chapter meetup groups allow events to be organized by any reliable and trusted member of their community. Reliable and trusted community members:
Actively participate in meetup events
Help without being asked
Are team players — they are constantly around and dependable
May be the first to arrive and the last to leave an event
May be interested in organizing meetup events around their area of interest and/or expertise in WordPress
Potential quality team members may not always be the loudest, most outgoing person. Keep an eye out for the quiet achievers who are loyal and regular attendees of your meetup events — they could be quietly encouraged to take on an organizing role!
It is expected that all Meetup co-organizers agree with the principles in the same Five Good Faith Rules that you also agreed to when you became an organizer.
WordCamp Organizers
Your WordCamp organizing team should consist of people from your immediate area who want to promote WordPress and help grow the local community. Members of a WordCamp organizing team can come from:
Your meetup group’s co-organizers
Active members of your local meetup group
Businesses that are built on working with WordPress
Local bloggers using WordPress
But of course, it is not limited to the above! The most important things to remember while forming your organizing team: Recruit from your local community, and distribute the organizing responsibilities. Too few people handling too many things leads to things getting missed, and/or people getting burned out!
Remember that organizers are representing WordPress in an official capacity. When representing WordPress, one is expected to uphold the principles of the WordPress open sourceOpen SourceOpen 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, including the GPL. This helps protect the user/attendee, who might not realize that by using a non-GPLGPLGPL 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.pluginPluginA plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party or theme, they are giving away the rights that WordPress provides them.
