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 Thursday 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.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most WordPress events are online. Please refer to our
online events handbook.
For communities where COVID-19 has been more effectively contained or have easy access to COVID-19 vaccination and/or testing,
returning to hosting an in-person 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. event is possible, with caution, using
the resources provided.
If you plan to move forward with an in-person meetup, you must use
the provided checklist
.
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. are part of the overall 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.
Just like a 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., Meetups are an opportunity for people who love and value WordPress to get together to learn from, and connect with each other. Regardless of whether you want to to learn about WordPress or meet others who work with it, Meetup events are a way to build a strong WordPress community in your local area.
Meetups are supported by our own WordPress Meetup chapter program, which underwrites the fees for meetup.com, and provides a central support structure for Meetups globally. Joining the Meetup chapter program provides great support, information, and help to both new, and established meetups. Chapter Meetups provide a consistent experience regardless of where you attend in the world as each group has committed that they will follow a code of conductCode of Conduct“A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the norms, rules, and responsibilities or proper practices of an individual party.” - Wikipedia and that they agree to our five good faith rules for meetups.
As WordPress Meetups are organized and run by local communities, anyone can show leadership and no single person is necessarily the owner of what may be organized or hosted. WordPress Meetups are groups in which anyone is welcome to organize an event.
Are you interested in seeing if you have what it takes to be a Meetup organizer? Read on for more information!
tl;dr: If you agree with everything here, you’re probably a good fit for being a Meetup organizer, co-organizer, speaker, or sponsor.
Anyone involved in your meetup in an official role, including you, is representing WordPress. Because of this, it’s important that you vet each person/company that wants to be an organizer, speaker, or sponsor, to make sure they meet the requirements for promotion by WordPress.
General things we feel strongly about:
WordPress users! Lately there have been quite a few people wanting to organize meetups for the publicity value, who don’t even use WordPress to power their own blogs/sites. If you’re looking to stand up and be a WordPress community leader, you need to be a WordPress user. It seems silly to have to state that explicitly, but there you have it.
No discrimination on the basis of economic or social status, race, color, ethnic origin, national origin, creed, religion, political belief, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, age, or disability. They shouldn’t engage in discriminatory practices, and you shouldn’t discriminate against anyone.
No incitement to violence, or promotion of hate on our watch, please.
No spammers.
No jerks. That sounds silly, too, but it’s kind of important. If someone is in an official role and winds up alienating a chunk of your local WordPress community, that hurts WordPress as a whole. Anyone you choose to take on an official role should be able to behave appropriately.
If WordPress-based, there are a few additional requirements:
Respect the WordPress trademark. Any person or business currently misusing or infringing on the WordPress trademark will need to fix any misuse before they will be allowed to take on a sanctioned role in a meetup.
Embrace the WordPress license. If distributing WordPress-derivative works (themes, plugins, WP distros), any person or business should give their users the same freedoms that WordPress itself provides. Note: this is one step above simple compliance, which requires PHPPHPPHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. http://php.net/manual/en/intro-whatis.php. code to be 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 â€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./compatible but allows proprietary licenses for JavaScriptJavaScriptJavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a user’s browser. https://www.javascript.com/., CSSCSSCSS is an acronym for cascading style sheets. This is what controls the design or look and feel of a site., and images. 100% GPL or compatible is required for promotion at meetups when WordPress-derivative works are involved, the same guidelines we follow 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/.
Do not promote others who fail to respect the WordPress license or trademark. If a business or person does not distribute WordPress-derivative code promotes businesses or people who do, they should meet the above guidelines.
As the meetup organizer, it will be your responsibility to ensure that these expectations are met by all members of your team, speakers, and sponsors.
As the meetup organizer, if you, or any of the members of your team, speakers and sponsors, do not meet these expectations, then that person/persons will be removed from their role in the group.
If the person removed is the main organizer of the group, the a member of the WordPress Global Community teamGlobal Community TeamA group of community organizers and contributors who collaborate on local events about WordPress — monthly WordPress meetups and/or annual conferences called WordCamps. will also email all members of the group, inviting a new organizer to step forward, at least as the initial next step.
If you’d like to read more about WordPress and the GPL, here are some great resources:
Since all event planning and organizing is done locally, Meetup organizers are reliable people who love WordPress and want to foster a local community in their area. If you have spoken with other people who are involved in technology in your town, you probably have some understanding of the level of interest people have. You may have also noticed that they all come from a lot of different backgrounds.
Being ready to create and host family-friendly, inclusive events is incredibly important to the success of your local WordPress community.
In order to create consistency in terms of people’s experiences in the WordPress community, it is important that Meetups adhere to our five good faith rules. These rules were created by a group of volunteer Meetup organizers as a means to capture the spirit of the WordPress community.
WordPress Meetups are for the benefit of the WordPress community as a whole, not specific businesses or individuals. All actions taken as an event organizer are with the best interest of the community in mind.
Membership in the local Meetup group is open to all who wish to join, regardless of ability, skill, financial status, or any other criteria.
Meetups are volunteer-run with volunteer speakers.
Meetup groups allow events to be organized by any reliable/trusted member of the community.
Meetups are welcoming places where everyone works to foster an accepting environment which is free of discrimination, incitement to violence, promotion of hate, and general jerk-like behavior.
We also ask everyone that organizes WordPress Chapter Meetup to uphold the principles of the WordPress open source project, including the GPL. This helps protect the user/attendee, who might not realize that by using a non-GPL 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.
If you’re already an organizer of a WordPress Meetup group, you are also invited to join the chapter program. Here is a list of some things you can expect:
WordPress Community SupportWordPress Community SupportWordPress Community Support PBC is a subsidiary of WordPress Foundation. It is created specifically to be the financial and legal support for WordCamps, WordPress Meetup groups, and any additional “official” events organized within the WordPress Community Events program. takes over payment of meetup.com dues and is listed as the primary group organizer and the original owner’s status changes to co-organizer. Existing co-organiser status remains the same. WordPress now “owns” the meetup.com account, and everyone running events is on equal footing.
Organizers retain access to the group tools on meetup.com.
The group name and URLURLA specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org remain the same.
The design of your site stays the same (unless you are using a “fauxgo” or are misspelling WordPress, in which case we’d ask you to fix that).
Once a year, your members and organizers will receive a survey to gather feedback about your meetup. Results will be shared and discussed so that if there are any needs, the community support team can work together with you to figure out what the solution might be.
You will receive some great WordPress swag (stickers and buttons/badges) to kick things off, but if you have any swag left over from a recent WordCamp, you can also share that with your members.
We encourage you to find a donated space for your Meetup events, but when a donated venue can’t be found, we now offer support in covering venue costs. We will also be working with Meetup organizers to determine what costs and/or supplies could be provided by the central account to make organizing events easier.
If you currently require people apply to join your group, we ask that you remove that requirement. WordPress meetup groups are open to all who are interested. You may still ask those questions on the “Join this Meetup” form, but membership of the group should not require those responses.
We ask that organizers adjust their meetup “Group Tools” settings so that any member of the group may be allowed to suggest events rather than going through the listed co-organizers. If someone wants to organize a Saturday morning WordPress coffee shop get-together that only five people attend, and you want to organize a more formal presentation for 80 people, both of those are equally valuable. We believe that the more people getting together and connecting to talk about WordPress, the better, and having only a few people organize events automatically limits their number and scope.