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.
Earlier this year, I proposed an update to do_action charity hackathons. My proposal was to expand the program, leveraging the WordPress FoundationWordPress FoundationThe WordPress Foundation is a charitable organization founded by Matt Mullenweg to further the mission of the WordPress open source project: to democratize publishing through Open Source, GPL software. Find more on wordpressfoundation.org.’s mission (“to make sure we can continue to serve the public good through freely accessible software.”), in order to better support non-profits during the COVID-19 pandemic.So far, three applications for do_actiondo_actiondo_action hackathons are community-organised events that are focussed on using WordPress to give deserving charitable organisations their own online presence. Learn more on doaction.org. events have come in this year, out of which, one event has been completed (do_action Karnataka 2021), and yet another one is already on the schedule (do_action Nigeria 2021).
do_action charity hackathons are a great way to make a lasting positive impact on regional local communities, because of how they empower non-profits with an online presence. I strongly feel that we can make even more of a more lasting impact on the global community by expanding this program. Towards this goal, I propose an idea (that was originally suggested by @andreamiddleton): How about organizing centralized, global do_action charity hackathons several times throughout the year, where volunteers build websites for non-profits from all corners of the world?
The idea in brief
I’ll be clear — I do not mean to suggest that we close down local/regional do_action events. Local/regional events are quite effective and I vote for keeping them going in the current format! What I propose is that, in addition to local events, the Community Team and the WordPress Foundation could organize centralized online global hackathons that are held several times throughout the year on a regular frequency (cadence TBD).
Global hackathons can be small events held completely online and will be open to a global audience. Anyone – companies, local communities, or distributed groups of individuals can participate in this program. Similar to do_action charity hackathons, charities can apply to participate in this initiative. Based on the number of applications we receive, 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 pick a charity to work on and match them with a group of volunteers who will work to build the charity’s new website over the course of a month or so.
Like all other do_action hackathons, this will be a WordPress Foundation event but organized by Community Team volunteers and 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..
Where the Community Team and Deputies come in
Community Team members and Deputies can help facilitate the program. While they need not be involved directly in building non profit websites, they can volunteer to do so if they wish to. In other words:
We (Community Team members and/or Deputies) select NPOs and volunteers and match them (we will vet them just like what we do with WordCamps).
We oversee the project progress and periodically check in with the team to see how they are doing.
We do communications and outreach for the initiative and publish blog posts about each website project.
We arrange ongoing tech support for the non-profit by working with volunteers or sponsors.
If this sounds like a good idea, I propose that we test this out as a pilot program later this year. If the pilot turns out to be successful, perhaps we can expand the program and continue organizing regular global hackathons in 2022 and beyond.
Request for feedback
This is just an idea and is not set in stone. I would love to hear from you to see if this is feasible in the first place!
What do you think about this idea? Do you think this is feasible? Does the Community Team have the bandwidth to execute this?
What would be the best way to execute a global event like this?
What guidelines should we have in place for an event like this? I know we can reuse a lot of the do_action guidelines – but how do we best match NPOs and volunteers/companies?
How do we handle sponsorships for a centralized event like this? Should we take a page out of our global sponsorship program? (Sponsorships for do_action are in-kind)
I know that there are a lot of questions – I just wanted to put it out there for us to brainstorm. Please share your feedback in the comments by September 24 2021 (Friday).
Deadline for participating in the discussion: August 20th, 2021
Thank you to everyone who has participated in our many conversations about in-person events. Your input has helped to make the current guidelines for organizing in-person meetups.
This post is a proposal to discuss how the WordPress community can return to in-person WordCamps. Please read it carefully and participate in the comments by answering the questions below, thanks! 🙂
If you don’t want to read all of this post, here’s the tl;dr:
“The WordPress community team is discussing the return to in-person WordCamps, building on current guidelines for 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. (defined in this handbook page and image below) with additional guidelines described in the section below on “Proposal for further discussion”
In-person WordPress events this year so far
There are 752 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. groups in the chapter program in 109 countries around the globe.
Since February 16, in-person WordPress meetups have been held in 3 countries: Taiwan, New Zealand, and Australia using the meetup safety checklist.
Since the latest guidelines announced on July 9, in-person events have been organized in 6 countries: Russia, US, New Zealand, Uganda, Australia and the Netherlands
The discussion so far
Deputies agree that it seems unrealistic to immediately go back to how WordCamps were in 2019. Resetting expectations for WordCamps may be necessary, as the world has changed significantly. This is a great opportunity to rebuild the program by restarting locally, and then building back up to the levels we had in 2019. Before the pandemic, WordCamps came in different sizes and scales. As a reminder, the Community Team considers the “minimum viable productMinimum Viable Product"A minimum viable product (MVP) is a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers, and to provide feedback for future product development." - WikiPedia” for 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. to be at least 50 people, in a room, for one day, talking about WordPress.
Additionally, the normal WordCamp application process requires that there be an active local community in place. As the community has faced many changes this year, Deputies are thinking about how to handle this requirement. One possibility could be more flexibility with WordCamp applications, allowing communities that had a meetup pre-COVID to host a WordCamp, even if they weren’t as active in the last year, to help build excitement and restart community activity again.
The deputies also agreed that organizers are encouraged to experiment with format, content, and more! This is an excellent opportunity to innovate on WordCamps.
Proposal for Further Discussion
This is all new territory for the Community Team, and the input from the WordPress community is invaluable. At this time, the team is putting up for discussion a proposal for in-person WordCamps. Here are some ideas for discussion:
To organize an in-person WordCamp, the general guidelines would be the same ones approved for in-person meetups (you can read them fully detailed in the handbook’s page: “2021: Returning to in-person meetups”).
Revise the guideline to allow all communities that had an active meetup before the pandemic host an initial WordCamp, even if the community wasn’t as active in the past year, to help re-energize the community. This new guideline would only apply to the first WordCamp back. Brand new communities would be directed to organize meetups instead of a WordCamp right away.
Financial: WordCamps in this transition period will need to be prepared to cover 100% of their expenses in order to happen. For greater context, the Global Sponsorship Program 2021 currently doesn’t include WordCamps, and the team currently does not have expectations set for the future of the Global Sponsorship program.
Venue: Venue fee should be fully refundable or should be able to be moved to a later date without penalty.
Food: No buffets. If food is provided, it will be in individual portions (like box lunches).
Capacity: Limit in-person attendance or seating capacity to allow for physical distancing, or host smaller events in larger spaces, based on your local/regional health guidelines.
AccessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility)/inclusion: Sessions should be uploaded to wordpress.tv and to be livestreamed when financially possible.
Mandatory registration, so attendees can be contacted in case of exposure.
Innovation: Organizers can try new event formats, for example: deliver WordCamp content entirely online, followed by an in-person social gathering/activities, outdoors sessions/activities, etc.
With the launch of a new series of workshops coming up rapidly, we need to find a way to manage the signup process for discussion groups. A manual process will not be ideal considering the volume of discussion groups we’re planning to see as a result of the workshops, but we don’t have a tool in use to manage signups in an automated fashion.
Proposed immediate solution to manage discussion group signups
Create a new WordPress group on Meetup.com named “Learn WordPress” where we can post each discussion group as an individual event. This would allow us to work with a platform we’re already familiar with while allowing attendees to easily sign up for discussion groups. An additional benefit would be that the discussion groups would show up as events in the dashboard 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. since Meetup.com events within the chapter program are already pulled into the system. It would also allow us to limit the number of attendees for each session to a size that is reasonable to hold a discussion (20?) and allow for a waitlist of attendees who could either join the session if people cancel or be added to the next discussion group on the topic.
We would use the Make Meetings plugin to show all of the upcoming discussion groups on the site and link each discussion to its corresponding event on meetup.com.
We would be able to implement this immediately.
Proposed eventual method to manage discussion group signups
Create a use case specific tool (perhaps using Camptix or a fork of it so it doesn’t have to be built from scratch) to have sign-ups happen on site. The greatest benefits of this would be that everything happens in one place with no need to send attendees away to a third party site for signups and information.
We would be able to implement this eventually.
Other ideas discussed
While I landed on proposing 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. for immediate use we also discussed scheduling and signup through Calendly and ScheduleOnce, but after reviewing each it seemed too unwieldy for our needs. I also chatted with some folx about use of CampTix but it’s only set up currently to allow one event per site.
Questions or suggestions
Do you have any suggestions or input on the proposal for immediate use?
What do you think is a reasonable limit on the number of people per discussion group?
Do you have any suggestions or input on the proposal for eventual use?
We’re on a tight schedule to make this happen so I’d appreciate any feedback you have in regards to these ideas by Thursday, August 13, 2020.
We recently posted a proposal for a speaker feedback tool to be baked into 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. sites. The proposal included some ideas and mockups, with a call for feedback, suggestions and questions. Thanks to @adityakane, @imath, @andreamiddleton, @hlashbrooke, @karmatosed, @iandunn, @mrwweb, @dimensionmedia, @samsuresh and @wpfangirl for their input on that post.
Based on the feedback from that post, we have some more refined mockups to share with you, courtesy of @karmatosed. In addition to that, we are looking for input on the data storage method here, so check out the mockups and details below.
Front-end views
Initial view before selecting a talk to give feedback on:
Full form view after selecting a talk:
Dashboard views
The following mockups are based on the idea that we would store the feedback in a new custom post typeCustom Post TypeWordPress can hold and display many different types of content. A single item of such a content is generally called a post, although post is also a specific post type. Custom Post Types gives your site the ability to have templated posts, to simplify the concept. with each feedback item being a separate post in that type.
List table view of feedback items in the dashboard:
Single view of the feedback post in the dashboard:
Considerations
The main decision that needs to be made at this stage is regarding how the feedback data will be stored. The three options are:
#1 Custom post type
This would appear as shown in the mockups above. Feedback would be stored in individual posts within a new custom post type.
Pros:
Uses existing WordPress APIs, so no need for custom data structures
Easy to extend with further features at a later date
Familiar UIUIUI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing.
Cons:
Some WordCamp sites could get thousands of feedback items for a single event, this could slow everything down and make for a very tedious UI to look through for feedback items.
Individual feedback items would require a click through to a new page in order to view them
#2 Comments
This would involve storing the feedback as comments on the session post using a custom comment type and comment metaMetaMeta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress..
Pros:
Uses existing WordPress APIs, so no need for custom data structures
Easy to extend with further features at a later date
Familiar UI (this would use the edit-comments.php template in the dashboard
Dashboard comments view allows for full feedback content to be viewed in the list table, without a new page load
Feedback is effectively a comment, so this would be a logical way of storing the data
Cons:
Custom comment types and comment meta have historically been tricky to work with (although I think this has been largely fixed in recent CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. releases)
#3 Custom database table
This would involve writing a custom data structure in custom database tables – the exact data structure and dashboard UI would still need to be planned out.
Pros:
Flexibility of building things exactly how we want it, in the most performant way possible
UI can be as optimised as possible
Cons:
Lots of development hours for planning and building
Dashboard UI would likely be unfamiliar and less predictable
Custom database tables on a large multisiteMultisiteMultisite is a WordPress feature which allows users to create a network of sites on a single WordPress installation. Available since WordPress version 3.0, Multisite is a continuation of WPMU or WordPress Multiuser project. WordPress MultiUser project was discontinued and its features were included into WordPress core.https://codex.wordpress.org/Create_A_Network. instance can be unpredictable
Questions and Feedback
With all of that in mind, please comment with your thoughts on the following:
Which data structure do you think would be a good fit for session feedback?
Is there anything further that you feel should be included in the feedback form for attendees?
In the past, the only ways we have gathered feedback from 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. attendees about a speaker session was to use a survey/poll or collect feedback at the event via paper forms.
There are a few problems with these approaches:
Surveys are sent out after the event and therefore don’t usually have good response rates.
The more time that has passed since an attendee has seen a session, the less detail they might remember, which makes the feedback less precise.
The default survey does not collect very much detail about session content and presentation delivery.
Feedback shared in hard copy isn’t easy to share with speakers (so they can grow their skills) or track (so the organizers can compare year to year).
This is a proposal that we build a special speaker-feedback tool to collect attendee feedback that solves those problems.
Goals of the tool:
Collect feedback for individual sessions during the event.
Provide easy access to feedback to the WordCamp organizers and speakers.
Where could it live?
The feedback tool could be accessed at an easy-to-remember URLURLA specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org, like <year.cityname.wordcamp.org/feedback>
The schedule page could have a ‘Feedback’ button on each displayed session.
Possible requirements worth some discussion:
Because anonymous feedback is more likely to include abuse, should the feedback tool require users to be logged in?
Should there be an automated way to report abuse to the Community Team?
Would it be helpful for organizers to be able to edit the text-based feedback, so as to remove abuse, slang terms, confusing content, and/or to correct spellings before sharing with speakers?
Should there be a way for the feedback to be made public, and if so, should it show up anywhere other than in the comments on each individual Session?
Should there be a way to export the feedback, and should feedback be included in a requested privacy export?
Feedback Formats
Feedback could be given in a few different ways – either on their own or as a combination:
Emojis
Pros: Simple, standardized way of showing how an attendee felt about a talk. Encourages positive feedback.
Cons: Could come at the expense if useful critical feedback.
Ratings
Pros: Can be provided quickly. Usually allows for more accurate sentiment toward speaker sessions.
Cons: Can be easily skewed either way. Lower ratings without proper feedback are not very useful.
Free text
Pros: Would encourage attendees to be more thoughtful. Should provide more actionable feedback for speakers.
Cons: Some attendees will not be willing to provide more lengthy feedback, or they may take a longer time to submit it.
Mockups
Here are some very early speculative mockups thanks to @karmatosed
Version One
Version Two
Possible Future Additions
Feedback content could be added as “testimonials” for sessions
Allow speakers to add feedback to their 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/ profiles
Add feedback to WordPress.tv sessions
Recommend other talks to attend (or watch on WordPress.tv) after giving feedback
Questions and Feedback
What formats of feedback should we provide (emojis, ratings, text, etc.)?
Do we encourage only positive feedback?
Should responders be logged into WordPress.org in order to leave feedback?
There have always been some casual recommendations for how the WordPress logo should be incorporated into logos for WordCamps and WordPress chapter 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., but we’ve never really had an open discussion about it. Following, you’ll find a proposal from Mel Choyce, Kjell Reigstad, Sarah Semark, Mark Uraine, and Tammie Lister for how the WordPress logo should be used for official events 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. Please read through the guidelines, and share your feedback and concerns in a comment on this post.
The following pages provide some important context on the WordPress logo, logotype, and the WordPress trademarks
While you are free to include the WordPress logo, or reference the W, in your logo, you don’t need to do so.
Example:
The WordPress logo has two variants.
If you do use the WordPress logo, know that it comes in two variants: W Mark and Simplified
W MarkSimplified
Here are some examples of the variants in use:
Say “No!” to the Fauxgo.
If you are using the WordPress logo in your 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. logo, please make sure you are using the correct WordPress logo.
The correct logo has a higher cap height, and rounded serifs:
Don’t change the logo.
Do not:
Remove the ring around the logo.
Cut or splice the logo.
Skew, distort, or add 3d effects to the logo.
Don’t use the Dashicons logo icon.
The Dashicons logo icon is specifically designed for use at smaller sizes; do not use it for your WordCamp logo. Instead, use the official logo files.
Color
Ensure that the logo has sufficient contrast.
Your logo should have sufficient color contrast to pass AA guidelines for text. You can check your design using a tool like Stark (for Sketch) or Logo Rank.
Design your logo in black & white first.
Designing your logo first in black & white is a good way to ensure that your logo will communicate effectively without color. We recommend designing your logo first in black and white, and then adding color near the end of the process.
RGB vs. CMYK
When designing your logo for digital devices, it’s good practice to use the RGB (red, green, blue) color model. When preparing your logo for print, use CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black). Screens differ from tangible paper products by emitting light instead of absorbing light. For this reason, RGB values work as additive colors for the screen and CMYK values work as subtractive colors for print.
Typography
Typography should be easily readable.
Your WordCamp name is one of the most important pieces of information, so make sure people can read it! Generally speaking, it’s best to use a relatively simple typeface without a lot of flourishes. This ensures that text is readable even at very small sizes, or when printed on a badge of which attendees may only catch a brief glimpse.
Avoid using Mrs Eaves.
Mrs Eaves is the WordPress brand typeface. It’s best to avoid using it for your WordCamp to avoid confusion with the WordPress brand.
Inclusion
Consider a range of users when designing.
When designing your logo, think about users who may have trouble reading or parsing your logo. Ensure your text is readable and color contrast is sufficient. It’s good practice to design your logo first in black and white, to ensure that those with color blindness are still able to understand your logo. (See also the color and typography sections.)
Ensure your logo is appropriate for all audiences.
A WordCamp is welcoming to everyone. Part of ensuring a safe, welcoming, and inclusive environment is ensuring that your logo (and other materials) are family-friendly. This means that logos should contain:
no sexually suggestive imagery
no profanity
nothing that would constitute implied or explicit exclusion of a group
no characterizations of a minority group in your area
Context and Formats
Ensure that your logo is recognizable in a wide range of contexts.
WordCamp logos typically appear in many different places: on top of websites, on shirts and merchandise, stickers, in social media, signage, etc. Ensure that your logo is adaptable enough to be recognizable and readable in all of these contexts. Your logo should be flexible enough to work when it appears on a giant presentation screen, but also when it appears in a tiny social media icon.
Provide the final logo in a variety of file formats for different uses.
The logo should be in a scalable vector format (Sketch, Figma, and Illustrator all produce vector graphics). The final file should also be available in the following formats:
.svg (preferred) or other open scalable graphics format (.eps)
.png (with a transparent background)
Provide the final logo in a variety of color formats.
To ensure maximum compatibility with different usage contexts, the recommended color formats for the logo are:
black & white
RGB (screen)
CMYK (print)
Pantone (print, optional)
Feedback?
Please share your thoughts on the proposed guidelines and how best to share them moving forward.
In June 2018 I wrote a proposal to create some guidelines for posting on this blog and how to use it also for project management. At the time I made the mistake of mixing up two topics on the same post, so today I am writing an updated proposal only for the first part.
Guidelines to post on the Community Team blog
I reviewed the document that I wrote a year ago. It’s open for comments, awaiting for your feedback!
Categories and Tags
A bit messy to say the least.
I did try to make sense of the categories. There were 24 initially: I deleted the ones that are not used and added one (Documentation) to post about changes in documentation, text of 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. websites, 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. pages, HelpScout replies.
The tags situations is worse: we started with 401, I deleted all the empty ones, but I think there is ample space for making this better.
For this part of the project, I am looking for volunteers to help out: information architects, SEO experts, where are you?
Where we could put the guidelines
Welcome Box
Sticky box in the blog, very short so it doesn’t push the rest of the content too much below the fold
New pages related to the Welcome Pack, a project that I will pick up in the next few weeks.
Want to help make the blog better?
Please comment on the document and on this post before July 31st
And if you are an Information Architect or a SEO expert, help us make the categories and tags system more efficient so people can actually find what they are looking for!
Local WordPress communities could benefit from having access to a basic business infrastructure that enables ongoing, non-event community activities. A local-community starter kit like this could serve as a catalyst to further democratize WordPress community organizing.
Background
We recently launched a non-event-specific WordPress community entity in Seattle. Modeled on similar initiatives in Kansas City and Portland, we felt the need for a virtual destination for our community that wasn’t tied to the Meetup.com and 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. event-management systems.
Members of our community rounded up a long-ago-registered domain name, found a web host, created a MailChimp mailing list, and launched a simple website that 1) guides folks to our local WordCamp, 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., and SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. sites and 2) offers a sign-up for the new Mailchimp list.
Some members of the community immediately raised concerns about the ongoing administration and governance of the new entity:
Who controls the domain-name registration?
Who has access to the website? and how do they decide which level of access other users have?
Who pays for the web hosting?
Who owns the email list?
Which email addresses are associated with the community’s social-media account logins and who has access to them?
Where do we deposit the check when a local sponsor offers to support the entity?
What is the entity, legally? We all know what a “community” is, but goverments and tax collectors don’t recognize it.
Ours is a friendly, professional, and responsive community, but what if an account holder became incapacitated? what if a key community leader moves? what if a bad actor were to get control of an account login?
These are all valid concerns, but they need not prevent a local WordPress community from creating a new entity alongside the current Meetup and WordCamp programs.
Proposal
I propose exploring the feasibility of a 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.-backed program (tentatively called Sourdough) that would provide support for the creation, development, and administration of a very basic local WordPress community infrastructure.
Much of the proposed technical and administrative infrastructure already exists as support mechanisms for the current WordCamp and Meetup community-event programs. But there would be some additional development and, possibly, staffing needs, hence the request for WordPress Community Support help.
Like any good program, Sourdough introduces at least one new acronym, the LCO, Local-Community Organizer (or LOCO, if we want to allude to the sometimes crazy-making nature of community wrangling).
Program Components
The components of the proposed basic infrastructure:
a new role – Local-Community Organizer – much like current event-organizer roles; vetting for this role could be fast-tracked for existing Meetup and WordCamp organizers
a community email address (one address for all social-media and other account logins) accessible both to the Local-Community Organizer(s) and to super-admins at WordPress Community Support
a domain-name registration service
website hosting
a mechanism for granting access to the community’s website, email list, Slack administration, and social-media profiles to vetted community members (such vetting could be administered by the LCO at the local level)
access to WordPress Community Support’s money-handling capabilities for receiving sponsor funds and paying vendors
a virtual inventory system (could be as simple as a Google Docs sheet) to track swag, lanyards, print collateral, and other community property, which may reside in many different physical locations
A deluxe version of the infrastructure might also include:
a PO box or mailing service to give the community a physical address
a small storage facility for leftover swag, print collateral, etc., which could also serve as a receiving facility for exhibitor shipments to WordCamps and other local events
a group password manager like LastPass or 1Password to more precisely and securely grant and control access to community accounts
Program Benefits
Benefits to the local community:
one-stop shopping for local event and other community information
creates a portal for recruiting into the local WP community members of the broader local community (articles on how to get involved, what WordPress is, what a WordCamp is, what happens at 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., etc., examples of which could be collected and shared at make.wp.org)
cross-promotion opportunities for existing community event programs
ability to build an opt-in email list of local community members who are interested in both current and future WordPress-related events, activities, and announcements
ability to showcase community members on the community website (directory or similar non-promotional listing, equally accessible to all community members)
non-promotional community blogging on topics of interest to the local community
create a community legacy archive documenting the background and history of the community and sharing its lore – sort of like the old “newspaper of record”
ability to engage event-averse introverts with a way to virtually and anonymously participate in the community
create virtually accessible local special-interest groups for folks not mobile enough to travel to meetups and other events (kids, seniors, disabled, etc.)
virtually augment the new physical Community Bazaar presence at WordCamp US
maintain a minimal community presence if there are not currently active Meetups or other events
Benefits to WordPress Community Support:
similar community-building and -nurturing benefits as existing event programs
proactively and preemptively manage potentially messy issues around account access and other local community-resource stewardship issues
Conclusion
I know how stretched for time community members are, so not expecting immediate action. I just want to get this idea out there and see what even-better ideas folks in the community might have on this subject.
UPDATE: The poll is now closed and the Tuesday/Thursday 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. time is now going to be 9:00 UTC (1 hour later than previously held). The sidebarSidebarA sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme. is updated with the correct info.
We currently hold Office Hours at the following times:
Mondays & Wednesdays at 22:00 UTC
Tuesdays & Thursdays at 8:00 UTC
As the bi-monthly Community Team chat falls at the same time as the Thursday Office Hours, we are considering moving the time of the Tuesdays & Thursdays session by 1 hour in order to help us be more effective. This time slot for Office Hours is designed to conveniently serve people in the EU and Asian time zones, so with that in mind, would either of the following times work for those of you spread across Africa, Europe and Asia:
Tuesdays & Thursdays at 7:00 UTC (1 hour earlier)
Tuesdays & Thursdays at 9:00 UTC (1 hour later)
I’m leaning towards option #2 as #1 will be very early for Western Europe, but I’m not sure how this would affect those further East, so please use the quick poll here to vote and weigh in with your comments on this post if you have anything further to add. #meetings#proposal
Jenny Wong
10:24 am on May 30, 2017 Tags: proposal
