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.
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
.
You can now request a Zoom Pro account to host your online meetup. Send in your request using the Online Events Zoom Request form, and a community 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. will get back to you with more details.
The WordPress chapter meetup program has always emphasized the importance of in-person events over online events, but if there is any evidence of community transmission of COVID-19 in your area, we encourage organizing online events for the next few months.
Meetup.com has made changes to their event interface in light of their recommendations to take 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. online. Under the location box, you can now designate a meetup as an online event and provide a video URLURLA specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org for your attendees to connect with your video.
Note: If you use Zoom for public meetings, make sure that screen- sharing is enabled for hosts only. Once you make presenters co-hosts, they can share their screens, too. (See also Zoom video on this page)
100 users can attend a single meeting, with no cap on meeting time through September 30, 2020. After that free meetings will be restricted to 60 minutes.
Recording: Available for G-Suite customers, not available for regular Google accounts.
Google meet would be an ideal platform of choice for your meetup, if one of your organizers has a G-Suite account and can facilitate meetings. Through September 30, 2020, all G Suite customers can use advanced Hangouts Meet features, like larger meetings (up to 250 participants), live streaming, and recording. — Announcement by Google.
If you have access to a YouTube channel, you can enable live stream there as well. It’s a little bit of work to set-up the channel, and go through the verification process.
Birds of a Feather – Breakout rooms for particular topics over lunch
Interactive Educational – Speaker presents for 20 minutes (chat silent) / Live Q & A for 20 min (Free Zoom meeting)
Round Robin – Topic is voted on ahead of time. Meetup members get in a video call. Moderator guides the meeting, and makes sure everyone is heard who wants to be heard. Three sub topics each discussed for 10 minutes / Rest of the time announcements and news.
Asynchronous discussion on web forum (Discourse, bbPressbbPressFree, open source software built on top of WordPress for easily creating forums on sites. https://bbpress.org., etc. )
HelpDesk Hours online – A group of volunteers are available for meetup members to help with their website
Update parties – Meetup members get together during the latest WordPress release to celebrate, update their websites together, and help troubleshoot
Interviews – Rather than a standard presentation format, invite a speaker to be interviewed by a moderator, including questions from the audience
Forums Fridays – Help members contribute to the WordPress community by gathering to answer questions in the forums together
Blog-a-Longs – On a hangout, meetup members can work together on their sites to write a blog post – they can share what they’re working on, ask for feedback, and help each other overcome writers’ 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.
Discussion groups – Pick a topic or video (Learn WordPress has some excellent options for this), go over the resources together in a group, and use comprehension questions to help guide a discussion on the material
A website or page with communication zones, e.g. workshop rooms, speaker rooms, watercooler, etc.
Each room should be easy to join/leave whenever an attendee likes.
Event-specific rooms should be moderated, e.g. participants have to be muted during the presentations, voice/chat communication should happen at the end, some way to “raise a hand” to ask a question can be implemented in the chat.
The speaker/presenter should not be distracted by chat/questions during a talk, so a moderator (or moderators) should handle participants muting, helping with tech issues, tackling the chat communications, and managing Q&A discussions.
‘Info desk’ and ‘Tech support’ could be implemented in the chat.
There could be an option to start “breakout rooms” via ad-hoc calls for 1-on-1 or mini-group communications.
Speakers could have personal video rooms where people can chat after the session.
Surveys/polls during talks (speakers usually ask questions to direct talks in certain directions).
Q & A process (perhaps votable so more popular questions rises to the top). Slido is one example of this.
Share slides and materials right after (or before) in a central location.
Chat window next to the lives tream or within the livestream tool (YouTube Live, Zoom etc)
Alternative way to collect Question is via Twitter and event Hashtag
All participants attend via Video and Audio (ie: Brady Bunch view in Zoom). Only for smaller groups. (Meetup or Unconference format)
Especially encouraging Q&A to be on camera rather than through the chat.
Comments to take to heart:
“As someone who attends a livestream event every week, I was surprised at how hard it is to manage the concurrent chat as the organizer.”
“Even with my experience of having just one talk from one person, I would like to add for consideration: Have someone else monitoring the chat. It’s too much to read it and deliver content at the same time.
“Any kind of chat-type interface used alongside the livestream, would need to be some kind of moderator training.”
General tips and resources for organizers:
Consider rescheduling or alternating times for your online meetup. If you notice a dip in participation, it could be a good indicator that your community members need some different options for when they can join.
Make it accessible, and let folks know! Don’t be afraid to welcome would-be attendees to let you know what accommodations you can make so they can attend and get the most out of the event.
Welcome feedback. Ask your community members what they would like to experience in your meetups. Who knows, they might have a great idea to share or even be your next co-organizer!
