Welcome to the home of the WordPress Sustainability Team!
We seek to embed sustainable practices into WordPress to ensure the longevity of the project.
To do so, we focus our efforts on the 3 pillars of sustainability:
Social: Finding ways to increase the diversity and wellbeing of the WordPress community.
Environmental: Reducing energy and waste consumption in the development and usage of the WordPress software and its community activities.
Economical: Finding ways to economically support contributions to the WordPress Project, for those who need it.
Get involved
We’re a new team, founded at WCEU 2023, and we are eager to welcome new members who are willing to help us make the WordPress Project into a leader in sustainability. Get started here!
As part of the efforts to assess the health of the WordPress project, a working group is forming to test demonstrations of various tools we could leverage. If you would like to participate, please comment below. We’ll take this to SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.-based meetings in Sustainability Slack channel.
🔧 Overview of Tools Used for Project Health Analysis
Bitergia Analytics offers detailed tools for analyzing software development and community engagement in open-source projects. It tracks code development activities and community interactions, providing diversity and project performance metrics. We’ve (@harishanker, @peiraisotta, and myself ) selected it as our first trial. We’re trialing Bitergia first because it offers a comprehensive, ready-to-use analytics platform that meets our needs with minimal setup, easing the load to other contributors.
Our one-month demonstration account does not include available additional integrations, such as MeetupMeetupAll local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area., Slack, or RSS.
The costs associated with using tools like Bitergia, which begins at $1,000USD per month for the basic plan, should ideally be covered by the WordPress Foundation. Automattic has supported the WordPress project exploration of this tool by covering the service’s current cost through May.
Given the foundation’s role in overseeing and supporting the WordPress community and infrastructure, it makes sense to fund such expenses centrally. Moreover, it would benefit multiple organizations within the WordPress ecosystem, not just Automattic, to contribute to these costs. This collective funding approach would distribute financial responsibility more evenly and reinforce the community-driven nature of WordPress, ensuring that essential tools for project sustainability and health are maintained without over-relying on a single entity.
Bitergia Benefits:
Comprehensive GitHubGitHubGitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ Integration: Utilizes GitHub for rich data access, enhancing understanding of community collaboration and task management.
Data Focus: Prioritizes GitGitGit is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency. Git is easy to learn and has a tiny footprint with lightning fast performance. Most modern plugin and theme development is being done with this version control system. https://git-scm.com/. and GitHub data, concentrating on crucial sources that reflect development efforts and community engagement for targeted analysis.
Gradual Expansion: Initially, basic GitHub integrations will be implemented, allowing for scalable and manageable data analytics integration and preventing community overload.
Future Integration Potential: Maintains openness to including platforms like Slack and Meetup in the future, potentially broadening insights into community engagement and project health.
Bitergia Concerns:
Operating Cost: The initial dashboard, with Git and GitHub integration, costs $1,000USD. Additional fees would be incurred to integrate more sources. Approximately $30,000 would be needed to build custom integrations for TracTracTrac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. and WordPress editor activity integration.
Tool Dependency: Within the past year, we’ve seen several proposals to leave tools such at Meetup or Slack. Our choice of tools for Project Health and Project Operations will need to work together when evaluating future transitions.
Dashboard 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): Dashboards can be embedded into team sites or viewed on the primary account. Data can also be exported as CSVs. However, no additional information is available regarding accessibility, particularly for screen readers.
Active and Inactive ContributorsGitHub Overview
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. Tools
Grimore and Augur are open-source tools other projects can implement. When reviewing other open-source tools, we would also need to include all the contributors’ efforts to install and configure each test. Linux, ApacheApacheApache is the most widely used web server software. Developed and maintained by Apache Software Foundation. Apache is an Open Source software available for free., and Drupal have created tools themselves that work for their respective organizations. Developing our own tooling would necessitate considerable contributor efforts in areas that aren’t primarily related to WordPress beyond detailing metrics.
Pluralsight Flow (formerly GitPrime): Offers insights into software development workflows to help teams improve productivity and efficiency.
Snyk: Provides security insights into open-source dependencies, highlighting vulnerabilities and licensing issues.
GitInsights is an analytics tool that provides detailed insights into Git repositories. It helps teams monitor coding activity, review patterns, and track project health. It offers contributions, productivity, and codebase evolution metrics to enhance project management and team collaboration.
GitHub Specific Tools
While much of the work, beyond code even, of WordPress is moving to GitHub, not all of the contributions are GitHub-based. The following tools could help raise awareness of the work happening inside GitHub and could be considered extensions but not the primary metrics we seek.
Through their comprehensive analytics and integration capabilities, these tools can significantly enhance the management and sustainability of open-source communities. However, they do not focus on the projects within various WordPress teams nor track contributions.
Common Room: Integrates various platforms like GitHub, Slack, and Twitter to provide a unified community view, aiding open source leaders in monitoring engagement and identifying active contributors, crucial for sustaining an active community.
Orbit: Tracks community relationships and interactions across multiple platforms, offering insights into participation dynamics and retention strategies, essential for fostering a sustainable open-source environment.
🗣️ Community Engagement and Feedback
Our commitment to transparency and community involvement is essential in guiding the evolution of WordPress. We are implementing several engagement methods to ensure everyone in the community can contribute their insights and feedback effectively.
Public Forums and Discussions: Join the Make WordPress Sustainability Team meetings on Slack, where we hold text-based discussions about ongoing projects. These meetings provide a platform for sharing informal feedback and engaging with the team.
Regular Reviews: We host meetings on Slack, open to all community members. These sessions are crucial for discussing the progress of sustainability initiatives and gathering live feedback from various stakeholders.
👣 Next Steps
Gather Feedback: We’re seeking additional tools to consider and trial.
Enhanced Reporting: Develop detailed reports and interactive dashboards that can be regularly updated and shared with the community to maintain transparency about the project’s status and progress.
Data Integration: Expand our data sources by incorporating Slack, Meetup, and RSS feedRSS FeedRSS is an acronym for Real Simple Syndication which is a type of web feed which allows users to access updates to online content in a standardized, computer-readable format. This is the feed. metrics. This broader data integration will help us understand all facets of community engagement.
Dashboard Implementation: Explore ways to embed the sustainability dashboards directly into the Make WordPress team sites. This implementation will allow all team members to seamlessly access real-time data and insights.
Surface Team Priorities: Work on surfacing each team’s priorities on their respective Make WordPress pages. This visibility will help align the community’s efforts and ensure everyone is informed about each team’s key focus areas.
🌟 Share Feedback
Integrating comprehensive analytics and community input is crucial as we advance our sustainability efforts. We will continue to review options and need your feedback in the comments.
What tools do you suggest?
What additional data points should be included?
What else can we do to gauge the health of the project?
Input for the handbook around sustainability. It has been made a proposal for taking the WCEU as the deadline for the publication of the first version of the handbook. It has been discussed the roadmap and the work has been distributed and assigned to the contributors who have volunteered for the task.
Looking for volunteers
Contributors are welcome to help meet the deadline for the publication of the first version of the Handbook.
Projects updates
Conversations with Performance Team have been initiated in order to find the best approach for the WP Sustainability plugin.
Open discussion
It has been point out the need to better define the sections of the meetings, but no changes or proposals have been made.
It has been discussed the need to find a formula to develop the social and economic areas of the team in collaboration with other teams and groups. Some proposals have been shared but we are still looking for a solution that can be implemented. Discussions with contributors from other teams and groups continue, pending further updates and proposals.
We look forward to seeing you next 24-05-2024 12:00 UTC. If you have any suggestions for the next meeting agenda, please, leave a comment on this post.
Tracking and recognizing all contributions in WordPress helps assess the project’s health by diversifying input, lowering risk through broader engagement, and improving onboarding and acknowledgment systems. This approach aims to keep WordPress robust and thriving for many more years.
Assessing project health is at the source of stats/dashboard initiative.
In 2021, a kick-off post about dashboards reflecting team metrics was shared.
The topic emerged recently during 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. Europe 2023, leading to reviving the idea.
In the context of WordPress’s “Five for the Future” initiative, various contributors from different professional backgrounds play a crucial role by dedicating a percentage of their resources to sustain and enhance the platform:
Companies in Plugins and Themes: These contributors range from developers enhancing functionality to marketers expanding awareness.
Webhosts: Their support includes technical assistance, training by customer success teams, and community sponsorship.
Individual Contributors: These include freelancers who code, design, and engage in community forums, enriching the ecosystem.
Agencies: They contribute through direct work on coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. contributions, community leadership, and organizing local events.
Community Members: These include hobbyists and enthusiasts from all walks of life.
🔎 Challenges in Transparent Contribution Recognition
Transparency and Traceability: While contributions such as code commits are visible and traceable, other contributions, such as contributing to the design, facilitating events and meetings, or providing support and commenting on posts, are less traceable.
Quality and Impact Measurement: Assessing the impact and quality of contributions, especially in areas like support or training, is subjective and lacks a standardized measurement framework. This makes it difficult to recognize and reward these efforts officially.
Documentation and Acknowledgment: There is often a gap in documenting the full range of contributions from various entities, especially those that do not result in direct code or product changes. Ensuring that all types of contributions are acknowledged requires a comprehensive system that tracks and values diverse forms of involvement.
Decentralization and Scale: WordPress’s large-scale and decentralized nature makes maintaining consistency and visibility across all groups challenging. This complexity can obscure the decision-making process for many community members.
Informal Structures: Unlike many open-source projects that use formal charters to define the roles and powers of different teams, WordPress operates without such structures. This flexibility allows for dynamic adaptation but can sometimes lead to unexpected changes, such as the recent discontinuation or pivot of the Marketing Team. While this decision may align with broader project goals, it underscores the need for clear communication about team functions and project direction.
Lack of Formal Proposal Processes: WordPress does not typically use Request for Comments (RFCs) or formalized processes for making and approving proposals. This can sometimes result in decisions that, while maybe well-considered by project leadership, lack broad-based input from the community.
👥 Where Does WordPress Happen?
Each team within WordPress uses a combination of tools and platforms, from GitHub for code contributions to Slack for communication. Recognizing where these interactions take place is crucial for any analysis. For instance, the Core team utilizes Trac and SVN for tracking changes and version control, while community events are coordinated through tools like Meetup.com. I’ve organized a spreadsheet, WordPress Happens Here, to see where teams collaborate.
Tools exist that can help us aggregate the data we have. In doing so, we can better see what parts of the broader WordPress project need contributions.
Contributions to WordPress extend beyond coding and event management to include diverse content creation and revision forms 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/ sites, which is crucial for community engagement and project sustainability. Currently, no solutions are apparent to track WordPress creation and revision activity, nor TracTracTrac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/.. To include these would involve custom development.
📈 Data Points and Metrics
Key metrics1 to consider include the number of commits per contributor, issue resolution times, the bus factor, and participation in discussions across different platforms. These metrics help understand current engagement levels and identify areas needing more support or resources.
👂🏾Community Feedback and Iterative Improvement
Engaging with community leaders and contributors for feedback is crucial to ensuring that the metrics and dashboards developed are truly useful. This iterative process helps refine the tools and methods used, ensuring they remain relevant and valuable while surfacing team needs.
🙋🏻♀️ Get Involved
We want your input. In the comments below, answer as many of these questions as you’d like:
What has been your experience when deciding where to contribute?
What type of details are important to the health of WordPress, the 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?
Are there areas of contribution that go untraceable or unrecognized?
Existing sustainabilit-related plugins as a possible starting point for our own 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
We have been working on the topics contributors prioritized in the last meetings:
Introduction of new meeting format and agenda: bi-weekly meetings from now on. Please share in the comments if you have remarks on this.
Onboarding experience for (new) contributors. The goal is to create clear guidelines for a smooth onboarding experience for all the tools —our blog, GitHub and Slack— we have available. Some pending or active issues about this topic:
WordCamp Handbookwith sustainability ideas/guidelines. Learn how to contribute to this here and follow up on this project here. Some related topics:
Create a draft to collect information about the efforts made by the WCEU’s organizers in favor of environmental sustainability.
Having a first version by WCEU in June?
WordPress Sustainability 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 supported by the WP Sustainability Team. Follow up on this project here. Share the advances made on Yoast Contributor DayContributor DayContributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/.. For context, some issues were brought out from the previous meeting:
Narrow down the candidate of tools for measuring websites weight or carbon emissions. Check it in GH.
Discuss if we want to use any of the existing plugins as starting point or we want to create one from the scratch.
Finalize the meeting’s template as used by the Training Team: how will we choose (active) issues to discuss? Folks working on them can present them during the meeting.
We look forward to seeing you next 10-05-2024 11:00 UTC. If you have any suggestions for the next meeting agenda, please, leave a comment on this post.
We will continue the projects we are currently working on as a priority:
Introduction of new meeting format
Onboarding experience for (new) contributors. The goal is to create clear guidelines for a smooth onboarding experience for all the tools —our blog, GitHub and Slack— we have available. Some pending or active issues about this topic:
WordCamp Handbookwith sustainability ideas/guidelines. Learn how to contribute to this here and follow up on this project here. Some related topics:
Create a draft to collect information about the efforts made by the WCEU’s organizers in favor of environmental sustainability.
WordPress Sustainability 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 supported by the WP Sustainability Team. Follow up on this project here. Share the avances made on Yoast Contributor DayContributor DayContributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/.. For context, some issues were brought out from the previous meeting:
Narrow down the candidate of tools for measuring websites weight or carbon emissions. Check it in GH.
Discuss if we want to use any of the existing plugins as starting point or we want to create one from the scratch.
We look forward to seeing you next 26-04-2024 11:00 UTC. If you have any suggestions for the next meeting agenda, please, leave a comment on this post.
We will continue the projects we are currently working on as a priority:
Onboarding experience for (new) contributors. The goal is to create clear guidelines for a smooth onboarding experience for all the tools —our blog, GitHub and Slack— we have available. Some pending or active issues about this topic:
WordCamp Handbookwith sustainability ideas/guidelines. Learn how to contribute to this here and follow up on this project here. Some related topics:
Create a draft to collect information about the efforts made by the WCEU’s organizers in favor of environmental sustainability.
WordPress Sustainability 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 supported by the WP Sustainability Team. Follow up on this project here. Share the avances made on Yoast Contributor DayContributor DayContributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/.. For context, some issues were brought out from the previous meeting:
Narrow down the candidate of tools for measuring websites weight or carbon emissions. Check it in GH.
Discuss if we want to use any of the existing plugins as starting point or we want to create one from the scratch.
Discuss which items from the Training Team meeting’s template make sense to incorporate on this team.
Share the key takeaways from the Yoast Contributor Day.
If you have any updates on issues or projects that we have previously discussed, you are free to bring them up during the meeting.
Ideas or suggestions
Anything else? Please leave a comment if you want some topic to be discussed at the meeting that is not listed above.
Proposal on the development of a protocol/process/form/template for asking all the WC organizers about their effort (if any) integrating sustainability (both logistical and thematic) into their events. WCEU could be the pilot event for this, once it is finished.
Further discussion about the best way to obtain the page weight and then calculate the CO2 emissions.
The 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 will be the main focus of Yoast’s Contributor Day next week.
We look forward to seeing you next 19-04-2024 12:00 UTC. If you have any suggestions for the next meeting agenda, please, leave a comment on this post.
We will continue the projects we are currently working on as a priority:
Onboarding experience for (new) contributors. The goal is to create clear guidelines for a smooth onboarding experience for all the tools —our blog, GitHub and Slack— we have available. Some pending or active issues about this topic:
WordCamp Handbookwith sustainability ideas/guidelines. Learn how to contribute to this here and follow up on this project here. Some related topics:
How can we collect information about the efforts made by the WCEU’s organizers in favor of environmental sustainability.
WordPress Sustainability 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 supported by the WP Sustainability Team. Follow up on this project here. Some issues were brought out from the previous meeting:
Narrow down the candidate of tools for measuring websites weight or carbon emissions. Check it in GH.
Discuss if we want to use any of the existing plugins as starting point or we want to create one from the scratch.
