Summary of Morning Discussions

Notes by Mark Jaquith and Brian Layman

Aaron Jorbin: Accessibility

Action Item:make WordPress.org/accessibility which will talk about successes we’re having and ways people can get involved

• Also talked about increasing involvement of accessibility experts and ease of testing of patches.
• Need for default themes to be good examples of accessibility.
• 2013 should have the #1 goal of accessibility.

Helen Hou-Sandi: UI Core in WP Action Item:Review the draft handboook on UI processes, decisions, philosophies and publish it.

• Talked about communication and how to be collaborative in the development process
• With a large pool of developers already, how to we attract and retain designers contributors?
• Discussed pain points & doing weekly summaries on the UI blog.
• In the P2 posts they will summarize meeting notes but will also present advancements and news and links from around the web for discussion.

Chip Bennett: Theme review team

Action Item:Better document the workflow for theme review to make that process more transparent and consistent.

• talked about workflow, consistency, timelines

Siobhan McKeown: Improving Handbooks

Action Item:Recent rockstars will be immediately to include non-coders

• A standard format should exist for the handbooks
• WordPress.org profiles need to be updated to include many more areas of contribution

Ben Metcalf: Managed WP Hosts

Action Item: Formalize methods of communication between the core teams about problem plugins.

• The lists of problem plugins that each host has should be communicated with core
• A standardized definition of “Managed WordPress Hosting” is perhaps needed as it means different things.
• Discussed WordPress.org/hosting

Mitcho: Making WP global

Action Item:make./global Site with a forum, and

• Discussed where the international conversations occurs
• Profiles should list the languages in which people work with

Nacin: i18n improvements

Action Item:Theme updates destroy translation files. This must fixed and a solution is currently under dev now.

• Languages into core
• Multibyte into core
• Will be open sourcing Simon Wheatley’s multilingual WordPress code

Mitcho: Using WordPress as a framework

Action Item:Implement a stability index for our APIs like Node.js and create a development philosophy page on the codex.

• What is the philosophy of dev in WP cycle & APIs: Should it be users first or devs first?
• Core use cases or other use cases?
• New things built into core should be built as a plugin and shipped as a plugin
• ForWordPress, not BackPress

Peter Chester: Contributing to Core without it being a Full Time Job

Action Item:Put a header on P2 themes telling you what to do to contribute to that area

• Discussed how to not quit your day job and get business buy in to improving the core.
• Licking a firehose is not a sustainable working model
• Lots of mailing lists, lots of information. It is too much for a non dedicated dev to fully follow contribute effectively.
• Could put together teams around components, modularize the communication
• Core commits rely too much on serendipity. Hard to get a commit through without talking to the right people at the right time.
• Should architect a workflow to increase efficiency.

Mike Schroeder: Improving Deployments on WordPress

Action Item: Create a codex page that lists the popular ways to deploy and discusses options that are available

• Two problems: users being able to easily test changes, and roll back. Devs being able to push from localdev to staging to deployment.
• Files are mostly a solved problem. Talked about Git and WP Stack. Will partially solve the issue.
• Content is the main issue at this point.
• There are probably many solutions available that were not released to public and these should be discussed.

Andrea Rennick: WordPress Codex

Action Item: A roadmap will be created, separating different use cases for the codex

• Codex is a mess and a mix of perspectives
• User, Dev and end user sections need to be seperated
• No best practices page
• Too much stuff is missing
• We should focus on getting data up on the Codex
• Relates to handbooks

Remkus DeVries: Transparency of the WordPress Foundation

Action Item:Publish make/events subcommittees list

• The foundation revolves around WordCamp
• Discussed WordCamps & Foundation
• Talked a lot with Andrea about guidelines
• Better ways to re-word guidelines that make them more clear and explain the reasons behind them
• Talked about make.wordpress.org/events which started but did not get followed up on

Trent Lapinski: Theme Functionality vs Plugins

Action Item:Codex page for standards, containers for common functionality, better communication

• Themes sometimes have functionality better suited for plugins

Isaac Keyet: Mobile Apps

Action Item:Make a page that describes the apps, their place in the ecosystem, and their goals (for potential contributors)

• Different experience from the web
• built on native device capabilities
• Offline usage: easier in apps than on web
• Better communication between API devs and mobile devs
• Weekly chats happening now
• Moving forums over to wp.org main site
• Who owns mobile apps and develops them? WP.org? Automattic?
• It’s okay for “third parties” to have specific functionality in the WP mobile apps.
• Make it easier to fork the apps for specific hosts.

Alex Mills (Viper007Bond): Plugin dependencies

Action Item:continue the discussion (too long for session)

• Themes and Plugins both need it

Jared Smith: GPL

Action Item:Improved resources around GPL topics

• Split licenses were discussed
• Talked about GPL distribution
• Spirit of law vs letter
• User interests vs dev
• community vs commercial
• uniform application of guidelines
• IP protection, copyright, trademark, etc
• Have businesses embrace the GPL