This is the home of the Make Community 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!
Here is where we have policy debates, project announcements, and assist community members in organizing events.
Everyone is welcome to comment on posts and participate in the discussions regardless of skill level or experience.
Get Involved
If you love WordPress and want to help us do these things, join in!
We are currently updating the names of our contributor roles throughout our resources. The new role names are Community Team Event SupporterEvent SupporterEvent Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues. (formerly MentorEvent SupporterEvent Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues.), Community Team Program SupporterProgram SupporterCommunity Program Supporters (formerly Deputies) are a team of people worldwide who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about program supporters in our Program Supporter Handbook. (formerly DeputyProgram SupporterCommunity Program Supporters (formerly Deputies) are a team of people worldwide who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about program supporters in our Program Supporter Handbook.), and Program ManagerProgram ManagerProgram Managers (formerly Super Deputies) are Program Supporters who can perform extra tasks on WordCamp.org like creating new sites and publishing WordCamps to the schedule. (formerly Super DeputyProgram ManagerProgram Managers (formerly Super Deputies) are Program Supporters who can perform extra tasks on WordCamp.org like creating new sites and publishing WordCamps to the schedule.).
WordPress is free software that is written and maintained by thousands of volunteers around the globe. Not only is WordPress free, but it’s also open software — which means that the end user has the freedom to run, study, share/copy, and modify the software.
These “four freedoms” are codified into a software license called the GPL, or General Public License. The 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 ‘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. is a copyleft license, which means that derived works can only be distributed under the same license terms. The license was originally written by Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for the GNU Project.
Freedom to run
Freedom to study
Freedom to copy and share
Freedom to modify
Because WordPress originated as a fork of the blogging software b2, which was licensed under the GPL, WordPress is also GPL software (and is required to carry the GPL). Other widely-successful examples of software licensed under the GPL include Linux kernel, the GNU Compiler Collection, and Drupal.
These are sources of background about WordPress and the GPL:
From the WordPress History on 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/:
WordPress coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. software is free, but other things you might need to use WordPress still cost money. Unless you want to buy a server, you’ll need to pay for website hosting. If you want your site to look a certain way, you can teach yourself how to design and develop websites, or you can buy a WordPress theme that looks the way you want your website to look. You can teach yourself how to use WordPress by reading documentation and experimenting, or you can pay someone to teach you. If you want WordPress to do something that the core software doesn’t currently do, you can teach yourself how to develop a 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 you can buy a plugin that provides that feature.
Now, there are lots of great WordPress themes and plugins on the 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/ repositories, and those have been reviewed for a certain base level of code quality and are also free. Lots of people run all their website(s) using the free themes and plugins from the WordPress repository, and do just fine. But some people prefer to use “premium” WordPress themes and plugins because of the additional support they might receive from the company or person selling that theme or plugin.
The WordPress community includes a booming economy of people earning their livings in WordPress-based businesses. People make money in the WordPress community in a few main ways:
1) Software as a service
2) Training
3) Hosting
4) Agency work
Let’s break them down one by one:
1) Using the software as a service (SaaS) model, theme and plugin companies sell a time- and/or site-limited subscription to automated software updates, bug fixes, and support. Access to these services can be sold on a per-site basis, but the use of the theme or plugin can not be restricted on a per-site basis because that would break the GPL.
When vetting a company that sells plugins or themes, look at their terms of service or licensing information, and also look at their pricing structure. If the pricing page indicates that the company restricts how many sites a theme or plugin can be used on, then that policy is breaks the GPL for that product.
2) Training: there are lots of free sources of information on how to use WordPress, including WordPress.tv and the Codex, but there are also lots of great teachers out there who charge money for WordPress training. This doesn’t affect the license at all, except we hope people also mention the license when training people to use WordPress. 🙂
3) Hosting: Anyone can get a free site on WordPress.comWordPress.comAn online implementation of WordPress code that lets you immediately access a new WordPress environment to publish your content. WordPress.com is a private company owned by Automattic that hosts the largest multisite in the world. This is arguably the best place to start blogging if you have never touched WordPress before. https://wordpress.com/ that uses WordPress, but if you want to do things with WordPress that WordPress.com does not allow or facilitate, then you’ll have to buy hosting and also possibly a domain name — unless you want to buy the equipment to set up your own servers and host your own site, but that’s going to cost more than buying even the more expensive hosting options.
4) Agency work: People who want to hire someone to build them a special WordPress website or feature for their personal or business website usually go to a web development agency. Agencies can be as small as one person or have thousands of employees. There are lots of web development agencies out there that specialize in WordPress, because they like how (comparatively) easy to use WordPress is for their clients, and they believe that 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. software is high-quality software.
When vetting an organizer/speaker/company that is an agency or works for an agency, keep in mind that the GPL only applies to WordPress derivatives that are distributed works. If someone builds someone a WordPress theme or plugin for that person’s personal/business use, then the GPL does not require that the theme/plugin/derivative be publicly distributed. You don’t have to examine the licenses of all the custom themes someone has built in their agency work.
