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.
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WordPress events spark innovation and adoption by way of accessible training and networking for users, builders, designers, and extenders. We celebrate community by accelerating 21st-century skills, professional opportunities, and partnerships for WordPressers of today and tomorrow.
– Purpose Statement, WordPress Community Events Program
The WordPress community is buzzing with innovation, and Next Generation WordPress Events are at the heart of it!
The Community team continues to encourage WordPress enthusiasts around the world to organize creative events that align with the above purpose statement. The ‘Next Generation WordPress Events’ project invites you to think beyond the traditional 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. format, and consider what sort of unique event – whether in-person or virtual – would meet the needs of your particular community. For inspiration, check out this recent post with ideas for NextGen WordPress events.
With this purpose in mind, we are excited to let you know about three upcoming and two recent NextGen events that are shaping the future of WordPress.
This one-day event will focus entirely on the activities of the WordPress Community Team, and will provide support and practical tools to people who organize local 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. or WordCamps (or would like to start doing so), or who would like to propose talks, panels and workshops, but do not know how to begin. There will be opportunity to discuss improvements to documentation in Italian to support organizers, and to explore new event formats such hackathons, do_actions, and NextGen events. Participants will share experiences and develop a deeper understanding of which tools and best practices can help build a stronger WordPress community.
This one-day WordCamp in Gdynia, Poland has a unique focus: ‘Optimization: Work and WordPress’. Speakers will present various approaches to this topic, and participants will have the opportunity to ask questions, connect with other WordPress enthusiasts, and develop practical knowledge.
This one-day “Scale Up” workshop in Tegal, Indonesia will focus on enhancing participants’ WordPress skills for the enterprise world. Approximately 50 local WordPress enthusiasts will gather to learn from four experienced WordPress experts who will serve as mentorsEvent 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. and facilitators. By attending this workshop, participants will gain a comprehensive understanding of how to make the most of WordPress for enterprise purposes.
This monthly Community Building workshop series brings together Japanese contributors to develop community leadership skills. They have held two events so far: at the August workshop, participants shared tips about sustaining a successful 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. group. At the recent September workshop, participants discussed 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. (general public license) and trademarks. To cater to the Japanese audience, the team uses two platforms: their Meetup.com page for registration, and the event website for promotion. Here is a recap of the first event, in Japanese.
Held on July 29, 2023, this one-day WordCamp Bengaluru was organized a little differently than a traditional WordCamp.The event’s tracks combined panel discussions, workshops and lightning talks, and the event was infused with traditional local culture. It kicked off with percussion and floral arranging; and instead of an after party, attendees were invited to join a historical walk of Bengaluru. A full recap of the event can be read here.
Have you attended a NextGen WordPress event, or do you have an idea for a future event? Share your experiences, hopes, ideas, and questions in the comments below!
Like all great communities, the strength of the WordPress community is the incredible people who participate and also bring their unique perspectives and ideas to the project.
As the NextGen Event Project rolls along, we have put together some creative concepts and ideas powered by your fellow WordPress enthusiasts. These concepts are all ready for implementation, and we hope that these are brought to life over the next months and years to come.
Community and Identity-Based Groups:
College Campus-Based Groups
Self-Learning Clubs
Events for Identity-Based Groups
Peer-to-Peer Matching
Expert to Beginner Matching
Event for Underrepresented Groups
Educational and Informative Events:
WordPress “Shark Tank” (Ideas Pitch)
WordPress LearnUp
Intro to 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. and WordPress
Intro to Contributing
Second Half of the Day
Sponsor Networking Day
WordPress Debate on Hot Topics
Events on Specific Topics: Hosting, Security, Performance, Sustainability, Optimization
Online Event: WordCast
Happiness Bar
Online Clinic
Show and Tell Night
Curated Talks
Web Pitching Competition
WordPress Career Day
WordPress for Rural Communities
WordPress Showcase for Students
Networking and Professional Development:
Job Fairs
Fireside Chats/Show and Tell
Lunch Clubs
Networking Circles
Group Speed Networking for Business Owners (Finance, Insurance, Tech)
Networking for WordPress Businesses
Networking for Jobseekers and Recruiters
Networking for Bloggers
Events for Podcasters
Events for Publishers
Education and Skill Building:
Community Building Event
1:1 Learning
Event with Non-WordPress Tech Groups
DevCamp with Non-WordPress Dev Communities
Edutainment
Study Group Learning WP on Different Topics (Learning by Doing)
WordPress for Enterprise Training
Specialized Events:
Event for Enterprise Users and Media Companies Using 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.
Event for Web Agencies
WordPress Youth Summit
Scary Stories or Horror WordPress in October – Learning from Mistakes
WordPress for Publishers
Low-cost or Eco Event
WordPress Retreat
Event about Digital Marketing
These ideas have been collected from community members like you. The exciting part is, if you are an event organizer, we truly encourage you to experiment actively by creating more vibrant, inclusive and exciting events for the future.
This is where we get to participate and shape the future of WordPress events.
In early July 2023, the first two NextGen WordPress pilot events were held in Leipzig, Germany, and Sevilla, Spain. Both events experimented with a one-day, small-scale format that can be easily organized, replicated, and enjoyed by the community.
The event in Leipzig was a local 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. (WordCamp Leipzig 2023) through which the organizer, Robert Windisch, aimed to demonstrate that a small and simple local WordCamp is achievable and can ignite the community. This WordCamp did not have a welcome dinner or after party, nor did they not provide swag or badges.
Nilo Velez, the organizer of WordCamp Sevilla 2023, also delved into experimentation and organized WordPress Day in only 20 days. Since WordCamp Sevilla was already in planning, the WordPress Day event was announced on the WordCamp Sevilla site.
Event Format
The organizers of both events were experienced and had a clear vision for their respective gatherings. Robert aimed to organize a small and intimate, low-budget yet high-quality conference that introduced a diverse range of speakers.
Nilo organized a 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/. with selected 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/ projects (Support, TV, and Polyglots) that required specific tools, addressed clear tasks, and needed a large number of volunteers. Nilo hopes to continue holding similar events at universities, schools, or town halls.
Attendees
Each event hosted approximately 30-40 attendees. Unfortunately, we received only a small number of responses to the Attendee Satisfaction Survey: 9 responses from Leipzig and 12 from Sevilla.
Out of the 9 respondents from Leipzig, only 2 reported being first-timers to a WordPress event, while all 12 respondents from Sevilla were returnees. All but one respondent have used WordPress for more than a year.
All 12 respondents from Sevilla stated that they were ‘very likely’ to recommend the event to others. In Leipzig, 6 respondents were ‘very likely’ to recommend the event, while the rest were ‘likely’ to recommend it.
Takeaways
From these pilot events in Leipzig and Sevilla, we learned that organizing a small WordPress community event, larger than a 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., is both achievable and desirable.
Although the events were smaller than regular WordCamps, local sponsors can still contribute alongside global community sponsors. Both events received support from a couple of local sponsors.
The events confirmed that Community team contributors know how to effectively organize conferences and contributor days. Therefore, our challenge is to see if we can experiment with a format that we haven’t yet seen within our WordPress ecosystem.
We also noticed that more attendees were returnees rather than first-time attendees. What can we do to attract new audiences to our events?
Share Your Ideas
If you are keen to see innovative event formats and topics happening in your area, you can start now! Share your ideas with us, and we will support you in making them happen. You can submit your ideas via the Ideas Form and then chat with us on how we can provide assistance.
In June, we started discussing tooling for NextGen WordPress events. One of the ideas we discussed is an updated URLURLA specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org mapping, to accommodate a diversity of event types events.wordpress.org/city(or country)/year/event-type.
We anticipate that this new URL structure will make it much easier for new audiences to discover our community events, and for returning attendees to find what they’re looking for.
Community Day in Rome is the first NextGen pilot event to use this new URL structure. Their event URL is events.wordpress.org/rome/2023/training.
The second NextGen pilot event to use this new URL structure is a monthly online community building workshop for all community members in Japan. The event will kick off in August 2023 and is planned to continue into 2024.
The recent discussion in #community-team about the URL for NextGen events has resulted in several options to approach the URL, especially for multi-city, multi-year, and multi-format events.
Referring to the principles of readability, ease of understanding, and scalability, we’d like to propose the following URL:
The event-title can be anything that best describes the event. We can also add -2 to indicate the series of events.
For example
In 2023 events.wordpress.org/japan/2023/community-training events.wordpress.org/japan/2023/community-training-2
In 2024 events.wordpress.org/japan/2024/community-training events.wordpress.org/japan/2024/community-training-2
If there are no strong objections to this URL structure, we’ll be moving forward with it. Please comment if you have any questions or concerns about it.
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. organizers have done amazing things with WordCamp sites. While WordCamp has kept our events afloat for a long time, organizers have long raised challenges with the current platform. As we explore the Next Generation WordPress Events, it seems a great time to also iterate on our current platform as we look to the future of events.
This is a broad call for input on what sort of tooling would make creating WordCamp sites a joy for WordCamp organizers. Specifically when it comes to building and using the WordCamp website, what have you experienced that you found frustrating? What would you like to be able to do that you currently cannot?
What does it mean for our Next Gen WordPress Event experimentation?
We need you to share some ideas on how we can maintain our WordPress-powered event site such as WordCamp.org easier, and make it more useful for our event organizers.
But remember! This discussion is NOT about:
The events hosted on Meetup.com.
Creating brand-new infrastructure. Rather, we want to make improvements to the current infrastructure.
Idea Example 1: One-size-fits-all Application for Speakers
This came up during the Community Discussion on May 25, 2023, from the group that was assigned a topic on tooling. Having a speaker application system where organizers can send emails to and communicate with potential speakers can help avoid miscommunication and reduce event workload.
Idea Example 2: Alternative URLURLA specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org Mapping
We’ve heard a great idea floating around — reworking our URL structure to include ‘event’. If folks search for “WordPress events”, they typically get results about event plugins, rather than community-organized events.
Since the new audience might not be aware of terms like “WordCamp”, a more straightforward URL structure could help us reach broader participants who are seeking specific events such as training and networking. For example events.wordpress.org/city/2023/event-type
An added benefit is that our community will be able to direct those who are interested in future events to check out updates by using URLs such as events.wordpress.org/city.
Share your feedback by June 20, 2023
To figure out the tooling that would be most effective for our Next Gen Event planning sites, please share ideas about what features could be added or removed to make the most of the website experience.
The community team is very aware that there are also additional tools folks would like to have, like better tools for surveys. e-mail, communication, newsletters. The hope currently is that the focus can be on WordCamp sites only, so the WordCamp 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. team can get a better sense of scope and priority. Future posts will have calls for additional tools!
Please comment by June 20, 2023. The Community and Meta team will review all comments and prioritize based on the level of impact and level of effort required.
Based on feedback, @devinmaeztri and I have updated and simplified the previous information into this one post. The goals of these changes are:
change the role names so they are more universally translatable
simplify the number of applications needed to contribute
simplify the overall contributor journey
clarify the tasks and expectations for the various contributor roles
create support for our mentorsEvent 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. so they can be more successful
create a Help Path to help the work flow more smoothly
specify the 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./Community Admin tasks so their contribution is more evident and the necessary tasks are getting done
To accomplish these goals, we suggest the following changes.
Name Changes
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.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./DoActiondo_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. Mentor/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. Mentor become Event Mentor. Community 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. becomes Community Admin. 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. becomes Community Advisor.
Updated Role Descriptions
Community Team Member: participate in the Make/Community SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel or attend WordPress events Event Organizer: organize local events that promote WordPress and 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. Event Mentor: help guide and unstick event organizers Community Admin: support mentors and help with the technical side of event organizing Community Advisor: guide all other contributing roles with a particular focus on what’s best for our community now and in the future
Contributor Journey Visuals
This is the current contributor chart. The arrows show the various paths you can take to get from one role to another. As you can see, each area requires the contributor to submit an application to change roles.
The chart below is based on the recommended updates. It allows community team members who want to contribute beyond organizing events to submit one application and be filtered into the supporting role that fits them best or appeals to them most.
It also allows flexibility, so individuals who are ready can move directly into a Community Admin role without being required to first be a mentor.
How We Work
The Community Team is committed to working as publicly as possible for transparency and the education of all. Questions should be asked as publicly as the content allows so that we can learn and grow together. Delicate situations will be managed with caution and respect by more than two people so important information does not become lost while keeping the necessary people informed.
Demonstrate exemplary behavior that aligns with the WordPress community standards, it’s values, and both code of conducts, including no previous incidents or conflicts with the Community Team
Successfully finish the required training courses
Exhibit collaborative, community-minded communication skills
Be organized and reliable
Be able to meet with event organizers and other community members when necessary on Slack, Google Meet, and/or Zoom, your choice
Additional requirements specific to becoming a Community Admin
Consistently supports WordPress communities and organizers with strong understanding of the global program
Participates regularly in Community Team discussions and decision making
Successfully complete ALL organizer-related courses
3 references from event organizers or current Community Admins
Additional requirements specific to becoming a Community Advisor (in process)
Consistent participation beyond the basic requirements
Ability to be consistently available
3 references from fellow Community Admins or current Community Advisors
Tasks by Role
ROLE
TASKS
Event Mentors
Monthly – Check in with your event organizers – How’s the budget? – How’s the timeline? – Are they facing any blockers? – Do they have any issues within the organizing team? – Use the Help Path to answer questions for your event organizers – Attend each monthly Community Team meetings, async is fine – Report about your event’s progress in the monthly Community Team meeting – Report about your event’s progress on the monthly Make/Community Post
Yearly – Check in with your assigned meetup organizers – determine the 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. status – by video, if possible – Assist in finding new meetup organizers as needed – Update the Meetup spreadsheet with the status of your meetups – Report Meetup updates to your Community Admin so Admins can maintain the event trackers
Note: WordCamps will only be mentored by lead organizers who have successfully led a WordCamp.
Community Admins
Monthly – Vet at least 1 event application – Give at least 1 event orientation – Keep the Event Trackers up-to-date based on mentor feedback – Triage HelpScoutAttend each monthly Community Team meetings, async is fine – Help fellow Admins in decision making in #community-Admin – Answer questions in #community-event and #community-team when possible – Update documentation as needed
Quarterly – Perform 1 Budget Review – Send 3 swag shipments – Triage HelpScout – Check in with your assigned Event mentors
Mentor events, as they choose and qualify. If mentoring an event remember to: – Report about the progress of events you are mentoring on the monthly Community Team meeting – Report about the progress of events you are mentoring on the monthly Make/Community Post
Community Advisors
As possible – Perform budget reviews – Perform the tasks of Community Admin and Event Mentors
Continually – Support Community Admin and Event Mentors – Discuss and advise on difficult topics and incidents that impact the community – Create precedent for the global community – Choose solutions that build a long-term, stable community – Final review of Incident Response issues, when needed
Here’s the draft version 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. regulation OK/NG case study” in the handbook. I’d like to add more items when we agree on this.
We got the cases from this spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bkpvieQA4NIh9AFUxX-oZe_S7gKMdDvwewwUdERx2N0/edit#gid=0
—-
Questions about WordCamp regulations are welcome at #community-event.
Here are some case studies that you can refer when face issues.
#1
A company has the faux WordPress logo on their website or in contents.
NG. We need to ask the person to change that to a correct logo.
#2
A speaker owns and uses a domain name that have “wordpress” as a part of it. He asked the organizers to put a link to the site on his bio.
NG. We need to tell them to change the domain name, or he can’t be a speaker as it’s a violation.
#3
A WordCamp speaker who owns a wordpress-xyz.domain domain but does not mention it in their talks or at the conference and knows they will need to change the domain.
NG. We need to tell them to change the domain name, or he can’t be a speaker as it’s a violation.
#4
How we can handle budget outside US/Canada (e.g. banking account)
OK. We can transfer the money between the countries and US/Canada. And you also can receive and pay directly inside the country without bypassing US/Canada.
#5
A Hosting company wanted to sponsor WC Mumbai but they had a subsidiary which built and distributed Non-GLP themes to be bundled with CPanel. They said they couldn’t change much in another division and hence dropped out but later they wanted to sponsor another WordCamp.
NG. But they realized this would always keep them away from participating as sponsors so they switched their licenses for WordPress themes.
#6
On the speaker candidate’s website, the organization team found links to a theme shop that does not follow 100% 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..
NG. We asked the speaker to remove the link, and the speaker removed the link.We welcomed him as a speaker.
—
I need advice on how to handle the following two cases.
#7
A person works for a marketplace that sells non-GPL WordPress products. They want to help organize or volunteer at a WordCamp.
#8
A person is selling themes/plugins that require activation key to use them.
—
After I get feedbacks from the team, I’d like to proceed on creating a new handbook page. Please add comments until 31th, March. Thanks.
( @shinichiN gave me translation support. Thanks. )