Tag Archives: community

Kasirye Arthur 12:01 pm on February 5, 2026
Tags: , community,   

Community Team Meeting Agenda for 05 – February -2026

The Community Team chat takes place on the first Thursday of every month in the #community-team channel on SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.. 

This meeting is meant for all contributors on the team and everyone who is interested in taking part in some of the things our team does. Feel free to join us, even if you are not currently active in the team!

Asia-Pacific / EMEA friendly meeting:Americas friendly meeting: You will find a preliminary agenda for the meeting below. 

If you wish to add points to discuss, comment on this post or reach out to one of the team reps: @adityakane, @Arthur, @Shusei, or @webtechpooja. It does not need to be a blog post yet, the topic can be discussed during the meeting nevertheless. We use the same agenda for both meetings.

Check-ins: Program and Event Supporters / Contributors

  • What have you been doing and how is it going? 
  • What did you accomplish after the last meeting? 
  • Are there any blockers? 
  • Can other team members help you in some way?

Highlights to Note

Here are a few things everyone should be aware of.

2026 Big Picture Goals: Our Focus on Meetups

Community Education Initiatives: Help grow connections with educational institutions

Call for Scholarship Sponsors: Support Student Participation through WordPress Campus Connect

New: Request a video message from Matt for your WordCamp
Bringing Back Women-Centric WordPress Events for International Women’s Day

Call for Volunteers: Support Our Education Programs

Big Picture Goals for 2026

Open Posts

Check out these new and ongoing discussions needing review, feedback, thoughts and comments.

Reporting

Open Floor

This is your chance to discuss things that weren’t on the meeting agenda. 

We invite you to use this opportunity to share anything that you want with the team. If you currently have a topic you’d like to discuss, add it to the comments of this post and we will try to update the agenda accordingly.

Hope to see you on Thursday, either in the Asia-Pacific / EMEA (12:00 UTC) or Americas-friendly version (21:00 UTC) of the meeting!

#agenda, #community, #meeting-agenda

Arslan Kalwar 4:10 pm on October 28, 2025
Tags: community, , wordcamp-pakistan, , WPISB2025   

WordCamp Islamabad 2025 – A Celebration of Learning, Contribution, and Community

WordCampWordCamp WordCamps 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. Islamabad 2025 was a wonderful celebration of learning, collaboration, and the open-source spirit. Over two exciting days, students, professionals, and WordPress enthusiasts came together to share knowledge, contribute, and connect with others who believe in the power of community.

👥 Meet the Organizing Team

A big round of applause for our amazing organizing team who worked tirelessly to make this event a success. Their passion and teamwork brought the whole community together.

Organizers:

Each person played an important role in making sure every detail from logistics to social media was handled smoothly.

Contributors collaborating during Contributor Day.

Organizer: Arslan Kalwar & Muhammad Kashif

💙 Day 1: Contributor Day

Contributor Day was full of excitement, learning, and teamwork. It was a day where many participants, especially students, discovered how they can become part of the global WordPress project.

We welcomed several students from different universities who were eager to explore the open-source world. For many, this was their first-ever contribution to WordPress, and their enthusiasm made the day truly special.

We started by helping everyone set up their WordPress.orgWordPress.org The 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/ profiles, join the Make WordPress SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/., and understand how the community works together. Then, we introduced them to various contribution teams like CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., Polyglots, Support, Training, Docs, Test, Photos, and Patterns.

Together with our Table Leads, we guided attendees through handbooks and helped them make their first real contributions, translating strings, uploading photos, and testing patches.

A highlight of the day was a special recorded session by Muhibul Haque, introducing WPCredits and Campus Connect programs that help students get recognized for their contributions. Since he had to leave early for his session at WordCamp Dhaka, Arslan Kalwar continued the discussion, explaining how these programs help students build their profiles, get official contribution credits, and connect with the global WordPress community.

It was inspiring to see students so engaged and curious about contributing and realizing that WordPress is not just a tool, it’s a community they can grow with.

🎤 Day 2: Conference Day

The second day was all about learning and inspiration. We had an amazing lineup of speakers who shared their experiences and insights on topics like development, accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (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), design, community building, freelancing, and website performance.

Students and professionals found the talks motivating and relatable. Many shared that hearing stories from contributors and developers helped them understand how WordPress can open real career opportunities.

The energy in the room reflected one thing clearly: WordPress empowers everyone, no matter where they start.

🧑‍💻 Hands-On Workshops and WordPress Playground

The workshops were another highlight of the event. Speakers conducted practical sessions where participants could follow along and try things out live.

One of the most exciting parts was learning about WordPress Playground—a browser-based tool that lets users experiment with WordPress instantly, without any setup. This made it easy for students to practice, test, and learn in real time.

These sessions helped attendees gain hands-on experience and boosted their confidence to keep exploring WordPress on their own.

🌍 A Community That Inspires

WordCamp Islamabad 2025 reminded us what makes the WordPress community so special: people coming together to share, learn, and build something bigger than themselves.

From enthusiastic students to experienced professionals, everyone contributed to making this event memorable. The teamwork, curiosity, and kindness we witnessed showed the true power of open-source collaboration.

A heartfelt thank-you to everyone who participated, volunteered, and supported this event. Thank you, eEarn, for providing an amazing free venue. Together, we’re building the next generation of contributors and keeping the WordPress spirit alive. 💙

📸 Contributor Day & Conference Day Highlights
Here’s a glimpse of the joy, collaboration, and learning that filled WordCamp Islamabad 2025—from first-time contributions to inspiring sessions and hands-on workshops.

Welcoming attendees and introducing Contributor Day.

Arslan guiding new contributors at Contributor Day.

Co-Lead Organizer: Muhammad Kashif

Lead Organizer: Tahir Shahzad

Contributor Day Lead: Arslan Kalwar

Thanks to @peiraisotta for collaborating on this post.

#community, #contributor-day, #wordcamp-pakistan, #wordpress-events, #wpisb2025
Leo Gopal 12:14 pm on December 16, 2024
Tags: community, , farewell, gratitude, leogopal, , ,   

[Update] 2025 Community Team Rep’s Voting ends, Thoughts & farewell from a Rep, and more.

First, the current Team Reps of 2024 would like to thank each one of you for voting. Voting has ended.

You made your voices heard and participated in voting.

Your selection of the two new nominees means they will join the Team Reps in 2025.

What happens next?

  1. The Voting Process has ended, and we are counting the votes to ensure everything was done correctly and fairly.
  2. The next steps are contacting the nominees who have the highest votes. We will ask them again. We want to know if they are willing to accept the role. They would represent the WordPress Project’s Community Team in 2025.
  3. Once they accept, we will announce who they are to the entire community. We will arrange a series of Hand-offs and Onboardings for them. These steps will make their role official in January 2025.

In 2025, I, @leogopal, and our dear @nukaga will step down as Team Reps. We have had the honor of serving this amazing community for the last 2 years.

We are happy and confident. We are grateful to have served alongside @peiraisotta and @st810amaze. They will stay as they continue supporting and welcoming our two new chosen representatives. They will onboard them just as we did for them. As well as continuing in their support, advocacy, and representation of the Community Team.

The next are the words & thoughts of me, @leogopal, and is not from my role as existing Team RepTeam Rep A Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts. or any official capacity:

In this article

  • Power in our Community
  • Conclusion – Transitions over Endings
    • The Power of Community

    Power in our Community

    This is a coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. and fundamental distinction of a truly Community-lead, Community-driven, and Community-focused open-source project such as WordPress.orgWordPress.org The 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/.

    Your voice matters.
    Your votes matters.
    Your nomination matters.
    You, fellow community member, you matter!

    – Leo Gopal, to the WordPress Community (and probably some politicians and philosophers before him)

    You, the community, ultimately decide who will guide and represent you. You made the decision and participated in selecting our next 2 representatives of the community team. Just as you did for me 2 years ago. It was an honor. I am grateful to every one of you.

    This exists in many other open-source projects. I have to admit that I am biased. I have spent over 15 years in the WordPress ecosystem (People of WordPress – Leo Gopal). Most of that time, I was a developer writing code or managing other developers. I spend all my volunteer hours in the community team. I came for the code, but I stayed for the community.

    I have never met another community with so much heart, so much care, and so much genuine kindness and a inner strive to both do good and be good than I have within this global WordPress community.

    Thoughts of most in the Community

    During my tenure as Team Rep, it was @nukaga, @peiraisotta, @st810amaze, and last year @mysweetcate that helped drive the day to day of the Community Team, while I had the honor of working on projects such as the GithubGitHub GitHub 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/ and Attribution standardization and automation’s which we have adopted and so has many other teams behind the scenes (more on that in a separate post)

    Reflection: Transitions over Endings

    Conclusion – Transitions over Endings

    As I reflect on the last 2 years, I realize there are definitely things I wished to have accomplished. I never quite got to some of these tasks. There are others that I wished I did better.

    However, I am in contentment with the things I have done. The impact they have had is meaningful. This impact will continue long after I step down.

    Most of the Community may not know this. There are many contributors behind the scenes like the Team Reps. They do so much work. Most of it is only known by a few. Typically, those who worked alongside them or helped in feedback or review are aware.

    This is partly why I chose a project with the dear Isotta. We used Github as a tool. It helped us show contributions that were not previously attributed or recognized.

    These contributions now are on their WordPress profile. This gives them the recognition they deserve.

    2 years is a long time to serve as a volunteer in a single position for an Open SourceOpen Source Open 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. When it ends, one reflects immensely on those 24 months. They find all that they are grateful for and all they have accomplished or have not. Additionally, they reflect on the failures or things they hoped to have done better or more of.

    After doing such reflection, I wondered what is next for me now that this is over. I realized that life is much like the passion work we do. It’s a series of transitions rather than endings. I am excited to see where my work transitions me to next.

    It has also left me grateful for my team-mates in the Team Reps team. They have supported me across the years. I am also thankful to the Community itself.

    I would not have been able to do this without you. I also probably wouldn’t have wanted to do it without you.

    Advice for our new and future Reps

    Advice To the future Team Reps

    (or, things I wish I knew from the start):

    • Firstly, never ever lose the wide-eyed motivation, you start this role with.
    • and keep hold of the the innocence of believing you can accomplish anything (especially if at first you fail or encounter obstacles)
    • Importantly, Never forget that feedback is there to help you succeed. Even when it’s not always what you want to hear or easy to hear.
      • Those who give their feedback have spent their time. They provide it with the sole hope of helping you succeed. Never fail to to thank those who give you their time in this way.
      • Learn to appreciate feedback that contradicts your current perspective. Search out opposing opinions. This is how you nurture your ability to understand others perspectives & viewpoints and adapt accordingly.
    • You learn nothing if you always succeed. It’s also a sign that you are staying safe in your comfort zone.
      • Understand that you always have only two options. You will either succeed or you will learn. Failure only exists for those who quit.
      • Learn how to fail fast. Learn how to fail often. Learn how to quickly pivot when you fail. Learn how to minimize the impact and always have a plan to reverse or revert should something fail.
      • Getting great at dealing with failure is an invaluable skill. It helps you become someone who can succeed where others dare not travel.
    • Seek out others who have succeeded and learn from them.
      • Find individuals with skills you want to acquire. Do everything you can to learn from them. You can’t learn everything on your own. Gain knowledge from those who have already done the hard work.
    • And finally, you are not alone. You have both a team of reps and a whole community. They are there for you to support and who are more than willing to support you.
        • Get help when you need it. Our community is full of delightful people, always eager to lend a hand.

      I am stepping down as a Community Team Rep for 2023 to 2024. I want to thank everyone. This is also a farewell to all who have been a part of this great journey for me. As I step down, I am excited to see our new Team Reps. They will step up and accomplish great things.

      I do not know what my next adventure in the Community Team (or other teams) would be.
      Whatever it is, I know that whatever it is, I will be doing it alongside the best of people.

      written with sincere gratitude by

      Leo Gopal

      +make.wordpress.org/updates/

      #community, #community-team, #farewell, #gratitude, #leogopal, #p2-xpost, #team-reps, #weekly-update

      Matteo Enna 12:03 pm on June 5, 2024
      Tags: #team-meeting, , community, ,   

      Community Team Meeting Agenda for 6 – June – 2024

      The Community Team chat takes place the first Thursday of every month in the #community-team channel on SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.. 

      This meeting is meant for all contributors on the team and everyone who is interested in taking part in some of the things our team does. Feel free to join us, even if you are not currently active in the team!

      Asia-Pacific / EMEA friendly meeting: Thursday, 6 June 2024 at 12:00 PM UTC
      Americas friendly meeting: Thursday, 6 June 2024 at 21:00 PM UTC

      You will find a preliminary agenda for the meeting below. 

      If you wish to add points to discuss, comment on this post or reach out to one of the team reps: @peiraisotta, @Shusei, @leo, or @nukaga. It does not need to be a blog post yet, the topic can be discussed during the meeting nevertheless. We use the same agenda for both meetings.

      Check-ins: Program and Event Supporters / Contributors

      • What have you been doing and how is it going? 
      • What did you accomplish after the last meeting? 
      • Are there any blockers? 
      • Can other team members help you in some way?

      Highlights to Note

      Here are a few things everyone should be aware of.

      Open Posts

      Check out these new and ongoing discussions needing review, feedback, thoughts and comments.

      • Current challenges of WordPress Events. Shaping the future
        • Events program has seen significant challenges in bringing new users and new attendees in recent years due to many factors. To that end, this conversation aims to examine the events program’s current state and explore what changes could attract fresh users to the WordPress Project. Read carefully and share feedback before June 28, 2024. 
      • Recognizing Contributions and Acknowledging Challenges
        • This conversation is posted on the Sustainability blog to address the challenge of recognizing all contributions across the project.
      • Project Health Dashboards
        • Following the discussion about the contribution recognition challenge, the whole community is invited to share ideas and feedback about what tools we can use to create dashboards for the contribution teams. Please join the conversation and leave feedback before June 17.

      Announcements / Newsletters

      Open Floor

      This is your chance to discuss things that weren’t on the meeting agenda. 

      We invite you to use this opportunity to share anything that you want with the team. If you currently have a topic you’d like to discuss, add it to the comments of this post and we will try to update the agenda accordingly.

      Hope to see you on Thursday, either in the Asia-Pacific / EMEA (12:00 UTC) or Americas-friendly version (21:00 UTC) of the meeting!

      #agenda, #meeting-agenda, #team, #team-chat, #team-meeting

      #team-meeting-3, #agenda, #community, #meeting-agenda, #team

      Shusei Toda 4:40 am on May 2, 2024
      Tags: , community, , ,   

      Community Team Meeting Agenda for 2 – May -2024

      The Community Team chat takes place the first Thursday of every month in the #community-team channel on SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.. 

      This meeting is meant for all contributors on the team and everyone who is interested in taking part in some of the things our team does. Feel free to join us, even if you are not currently active in the team!

      Asia-Pacific / EMEA friendly meeting: Thursday, 2 May 2024 at 12:00 PM UTC
      Americas friendly meeting: Thursday, 2 FMay 2024 at 21:00 PM UTC

      You will find a preliminary agenda for the meeting below. 

      If you wish to add points to discuss, comment on this post or reach out to one of the team reps: @peiraisotta, @Shusei, @leo, or @nukaga. It does not need to be a blog post yet, the topic can be discussed during the meeting nevertheless. We use the same agenda for both meetings.

      Call for meeting host
      If anyone is available to host the second sessions of the Community Team monthly meeting at 9pm UTC, please reach out to one of the team reps, who are all based in APAC and EMEA countries: @peiraisotta, @Shusei, @leo, or @nukaga.

      Check-ins: Program and Event Supporters / Contributors

      • What have you been doing and how is it going? 
      • What did you accomplish after the last meeting? 
      • Are there any blockers? 
      • Can other team members help you in some way?

      Highlights to Note

      Here are a few things everyone should be aware of.

      Open Posts

      Check out these new and ongoing discussions needing review, feedback, thoughts and comments.

      Announcements / Newsletters

      Open Floor

      This is your chance to discuss things that weren’t on the meeting agenda. 

      We invite you to use this opportunity to share anything that you want with the team. If you currently have a topic you’d like to discuss, add it to the comments of this post and we will try to update the agenda accordingly.

      Hope to see you on Thursday, either in the Asia-Pacific / EMEA (12:00 UTC) or Americas-friendly version (21:00 UTC) of the meeting!

      #agenda, #community, #meeting-agenda, #team, #team-meeting

      Isotta Peira 2:39 pm on March 6, 2024
      Tags: , community, , , , ,   

      Community Team Meeting Agenda for 7 March 2024

      The Community Team chat takes place the first Thursday of every month in the #community-team channel on SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.. 

      This meeting is meant for all contributors on the team and everyone who is interested in taking part in some of the things our team does. Feel free to join us, even if you are not currently active in the team!

      Asia-Pacific / EMEA friendly meeting: Thursday, 7 March 2024 at 12:00 PM UTC
      Americas friendly meeting: Thursday, 7 March 2024 at 21:00 PM UTC

      You will find a preliminary agenda for the meeting below. 

      If you wish to add points to discuss, comment on this post or reach out to one of the team reps: @peiraisotta, @Shusei, @leo, or @nukaga. It does not need to be a blog post yet, the topic can be discussed during the meeting nevertheless. We use the same agenda for both meetings.

      Call for meeting host
      If anyone is available to host the second sessions of the Community Team monthly meeting at 9pm UTC, please reach out to one of the team reps, who are all based in APAC and EMEA countries: @peiraisotta, @Shusei, @leo, or @nukaga.

      Check-ins: Program and Event Supporters / Contributors

      • What have you been doing and how is it going? 
      • What did you accomplish after the last meeting? 
      • Are there any blockers? 
      • Can other team members help you in some way?

      Highlights to Note

      Here are a few things everyone should be aware of.

      Open Posts

      Check out these new and ongoing discussions needing review, feedback, thoughts and comments.

      Announcements / Newsletters

      Open Floor

      This is your chance to discuss things that weren’t on the meeting agenda. 

      We invite you to use this opportunity to share anything that you want with the team. If you currently have a topic you’d like to discuss, add it to the comments of this post and we will try to update the agenda accordingly.

      Hope to see you on Thursday, either in the Asia-Pacific / EMEA (12:00 UTC) or Americas-friendly version (21:00 UTC) of the meeting!

      #agenda, #meeting-agenda, #team, #team-chat, #team-meeting

      #community-team-3, #agenda, #community, #meeting-agenda, #team, #team-chat, #team-meeting-2

      #community-team, #team-meeting

      Cate DeRosia 8:44 pm on February 27, 2023
      Tags: , community,   

      Proposal: Modify the Events and News widget to show topic-based meetups worldwide

      Published on behalf of Amber Hinds (@amberhinds on Make Slack)

      The purpose of this post is to discuss proposed changes to the Events API that displays upcoming events from Meetup.com meetupMeetup Meetup 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. groups in the WordPress admin dashboard widgetWidget A 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..

      Background 

      Topic-Based MeetupsMeetup Meetup 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.

      In April of 2021, a proposal was created to allow topic-based meetups in the Meetup chapter program and in May 2021, meetup applications for topic-based groups were accepted.

      There are currently three meetups in the chapter program that are topic-based rather than city-based:

      These meetups have a city location of San Francisco, CA because that is the location of WordPress headquarters, however they each offer online events via Zoom that are open to anyone in the world (rather than in-person events). 

      The WordPress AccessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (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) Meetup and Learn WordPress Online Workshops are holding events at times that are optimized for people around the globe so that some events will always be in the daytime, regardless of where you are in the world.

      WordPress Events and News Widget

      The WordPress Events and News admin dashboard widget displays upcoming events filtered by proximity to a city. This geographic radius makes sense for in-person meetups where people are unlikely to drive long distances to attend a meetup.

      For the three topic-based meetup groups, this means that their events are only visible in the WordPress admin Events and News section if someone has set their location to San Francisco.

      A challenge of the current geographic restrictions is that many users will be presented with a message telling them that there are no events they can attend and prompting them to start their own meetup. While we do want to prompt people to start meetups in their cities, it’s a missed opportunity to not make people aware of upcoming events that they can easily attend online.

      Proposed changes: Allow events from topic-based meetups to show in the Events and News widget worldwide

      The WordPress admin dashboard Events and News widget is a key way meetup groups can reach attendees to promote their events and may be the first exposure a new WordPress user has to the meetup chapter program. 

      While the current geographic restrictions on event display make sense for a city-based group, they do not make sense for a group that is not city-based, holds events exclusively online, and which is intended to have worldwide speakers and attendance.

      Benefits of this change

      Changing the Events and News widget to include meetups from WordPress Accessibility Meetup, BlackPress Meetup, and Learn WordPress Online Workshops will accomplish the following:

      • Expose more people worldwide to virtual learning opportunities.
      • Provide increased resources to people in rural or other areas without a city-based meetup, thus leveling the playing field for people learning WordPress in these areas.
      • Increase the potential speaker pool size for these groups as more people become aware of them and participate in meetups.
      • Create a better user experience by showing virtual events in the WordPress dashboard rather than no events at all.

      Why WordPress Accessibility Meetup

      In the case of the WordPress Accessibility Meetup, making events show worldwide will also serve the goal of increasing general awareness of what accessibility is and emphasizing the importance of building accessible websites. 

      Many people have never heard of website accessibility or realize that they need to take people with disabilities into consideration when building websites. The more people who are exposed to the concept of accessibility, the more likely we are to see improvement in the overall accessibility of WordPress websites – whether it’s because content creators will learn to enter their content more accessibly or because pluginPlugin A 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, theme, and web developers will put more thought into developing with accessibility in mind.

      The first step to making the web accessible is ensuring everyone knows about and has easy access to learn accessibility best practices. Putting WordPress Accessibility Meetup events in everyone’s WordPress dashboard is a major step towards growing awareness around the importance of accessibility.

      Why BlackPress Meetup

      BlackPress is a global WordPress meetup group that aims to raise awareness about WordPress in the global community of creators of Black African descent, and help connect them to other community members and grow participation and sponsorship toward WordPress.

      People of Black African descent are underrepresented in technology careers and within the WordPress community. Many people who identify as Black may benefit from a group that supports their growth in WordPress, but may not know that the BlackPress Meetup exists or know to look for a group like it. Making the group’s events show worldwide will help people in their target demographic find the group, thus potentially increasing the number of Black identifying people participating in the WordPress community.

      Why Learn WordPress Online Workshops

      Learn WordPress is a community initiative to make more training resources on WordPress available to people all over the world. While making this group’s events appear worldwide doesn’t have the same social benefits that the other two have, the meetups held through Learn WordPress Online Workshops have a broad appeal and are specially created to help people work in modern WordPress. 

      Things to Consider

      If this proposal is approved there are some things to consider, a few of which were brought up in the original discussion on allowing topic-based groups.

      • Will there need to be changes in the events widget to display online event timing correctly across the globe?
      • How many topic-based meetup groups can the Events APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. support?  
      • Should the Events API handle each topic-based meetup group equally? 
      • Should the events be divided into two lists under headings for “Local Events” and “Global Events”?
      • Should the total number of displayed events increase to account for the large number of weekly events held by Learn WordPress Online Workshops?
      • Because there will no longer be “no upcoming events” results, where would the prompt to start a meetup group be moved to?
      • Could there be a way of filtering global events by language so that people could choose to see events happening only in their preferred language?

      Request for Feedback

      Please leave a comment sharing your thoughts on including events from topic-based meetups in the Events and News widget worldwide.

      #meetups, #community, #diversity

      Vedanshu - Urumi.AI 11:25 am on December 24, 2018
      Tags: community, , , , , ,   

      Slack notifications for WordCamp and Meetup application updates


      In the WordPress project, multiple teams (#meta, #core, #polyglots, etc.) make use of SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. notifications to surface new, interesting changes in their team’s respective channel. This includes notifications on new commits, tracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. issue updates, new translation strings availability, etc.

      (Screenshot of a commit notification)
      (Screenshot of a commit notification)


      These notifications serve at least two purposes:

      1. People interested in following these teams have a very convenient way to look at recent and ongoing activities.

      2. It provides a way to acknowledge contributors.

      In the WordPress community channels, we don’t currently use this tool, but there may be some cases where having these notifications would add lot of value for us.

      These include:

      1. Someone sends a new application for a WordCampWordCamp WordCamps 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.
      2. Someone sends a new application for a WordPress chapter meetupMeetup Meetup 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.
      3. A new WordCamp is set to Scheduled status
      4. A new WordPress meetup group is now active in the chapter
      5. A WordCamp application is declined
      6. A Meetup application is declined

      For reference, you can see status of some active WordCamp applications here.

      These notifications could include whether the event is a WordPress or a Meetup, city and country of the event, description of the update, and WordPress.orgWordPress.org The 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/ usernames of people who were involved in vetting the event application.

      I have written some initial code for this, and it could look like:

      (screenshot for when a new WordCamp application is submitted)
      (screenshot for when a new WordCamp application is submitted)


      (screenshot for when WordCamp is scheduled)
      (screenshot when a WordCamp application is scheduled)


      (screenshot for when a WordCamp application is declined)
      (screenshot when a WordCamp application is declined)


      A few more things to note and discuss here:

      1. We can perhaps send these notifications to #community-events,  #community-team, or both of these channels.
      2. The props section will include usernames of everyone who added notes to the application listing and/or changed the listing’s status.
      3. We would also want to send notifications when an application is declined, and not just when it is received or scheduled, in order to credit the deputiesProgram Supporter Community 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. who nevertheless did the  work to vet and respond to it. It could normalize the process of declining the application, because it is not uncommon for subsequent applications to be approved.

      What do you think? Should we have these notifications? If we have them, then should they be more granular, or less granular? What changes in language or overall appearance would you suggest? Leave your thoughts in a comment on this post!

      #community, #slack

      Sabina Ionescu 10:18 am on January 9, 2018
      Tags: Communications, community,   

      Calling European WordPress Communities

      Hi, I’m Sabina Ionescu, a member of the WordCampWordCamp WordCamps 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 Communications Team, and we have a project that we’d love your feedback on. Here goes:

      Supporting local WordCamps

      If you are a local meetupMeetup Meetup 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./WordCamp organizer, at some point, you might have faced at least one of these challenges:

      • Not finding enough sponsors for the local meetup
      • Facing challenges for WordCamp fundraising
      • Having trouble attracting WordCamp speakers
      • Not enough WordCamp tickets sold or tickets selling slower than expected

      In 2017, the WordCamp Europe Communication team saw the opportunity to support local WordCamps around Europe. The @WCEurope Twitter account was used to promote local WordCamps and send our customized tweets expressing the needs of local WordCamps.


      To send out a tweet like the one above required several actions like finding out which are the events of each month, identifying the lead organizer contact details, explaining how WCEUWCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event. team can help and finally posting the tweet a few weeks before the event.

      Identifying Meetup/WordCamp needs

      So far, this initiative was well received and the WCEU team plans to continue to show this support as we not only see the value in promoting WordCamps, but also the importance they have on building local European communities.

      However, there are 50 countries in Europe with sometimes several WordCamps organized in the same country which makes the process of reaching out to local communities quite difficult to go on like before. That’s why we’ve come up with a proposal for managing this process better, which consists of two simple steps:

      1. Collecting local communities details

      We’ve prepared a form to collect community data (like Twitter official hashtag, Twitter handle, lead organizer’s name) and keep it for further reference for both #Communications and #Community teams. Please take a look at it and comment below this article with your ideas and suggestions:

      2. Getting in touch with the WCEU team

      Unlike the form above where we collect info needed for promoting communities (like hashtags, Twitter handles, etc.), we’ve also prepared a way of them to directly get in touch with the WCEU team. This form can be used by organizers or WordCamp mentorsEvent Supporter Event 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. to reach out to us. The idea behind this form is to be used when facing a challenge (i.e. “we need to sell more tickets”, “we need two more silver sponsors” etc.).

      Next steps

      After your feedback, our suggestion is for these two links to go in the community handbooks/WordCamp guides and be included in the emails with the local organizers as well as with the mentors mentoring European WordCamps.
      Local meetup/WordCamp details
      Get in touch with WordCamp Europe

      And that’s basically it! Hope this collective effort builds up into a database of local WordCamps that we’ll be able to use over the coming years to help strengthen WordPress communities across Europe. Also, this initiative could easily be replicated by other major WordCamps to support their closeby events.

      We’ve notified @andreamiddleton about this and she mentioned @bph has a similar initiative in mind. Also, anyone who has a suggestion on how we could roll this is welcome to contribute!

      #wceu

      Bridget Willard 5:39 pm on February 1, 2017
      Tags: community, dev, , Marketing Community, techsupport, websitehelp,   

      Monthly Newsletter Marketing for the Community Team to WordCamp

      Editorial Calendar for Community Team to Empower & Educate MeetupMeetup Meetup 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 WordCampWordCamp WordCamps 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

      At WordCamp US’ Contributor DayContributor Day Contributor 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/., the Community Marketing Team came up with this basic structure for an editorial calendar for Meetup Organizers.

      It’s important to note that whatever is currently working for you should continue on. This may help spur ideas for new organizers or those who feel like they need a nudge. In no way was this meant to be mandatory.

      How to Use This Editorial Calendar

      This editorial calendar is designed to help (You) the volunteer community team create a monthly newsletter directed towards Meetup organizers & WordCamp organizers. The goal of the newsletter is to empower & educate organizers.

      We have created a suggested format for the newsletter that will update the organizers with current happenings, helpful tips / resources for their events, and a recurring summary paragraph remind them of all accumulated resources as they grow.

      When you are writing the newsletter use the outline below. There is an example email template following this format included in this document.

      There is also a series of ideas organized by month to help you create your monthly newsletter. These include things such as community happenings, initiatives, & resources. If there is a more relevant topic feel free to use that instead.

      Expectations

      January is an example month with completed content of how your newsletter might look after following all of these guidelines.

      Monthly Newsletter Format

      1. Hello & Happenings
      2. This month’s tip & resource
      3. Complete resources
        1. Checklist
        2. Swipe Files
        3. Best Practices
      4. Call to Action / Open LoopLoop The Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post. https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop.

      Monthly Newsletter Template (AKA Swipe File)

      Hello Organizer!

      This is what’s happening this month in WordPress. We have had another successful WordCamp in [location]….FILLER HERE

      As part of our continuing series to help you be awesome at MeetupsMeetup Meetup 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. & WordCamps we have created [AWESOME RESOURCE]

      As always we have compiled all of these tips into one amazing resource which includes [RESOURCE 1 LINK], [RESOURCE 1 LINK], [RESOURCE 1 LINK], and even more.

      Don’t forget, if you have any other questions or need help with your Meetup, feel free to call [???] ??? [???]. Check your inbox next month for even more great stuff. (Remember, some of our emails go to your spam folder.)

       

      Monthly Content Ideas for Happenings & Resources

      Remember, these ideas are not set in stone. If something is more currently relevant, feel free to make that the focus topic for the month. You are responsible for finding links from the greater WordPress community that can help organizers cover the topic. Note: January is an example month.

      January

      Hello Organizer!

      This is what’s happening this month in WordPress. We have had another successful WordCamp in the Pitcairn Islands. It was their first camp and they attracted over 100 people with the main focus on growing WordPress in Micronesia.

      Happy New Year! As part of our continuing series to help you be awesome at Meetups and WordCamps, this month we’d like to focus on the new possibilities for your Meetup group: how to attract new people and newly energize the ones you already have.

      As part of our continuing series to help you be awesome at Meetups & WordCamps we have selected our favorite three suggestions of getting new people to your meetup this month:

      1. Ask three to five current members to present a 5-7 mins on the favorite new thing they learned that has helped them with WordPress during the past year. Make sure the items are varied to hit a variety of perspectives from blogging/content, to SEO, to plugins, to security. Pick your favorites.
      2. Ask each of your current members to invite a friend, even if that friend doesn’t work with WordPress. Ask that person to share what’s the best new thing they learned this year. We are betting that item has great WordPress possibilities.
      3. Remember to Tweet your Meetup using hashtag #WordPress and the words “local help and community support.”

      As always we have compiled these tips into one amazing resource which includes: 11 Ways to Get People to Meetings, Six Ways to Make Meetings Fun…or at Least Not Suck, and even more.

      Don’t forget if you have any other questions or need help with your Meetup, feel free to contact our Meetup point person this month who is [name]. You can catch her on SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. at [username], Twitter [username], or [email].

      Check your inbox next month for even more great stuff. When we are going to tackle WordPress Love and Design.

      February

      Theme: WordPress Love and Design

      Hello Organizer!

      This is what’s happening this month in WordPress. We held successful WordCamps in [insert locations]. Meetups and WordCamps are changing people’s lives! Thank you for your contribution to making them happen!

      This month we’d like to focus on how you can continue to grow your Meetup group, by sharing the love of WordPress! Tell a story about how you’ve made friends and felt community support as you attended a WordCamp.

      Here are three ways you can spread the love of WordPress this month:

      1. Reach out to three to five active members and ask them to share your group on social media and how attending the Meetup has helped them to make friends, gain knowledge, get professional feedback and support or anything else.
      2. Ask each of your current members to invite friends. Explain that we are an inclusive community and that we know we can create amazing things together. WordPress newbies are encouraged to come and learn.
      3. Remember to Tweet your Meetup using hashtag #WordPress and the words #community #techsupport #learn. Make sure all levels are welcomed.

      As always we have compiled these tips into one amazing resource which includes: 11 Ways to Get People to Meetings, Six Ways to Make Meetings Fun…or at Least Not Suck, and even more.

      Don’t forget if you have any other questions or need help with your Meetup, feel free to contact our Meetup point person this month who is [name]. You can catch her on Slack at [username], Twitter [username], or [email].

      Check your inbox next month for even more great stuff. Next month we are going to tackle Updating WordPress and Keeping Code Current.

      March

      Theme: Earth, Sustainability – Updating WordPress and Keeping Code Current

      Hello Organizer!

      March is a time to turn inward and express gratitude for the word in which we live. As usual there is much to witness in the WordPress world. WordCamps were held in [insert locations] in February, inspiring more users and leaders in our ever growing community. We are so grateful that YOU have chosen to be a WordPress Meetup organizer and want to assist you in any way possible. Please let us know specific ways we can support and sustain your efforts.

      This month we’d like to focus on sustaining membership and enthusiasm in your Meetup group! Take a few minutes to let your members know what is happening with WordPress as a whole and with WordCamps worldwide. Let them know that as they spread the word, they are growing a community that contributes and makes WordPress even better!

      Here are three ways you can sustain your members and WordPress this month:

      1. Honor one another’s contributions. Take time to highlight special projects or specialties of your members. Each one has something valuable to contribute to the group and everyone loves a little recognition.
      2. Share a snippet of a talk from a local or far-off camp and discuss the value of learning and working together. We sustain one another as we contribute to the worldwide discussion and share code with one another. Remind your members that WordPress extends far beyond a 40 mile radius and that help is there, across the globe, should they need it.
      3. Remind your members to update their website code and use tools such as GitHubGitHub GitHub 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/, make.WordPress.orgWordPress.org The 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/ and WordPress.tv to further their own knowledge. Ask tyour members to invite friends in person and on social media to your Meetup using hashtags such as #WordPress alongside #community, #techsupport, #websitehelp and #dev.

      As always we have compiled these tips into one amazing resource which includes: 11 Ways to Get People to Meetings, Six Ways to Make Meetings Fun…or at Least Not Suck, and even more.

      Don’t forget if you have any other questions or need help with your Meetup, feel free to contact our Meetup point person this month who is [name]. You can catch her on Slack at [username], Twitter [username], or [email].

      Check your inbox next month to see how our theme of Spring Is in the Air allows you to Create Change with WordPress.

      April

      Theme: Spring Is in the Air

      May

      Theme: AccessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (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)

      June

      Theme: Soft skills

      July

      Theme Celebrating Summer

      August

      Theme: Community – International Friendship Day

      September

      Theme: Back to School

      Talk Like a Pirate

      World Gratitude Day

      October

      Theme: National CyberSecurity Month

      International Music Day

      World Mental Health Day

      November

      Theme: Gratitude

      December

      Theme: Holidays

      Vacation

       

      Alternative Themes:

      1. New things (skills, tech, plugins)
      2. Why Accessibility Matters to a Small Business Site
      3. Design
      4. Support
      5. Localization
      6. Community
      7. Training (ie Speaker Training – see curriculum https://make.wordpress.org/training/handbook/speaker-training/ )
      8. WordPress Security
      9. Soft Skills
      10. Giving back
      11. Backup Solutions and Best Practices
      12. How to ask for Support
      13. Googling as a Resource for Solutions
      14. Converting to httpsHTTPS HTTPS is an acronym for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure. HTTPS is the secure version of HTTP, the protocol over which data is sent between your browser and the website that you are connected to. The 'S' at the end of HTTPS stands for 'Secure'. It means all communications between your browser and the website are encrypted. This is especially helpful for protecting sensitive data like banking information..
      15. Getting ready for httpHTTP HTTP is an acronym for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. HTTP is the underlying protocol used by the World Wide Web and this protocol defines how messages are formatted and transmitted, and what actions Web servers and browsers should take in response to various commands./2.
      16. Site Speed for Developing Environments (3G, 2G)
      17. Must needed plugins for nonprofits, small business, blogs, etc.
      18. How to apply conditional logic to your forms
      19. Changing Themes and The Struggle with Shortcodes
      20. Why Child Themes are Important
      21. How to use the CustomizerCustomizer Tool built into WordPress core that hooks into most modern themes. You can use it to preview and modify many of your site’s appearance settings. in WordPress Themes
      22. Page Builders: The Good, The Bad, The Needs Improvement
      23. Moderated Forums: Why have password-protected on-site forums instead of a blog or Facebook Group?
      24. Project Management Tools for the Overworked Freelancer
      25. Partnering Up: Building Sites and Gaining New Client Work with Meetup Friends
      26. If SEO is more than a pluginPlugin A 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, how do I start to rank?
      27. How often should I blog?
      28. Content Marketing: Long-form versus Short-form
      29. Design for Accessibility: Color Blind, Nearsightedness, and vision-impaired.
      30. Teaching Tech to Kids
      31. Hackathon  Night — Bring your worst problems, we’ll fix them.
      32. JavaScriptJavaScript JavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a user’s browser. https://www.javascript.com/. Libraries and WordPress Theme Development
      33. Leveraging the REST APIREST API The REST API is an acronym for the RESTful Application Program Interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data. It is how the front end of an application (think “phone app” or “website”) can communicate with the data store (think “database” or “file system”) https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/. in your WordPress Site.
      34. Building Your First Plugin
      35. PH What? An Introduction to the beginner.
      36. What is WordPress Really? An introduction to LAMPLAMP LAMP is an acronym for Linux, Apache, MySql, PHP – a stack of free software programs that can function as the environment for running WordPress..
      37. No Stupid Question Night. Seriously. Ask. Let’s chat.
      38. Mentorship Night. Let’s pair up and keep ourselves accountable to continuous learning.
      39. Empathy in Tech – Why Marketers should learn Dev and Devs should learn Marketing
      40. WordPress as a Platform for Apps

       

      Original GDoc. 

      #marketing-community