Title: wcsf – Make WordPress Community --- # Tag Archives: wcsf [ ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jenmylo/) [Jen](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jenmylo/) 7:02 pm _on_ October 20, 2014 Tags: wcsf, wcsf14    # 󠀁[WCSF Final Planning](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2014/10/20/wcsf-final-planning/)󠁿 If you are not attending WCSF this year, you can ignore this post. If you are coming and planning to participate as part of the theme review team, please click through and read it all. 🙂 [Continue reading →](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2014/10/20/wcsf-final-planning/#more-5415) [#wcsf](https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/wcsf/), [#wcsf14](https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/wcsf14/) * [Login to Reply](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fmake.wordpress.org%2Fcommunity%2F2014%2F10%2F20%2Fwcsf-final-planning%2F%23respond&locale=en_US) [ ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jenmylo/) [Jen](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jenmylo/) 6:52 pm _on_ October 9, 2014 Tags: [meetups ( 119 )](https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/meetups-2/), viewing parties, wcsf, [wcsf2014 ( 5 )](https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/wcsf2014/) # 󠀁[WCSF Viewing Parties for WordPress Meetup Groups](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2014/10/09/wcsf-viewing-parties-for-wordpress-meetup-groups/)󠁿 Attention all WordPress 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](https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/).! 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). San Francisco, the annual conference of the WordPress project, is coming up at the end of this month. Wouldn’t it be fun for your 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](https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/). group to get together and watch the livestream together? Kind of a WCSFx? For meetups on the chapter program that wish to hold a viewing party, we will provide free livestream access and will pay for a venue if a donated one cannot be found. You’ll need two rooms so that both tracks can be streamed simultaneously, just like at WCSF. We will not cover refreshments or other incidental costs. You can either have people bring a lunch (recommended) or you can ask a local sponsor to pitch in and provide food. If you want to organize a viewing party, let us know so we can set you up with an access code. If we will need to pay for a venue, it will need to be approved per https://make.wordpress.org/community/meetups/meetup-venue-approval-request/, so fill in that form as soon as possible. It’s a good idea to have a few people organize the viewing party together, just so no one winds up with too much to do. [#meetups-2](https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/meetups-2/), [#viewing-parties](https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/viewing-parties/), [#wcsf](https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/wcsf/), [#wcsf2014](https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/wcsf2014/) * [Login to Reply](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fmake.wordpress.org%2Fcommunity%2F2014%2F10%2F09%2Fwcsf-viewing-parties-for-wordpress-meetup-groups%2F%23respond&locale=en_US) [ ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jenmylo/) [Jen](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jenmylo/) 2:30 pm _on_ July 17, 2014 Tags: [community management ( 182 )](https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/community-management/), travel assistance, wcsf    # 󠀁[A Note About WCSF Travel Assistance](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2014/07/17/a-note-about-wcsf-travel-assistance/)󠁿 I’ve been reviewing all the travel assistance applications with the help of [@andreamiddleton](https://profiles.wordpress.org/andreamiddleton/), and I’ve seen quite a few from people who shouldn’t really need to apply for need- based financial aid. As the rest of the decisions/offers go out today and tomorrow, you may get asked how the decisions were made, so I thought I’d post about it here. Here’s what we posted on the WCSF site as criteria when we opened applications: > **Contributors to WordPress.** For people who work for a WordPress-based company, > coming to WCSF is an easy decision, but for contributors who volunteer and _don’t > have a WordPress-based day job_, it can be financially daunting. As a global project, > it can also be tough for those contributors who live on the other side of the > planet to make the trip as easily as those in the same hemisphere. We hope to > bring as many active contributors to the event as possible. > **Diversity.** For > a global project with users and contributors from many walks of life, our events > are often overwhelmingly attended by able-bodied, young, white men. Since a more > diverse contributor pool means a stronger project, we hope to bring more of the > underrepresented voices to the event. **Teachers.** 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. literacy is important, and the educators who are teaching > WordPress to their classes are helping grow the next generation of contributors. > Since we’d like to create more school education programs, bringing teachers to > the event can help bridge the gap between industry and academia. Why then did we get so many applications from able-bodied, North American, caucasian men who work for WordPress-based companies (and a couple of women, but really a lot of men)? Someone working for a wp-based company should be working with their employer to cover their travel costs. In cases where I’ve been able, I’ve reached out to company heads/decision makers and asked them to send their employees who ask, especially those who are contributors. In some cases they say yes, because they recognize the value of being part of the event. In others, they say no, either because their business has cash flow issues, their priorities don’t include investing in the community this way, or they don’t want to send that specific employee for reasons that aren’t any of our business. Good WordPress developers tend to charge anywhere from $50 – $150 (or more if they’re really good) per hour for freelance work. WordPress developers are always in need. The cost of a trip to the WCSF event could be earned by a person with these skills in a weekend or two. If you could earn that kind of money in a weekend or two, that’s not the same as having true financial need. To clear up the difference, I thought I’d post a couple of descriptions to show what really counts or doesn’t count as financial need. **Has Financial Need:** * A single parent who can only work part-time due to their childcare responsibilities * Someone physically disabled whose employment options are limited * Someone who’s unemployed and is not a developer, so their contribution skills are not as marketable * A reliable contributor who works at a non-wp day job and would not only have to pay for the trip, but would lose income due to taking time off * Someone who works successfully with WordPress, but in a country where the currency is devalued enough that being successful there would not afford the kind of money needed for the US trip (talking about locals here, not American/European ex-pats drawing US/Euro salaries while living someplace cheap and exotic) **Needs to Pick Up a Freelance Gig:** * WordPress developers and themers in general, but especially those in highly developed nations * Someone who quit their wp-related job and are thinking about starting a new business * Someone who quit their wp-related job and decided to take a few months off before looking for a new one * Someone who quit their wp-related job pretty much in general unless it was for a limiting reason like disability or illness that prevents working Think of it like applying for financial aid for college. It’s not just about if you have ready cash — let’s face it, most people don’t have one or two thousand dollars just sitting around — it’s about your ability to earn it. If you have the ability, then you should use it. If you don’t have the ability, that’s financial need. We can discuss this more in today’s 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/).- themed team chat if people have objections to this definition of need or want to suggest additional criteria. [#community-management](https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/community-management/), [#travel-assistance](https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/travel-assistance/), [#wcsf](https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/wcsf/) * [Login to Reply](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fmake.wordpress.org%2Fcommunity%2F2014%2F07%2F17%2Fa-note-about-wcsf-travel-assistance%2F%23respond&locale=en_US) [ ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jenmylo/) [Jen](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jenmylo/) 12:29 am _on_ June 13, 2014 Tags: [community management ( 182 )](https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/community-management/), [team meetup ( 2 )](https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/team-meetup/), wcsf, [wcsf2014 ( 5 )](https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/wcsf2014/)    # 󠀁[WordCamp San Francisco Info and Declarations of Interest](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2014/06/13/wordcamp-san-francisco-info-and-declarations-of-interest/)󠁿 Heads up, team! We’re getting ready to publish details (as we mentioned in today’s meeting) about the plans for WordCamp San Francisco this October (which includes a mini team meetup), so if you’re thinking of attending, please read the post at https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2014/06/12/wordcamp-san-francisco-travel-contributor- days/ and take the short survey linked at the end of it so I’ll know how many team members to plan for. Don’t worry, this isn’t a commitment or anything, I just need to get some rough numbers for budgeting purposes, and to get an advance idea about hotel rooms and stuff. Thanks! [#community-management](https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/community-management/), [#team-meetup](https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/team-meetup/), [#wcsf](https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/wcsf/), [#wcsf2014](https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/wcsf2014/) * [Login to Reply](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fmake.wordpress.org%2Fcommunity%2F2014%2F06%2F13%2Fwordcamp-san-francisco-info-and-declarations-of-interest%2F%23respond&locale=en_US) [ ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jenmylo/) [Jen](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jenmylo/) 5:53 pm _on_ April 17, 2014 Tags: [community summit ( 10 )](https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/community-summit/), [contributor meetup ( 5 )](https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/contributor-meetup/), [events ( 29 )](https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/events-2/), wcsf, [wcsf2014 ( 5 )](https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/wcsf2014/) # 󠀁[Putting More Community in WCSF](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2014/04/17/putting-more-community-in-wcsf/)󠁿 [Back in December](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2013/12/06/community-summit/), I proposed that instead of trying to recreate the 2012 community summit event, we try something different, and combine it with the official annual conference, 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). San Francisco (WCSF), for a variety of reasons (rather than restate those reasons now, I suggest re-reading [that post](https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2013/12/06/community-summit/)). For the most part, people seemed to like the idea (as seen in comments), but there were a few people who did not like the idea, citing various concerns, so I tabled the discussion rather than start a big debate right before the holidays. Un-tabling! The community summit in 2012 was an experiment on my part as to what an annual event could look like that centered on discussions rather than lectures (which fill the annual WCSF program). There were a lot of positive aspects to the event, in line with what was expected. However, there were some negative effects as well: * It was not intended to split the community into having to choose which annual event they attended, but that was an unexpected —and undesirable — outcome. * The invite-only-based-on-somewhat-subjective-factors and private nature of the event, while kind of awesome for those who were there and necessary given some of the contentious problems in the community at that time, was non-open and alienating to those who weren’t invited, the antithesis of the WordPress project’s stated values.  ← _This one’s really, really important._ * Quite a number of people who normally went to WCSF did not go after going to the summit due to the need to limit the number of trips they took. To that end, I’m proposing that instead of organizing another retreat-based, invite- only event at a separate time/place than the annual conference, we expand the annual conference to be more than just lectures. As I handed the WCSF planning mantle off to Andrea Middleton in 2012, I’ve been talking with her and Matt Mullenweg about how we could improve the WCSF event to incorporate some of the good things from the 2012 summit to make WCSF a true annual community event. Here’s the proposal: * Instead of doing a full 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/](https://make.wordpress.org/) There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. [https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/](https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/) at the Automattic office as we have in the past, do a contributor series in the downstairs room at Mission Bay on the 2nd programmed day (Sunday) while blogger- centric content is on stage upstairs (with a break for all to see Matt do SOTW). * Add 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 community conversations day in addition to the lecture-driven days. Have a separate registration like with previous contributor days and use advance communication to make it clear this is aimed at professionals/contributors rather than casual users, but don’t use an application process with rejections. This could be either before or after the programmed days, though am leaning toward after. With these two changes, WCSF would be the same amount of time it has been for years— 3 days — but would have more interactivity built into those days for people involved with the project than we’ve had in the past. In addition, I would have us set up an extra 2 days for contributor teams to work together and talk about their goals, and to talk to other teams. Needless to say, this would be optional, but anyone deemed necessary to the team should be able to attend regardless of finances via the scholarship program. This brings us to 5 days. Both Andrea and Matt were amenable to this plan for WCSF this year — knowing that whatever we do this year we will learn from and iterate on in the future — so I’d like to address the concerns raised by Siobhan and others. * **A week is too long, people will burn out. **Yep, it’s a long time! We’re talking about 5 days, not 7, but even so, it is more than a weekend (though people just interested in the csummit-style conversations, not the contributor team working days, would still be at only 3 days like always). That said, I surveyed 2 dozen other open source project and industry conferences, and 5 days was actually pretty average. Events like OSCON and SXSW lasting 5 days is an overwhelming week, to be sure, but in this case, since our formats would be shaken up every day or two, and the contributor days are basically chill co-working time, I think it will be manageable. When we used to do coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. team 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](https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/)., those were always a week. Coming to a 2-3 day event for people flying from very far away is also exhausting, so either way there’ll be some people who are less comfortable based on length of event. For the record, I get overwhelmed at events myself. I try to fake it, but ask Matt the number of times I’ve texted him from an event citing anxiety, or been caught reading a book on kindle for iphone in an afterparty corner. I’m not exempt from the burnout concern, and take it seriously. Also, people can always retreat away from the events as needed to take care of themselves (as long as it’s to take care of themselves, and not just because they’re hung over. 🙂 ) * **People coming in early will feel left out.** Based on feedback, the idea would most likely be to do the unconference and contrib days after the regular Mission Bay event. No one would be turned away for the unconference, so that “not welcome” thing would not be an issue. For the contributor team days, by then we’d be getting to midweek, so it would be unlikely for a lot of extra people to still be hanging around town, but in any case, we can let each team decide who should be there for that. * **San Francisco is expensive.** Yes, it truly is. The cost of SF lodging is high, but when compared to flights + airport transfers for two separate events, in most cases it’s a wash. In any case, most of the people concerned have employers foot the bill or would be eligible for a travel scholarship. The travel scholarships worked really well at the summit, and while yes, Tybee was cheap and I got us some great discounts there, we have the money to cover SF travel for those who need it. * **We can’t discuss issues with WordCamps/WCSF if it’s at WCSF because Andrea is the organizer.** I think we can all be grownups, and I know that Andrea is always up for suggestions to make the program better. * **Using Automattic’s space is a conflict of interest.** I don’t know if we’d even stick with that space for everything (renting a place with multiple rooms might be better), but I disagree with this idea. The Automattic space is used for open events all the time, and again, we’re all grownups. If we do use the space I personally guarantee that freedom of speech re Automattic would be there, no one needs to censor themselves. The people that censor themselves about that stuff do it wherever Matt is (it even happened at the summit, frankly), the room is not the real issue. * **Time Zone not EU-traveler friendly. **Would I love it if the annual conference moved each year so the burden could be better distributed? Yes, and this could be a step toward that goal if it goes well. In the meantime, skewing US isn’t about ethnocentrism, it’s about numbers (majority) of contributors and businesses based in in the western hemisphere, and the 1-trip-vs-2-trips thing. * **USA is not visa-friendly for some countries. **This is definitely true. I’m ready to start working now with people who were rejected in the past, as well as with the consulate to try and get a couple of key people here. But there will undoubtedly still be a couple who don’t make it for one reason or another. This sucks, and we’d work as hard as we could to get people here who should be. Moving the annual conference in the future to a new place each year (a la Drupalcon) would address this if we can make it happen in the future, but so does having other big events like WC Europe, which wound up functioning last year as kind of a counterpart to the SF event. * **Ignores the things team reps cited as summit must-haves at the post-wcsf dinner last year. **Yep, some of them. I was one of the people who thought those things were must-haves, too (like a cozy location that enables random conversations, a size limit, etc), but when I sat down to think about the goals of the summit( and the overall project) and what was necessary vs what was enjoyable, I had a hard time justifying  the tradeoffs. Anyone can organize an offsite retreat for an invite-only group, but unless it is just for a specific level of contributors, I don’t think it’s appropriate for the project to do so because otherwise the criteria for inclusion would necessarily be at least somewhat subjective. At the very least, I think it is worth trying it this way; if it feels like there’s a still a big hole after the event, we can revisit. That said, this is what _I_ think is right for the project, and where I think the energy should be focused right now re annual events. If someone else believes an invite-only retreat-style event is necessary for the project’s success, I wouldn’t stand in the way of someone else taking that on and pitching their ideas to Matt. We can discuss this proposal in the team chat today. [#community-summit](https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/community-summit/), [#contributor-meetup](https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/contributor-meetup/), [#events-2](https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/events-2/), [#wcsf](https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/wcsf/), [#wcsf2014](https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/wcsf2014/) * [Login to Reply](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fmake.wordpress.org%2Fcommunity%2F2014%2F04%2F17%2Fputting-more-community-in-wcsf%2F%23respond&locale=en_US)