Call for ideas: new features for our NextGen WP events central page

As the WordPress.org new design is taking shape, I’d like to open a call for ideas with this post to find the most useful and desirable features for a future homepage that would host a list of all Next Gen WordPress events, have a centralized place to find the next WP events, all open calls for speakers, sponsors, volunteers, ticket sales,… and to be able to filterFilter Filters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output. them by continent, country, language, type of event, etc.

I’d like to share The Linux Foundation Events page for reference as it contains many elements that we’re missing in the WordCamp Central Schedule page and that it would be very useful for attendees, sponsors, etc.

I’d like to highlight:

  • You can search events by name, topic, categories, country…
  • Every event in the list has a direct link to its registration page, schedule, call for speakers (if currently open), call for sponsors (if currently open), etc.
  • The top submenu includes links to the pages where someone can see all the calls for speakers currently open, all calls for sponsors currently open, etc.
  • I visualize this new homepage as a place where people can find any kind of WP event: 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, NexGen events, WP workshops,…

Ideas are welcome!

It’s our opportunity to create something that improves our current “Upcoming Events” and WordCamp Central Schedule pages and to create a more modern and usable site that can be useful to newcomers, attendees, sponsors, etc., and to promote it publicly more.

Please comment with your feedback and please add any more features that you’d like to see in this new site, thanks!

#call-for-ideas, #design, #events-2, #features, #highlight, #homepage, #new-design, #next-gen, #next-gen-events

Community Team Training

Update 28th Nov 2022: DeputyProgram 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. and Organizer Training is now rebranded as Community Team Training

We are planning to run a Zoom call every month for the Deputy Training and a mini-sprint to work on any tasks that 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. handle. The idea is to provide continuous training to deputies and to work together on the issues that require collaboration and discussion. 

The Zoom call will be an hour-long, and we will provide training on a variety of topics that deputies need to know. We will also work on any tasks that require collaboration and discussion. This will be a great opportunity for deputies to get the training they need and to work together on issues that are important to the department.

Objective

The objective of this training and sprints is to provide continuous training to community 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. and to work together on the issues that require collaboration and discussions. This will involve 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. and local chapter organizers in selected sessions for training and coaching. The goal is to provide deputies with the skills and knowledge they need to be effective leaders in their communities and to help meetup and local chapter organizers learn how to work together to resolve issues.

Format & Time

This will be a Zoom video call. The community team currently meets every first Thursday of the month. We plan to conduct this training on the third Thursday of the month at the same time as our monthly meeting.

The Zoom link for the meeting will be posted on 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/.

First session

The first session will take place on 23rd June 2022  2022/06/23 12:00 UTC. In this session, @angelasjin will join us to discuss the topic “All About Community Deputies”. The Zoom meeting link will be shared on the event day.  For a start, we will run these sessions in either APAC/EMEA OR Americas timezone.

Suggestions welcome

We will reach out to experienced deputies to share knowledge during these sessions. If you have any suggestions, feel free to comment on this post. 

2022 Goals for the Community Team: Suggestions Invited

As 2021 is slowly coming to an end (can you believe it?) it is time to start thinking about the Community Team’s goals for 2022. While 2021 felt like a continuation of 2020, we did see some exciting changes on the horizon, especially as we paved way for the return of in-person WordPress meetups, WordCamps, and do_action charity hackathons. I feel that 2022 will be a pivotal year for our team as we begin to see a return to in-person events after nearly 18 months of online events. Hence, it seems prudent that the team starts thinking of its 2022 goals early on.

This post is intended as an open thread for suggestions for our 2022 team goals. Please share your ideas on what our team should try to accomplish in 2022. Ideas that were suggested in the past and new ideas are welcome. 

As you can see in brainstorming posts from 2021, 2020, 2018, 2017, and 2016, every year we collected and shortlisted a long list of goals for our team. However, the team often fell short of meeting these goals. As we are on the cusp of a challenging (and exciting!) year, it feels more prudent to have a small set of achievable goals that will help us find a direction for our team.

While all ideas are welcome, we request you to focus on high-level goals that are achievable, which will set the direction for our growth as we step into a new year.

We will leave this post open for comments until December 6, 2021 (Monday) December 13 (Monday) to give everyone time to make their suggestions. After that, we will be organizing brainstorming sessions to summarize the suggestions and filterFilter Filters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output. them into a short set of high-level goals for our team.

If you would like to be involved in the goal setting process, please comment on this post expressing your interest, OR reach out to @sippis or @harishanker in 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/..

What would you think the Global Community TeamGlobal Community Team A group of community organizers and contributors who collaborate on local events about WordPress — monthly WordPress meetups and/or annual conferences called WordCamps. should focus on, in 2022? Let us know in the comments!

#goals #highlight #team-goals

The following fine folks contributed to this post: @angelasjin, @kcristiano, @_dorsvenabili, and @sippis

Legal protections for organizers

As the WordPress Community begins to transition to in-person events, organizers are wondering what legal protections are available to them related to COVID-19. Here are a couple of solutions!

Disclaimer on 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. Ticket Purchases

We will be adding a disclaimer to the WordCamp ticket purchase page, which will protect organizers against claims related to COVID-19. The disclaimer text will read:

An inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public place where people are present. COVID-19 is an extremely contagious disease that can lead to severe illness and death. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, senior citizens and guests with underlying medical conditions are especially vulnerable.

By attending WordCamp {city} {year}, you voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19 and waive any claims against the event organizers; volunteers; sponsors; the WordPress FoundationWordPress Foundation The WordPress Foundation is a charitable organization founded by Matt Mullenweg to further the mission of the WordPress open source project: to democratize publishing through Open Source, GPL software. Find more on wordpressfoundation.org.; WordPress Community SupportWordPress Community Support WordPress Community Support PBC is a subsidiary of WordPress Foundation. It is created specifically to be the financial and legal support for WordCamps, WordPress Meetup groups, and any additional “official” events organized within the WordPress Community Events program., PBC; and their respective affiliates.

This disclaimer will appear on the ticket purchase page for the ticket purchaser to agree to. Agreement is given by checking a box next to the disclaimer (similar to agreeing to the Code of ConductCode of Conduct “A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the norms, rules, and responsibilities or proper practices of an individual party.” - Wikipedia), before completing their ticket purchase.

We are aiming to roll this update out to WordCamp sites on Wednesday, 13 October 2021.

Insurance Policy

This year, WPCSWPCS The collection of PHP_CodeSniffer rules (sniffs) used to format and validate PHP code developed for WordPress according to the WordPress Coding Standards. May also be an acronym referring to the Accessibility, PHP, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, etc. coding standards as published in the WordPress Coding Standards Handbook. added a “communicable disease liability coverage” policy to our event insurance. This policy provides coverage to help defer any legal fees and costs related to lawsuits claiming damages due to:

  • Actual or alleged transmission of a communicable disease
  • An act, error, or omission by or on behalf of WPFWordPress Foundation The WordPress Foundation is a charitable organization founded by Matt Mullenweg to further the mission of the WordPress open source project: to democratize publishing through Open Source, GPL software. Find more on wordpressfoundation.org./WPCS in:
    • The supervision of any person who transmits, is infected with, and/or alleged to be infected with a communicable disease
    • Testing for a communicable disease
    • Actual or alleged failure to prevent the spread of a communicable disease
    • Actual or alleged failure to report a communicable disease to the authorities

This policy is currently in effect and covers all official WordCamps and WordPress Chapter 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..

Summary

These legal protections should hopefully ease the minds of organizers concerned about planning in-person WordCamps and WordPress Meetups. Please leave a comment below if you have any concerns or questions!

#policy, #wordcamps

Call for ideas: WordCamp Europe 2021 Community Team content

WordCamp Europe Online 2021 is coming soon! The event takes place 7-9 June and all Make teams have the opportunity to host some content during the event if we’d like to.

Workshops
We can apply to host a workshop or two in one of the main tracks during the event. There’s no automatically guaranteed spot in the schedule for us, all workshop applications are vetted by the content team but given a slightly higher priority.

The workshop(s) can be almost anything our team would like to host, the only restraint is that the topic needs to be related somehow to the things our team does. This can be for example traditional onboarding for new 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. organizers, thought it would be nice to come up with something that targets a larger audience.

Please share your ideas, thoughts and short preliminary workshop descriptions in the comments! Also mention if you would be willing to be one of the co-hosts in the workshop(s)

Unformal networking sessions
Another way how we can be part of the WCEUWCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event. program is by hosting one or two unformal video chat sessions (in Zoom or a similar platform provided by WCEU). These will be during the main event days and can be almost anything we would like to do. For example, hosting a live Community office hoursOffice Hours Defined times when the Global Community Team are in the #community-events Slack channel. If there is anything you would like to discuss – you do not need to inform them in advance.You are very welcome to drop into any of the Community Team Slack channels at any time. to answer all questions related to WordPress events or discussion about do_action events.

Please share your ideas and thoughts in the comments!

The deadline for workshop submissions is Friday 14 May, so please share your ideas on Thursday latest! Sorry for the short notice and time to reactReact React is a JavaScript library that makes it easy to reason about, construct, and maintain stateless and stateful user interfaces. https://reactjs.org/..

#wceu, #wceu-contributorday

Request for feedback: Review for the dedicated deputy communication channel

After the discussion on my proposal about a dedicated communication place for deputies, we agreed to experiment with a private #community-deputies channel in 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/.. In the discussion, we also agreed to do a public review after three and six months to see how the channel has worked and decide its continuation. The channel was created in December, so it’s time for the first review.

The purpose of the channel is to be a safe place for all 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. to discuss sensitive and private aspects of our work, get peer-support when needed and ask second opinions for event applications. It’s not meant for discussions that could take place in public forums like this blog, #community-team or #community-events channel.

Guidelines for the channel are:

  • As we all are busy and have an abundance of unread notifications, please avoid irrelevant chatter.
  • Help to create a safe and welcoming space for all deputies. Be empathetic and help answer questions when you can!
  • If you feel that the discussion should take place in a public forum, say it and help to move the discussion to the #community-team channel or Community Team blog.
  • Any decision making that will affect the broader community will be made in public. Help others be aware of when they might be making a decision that should happen after public discussion.

As this year has continued being really strange, I think we really can’t use many numeric metrics while reviewing the channel. That’s why I’d like us to have an open, free form, discussion. Here are some questions to help start that discussion:

  1. Has there been discussion about topics that should have been taken place in public forums instead?
  2. Have you got help with some issue in the channel, which you’d normally handled by yourself or asked help from another deputyProgram 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. in a private message?
  3. Has the channel helped you feel more connected to the team?
  4. In general, what is your feeling about the discussion that has taken place on the channel?
  5. Should we continue to keep using a private deputy channel?

Active deputies, please share your thoughts and raise new important questions to the discussion. This is also an open invitation for all community members to ask questions about the channel, which could help us with the review.

Discussion is open until 2021-03-29. If the result of the review looks like there’s no justification for private working space for deputies, the channel will be shut off at the beginning of April. In case the experiment continues, we will do another public review in three months.

Thanks to @angelasjin, @andreamiddleton and @kcristiano who helped with this post.

#slack

Meeting times starting from 2021-02-18 and Daylight Savings Time

Community Team Meeting times are changing based on the result of a poll we had some time ago. Both versions of the meetings are going to be held one hour later starting from our next meetings on 2021-02-18 (next week!). The day is not changing, it’s still the first and third Thursdays of every month.

New times for the meetings are:

Asia-Pacific / EMEA friendly meeting: 12:00 UTC
Americas friendly meeting: 21:00 UTC

Changes will be reflected in our blog, deputyProgram 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. calendar and make.wordpress.org/meetings calendar tomorrow latest. If you spot a place where old meeting times are told, please let me know in the comments.

Daylight Savings Time planning

DST is here again and some parts of the world are moving their clocks. In previous years, we have moved the meeting times accordingly one hour forward after EU/UK has started the DST on 2021-03-29.

What we should do this year, move the meeting times like we have done in the past or stick with the same UTC times regardless of DST? Please share your opinion in the comments!

#daylight-savings-time, #dst, #meeting, #meeting-time, #meeting-times

Request for Feedback: Organizing do_action and Open Source Workshops in 2021

In 2020, WordPress events adapted to online formats, including do_actiondo_action do_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. events and Open-source workshops. It took some time to figure out how to do so, but the community held 5 do_action hackathons and a handful of open-source workshops in 2020!  In moving charity hackathons and introduction to open-source workshops online, community organizers not only brought their WordPress community closer together, but they were also able to make a positive impact on their local or regional community in an exceptionally-difficult year.  

Seeing this impact, the Community team would like to help more organizers host even more of these online charity hackathons (do_action events) and Introduction to 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. workshops in 2021. This post shares some ideas around how the Community team could support do_action and Introduction to Open Source organizers… 

do_action events

Based on feedback from the community, do_action events so far have been quite impactful in how they bring participants together to help non-profits establish an online presence – something all the more significant in 2021. Here are some ideas on how the community can support do_action events:

  • Improve the online do_action event documentation: The documentation on online do_action events can be expanded to include tips on remote collaboration, using collaboration tools, remote project management etc.
  • Outreach for do_action events: This is something the Community team is equipped to do, with mentions in the Make blogs, 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. newsletters, and news posts. The Marketing team could also be very helpful with this effort.
  • Mentorship: 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. and 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. 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. could mentorEvent 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. do_action organizers.
  • Technology changes to the doaction.org website such as:
    • Adding doaction.org to Google Workspace / G Suite (so that organizers can use custom emails)
    • Modifying the do action event date section to accommodate multiple days. 
    • Moving the do_action application to doaction.org

P.S. If you would like to organize a do_action event, please send in your application through this form.

Introduction to Open-source workshops

Introduction to Open Source workshops help spread knowledge and understanding of the open web and open source. They have also been instrumental in onboarding new contributors to WordPress. With the Learn WordPress workshops on Introduction to Open-source, meetup groups could host a watch party of the recorded workshop, or organize a discussion group. Here are some ideas for organizing Introduction to Open-source workshops in 2021:

Organizers can feature these workshops and discussion groups in the WordPress foundationWordPress Foundation The WordPress Foundation is a charitable organization founded by Matt Mullenweg to further the mission of the WordPress open source project: to democratize publishing through Open Source, GPL software. Find more on wordpressfoundation.org. blogs by reaching out to the community team. Since Open-source workshops are online, there is no cost involved in organizing them, but organizers can always request paid zoom accounts for their event

Proposed Goals

Because charity hackathons and Introduction to Open Source Workshops benefit WordPress communities and beyond, I’d like to propose some goals around hosting these events:

  • There were 4 do_action events in 2020. Let’s aim for at least 8 events in 2021!
  • Organize at least 12 discussion groups based on the Introduction to Open-source workshop in 2021, held in the Learn WordPress meetup group

Request for Feedback

I would love to hear suggestions and feedback community 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. and members!

  • Do you have any suggestions, changes, or additions to the proposed goals? 
  • Can you share any ideas that you may have on improving do_action events and Introduction to WordPress workshops?
  • Do you have ideas for any new events that can be organized by the WordPress Foundation in 2021? 
  • Would you be interested in helping to implement suggestions for supporting organizers of these events??


Please share your thoughts in the comments by January 25, 2021 (Monday). 

Thank you once again for all you do to support the WordPress community in these tough times!

+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//marketing

The following people contributed to this document: @andreamiddleton @angelasjin

#wpf-events-2021 #do_action #introduction-to-open-source

Discussion: How can the WordPress Community return to hosting safe, in-person events?

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic this year, the Community Team announced that all in-person events would be online through the end of 2020, and that 2021 flagship events will be online only. All of this continues to be in effect, and the community continues to meet online only at this time. 

However, there has been promising news around some successful trials for vaccines recently! As such, it seems worthwhile to discuss how the WordPress community can return to hosting safe, in-person events. 

Any in-person event would certainly be subject to local laws and any restrictions on gatherings, as they’ve always been. Beyond what local health authorities require, the Global Community TeamGlobal Community Team A group of community organizers and contributors who collaborate on local events about WordPress — monthly WordPress meetups and/or annual conferences called WordCamps. may need to to help organizers identify what additional precautions are necessary to ensure in-person events are safe for participants. Some examples might include:

  • Mandatory masks
  • Proper social distancing practices
  • Preference for outdoor events
  • Limits on number of attendees
  • Recommending a lower percentage for venue capacity (for example, suggesting a cap of 50% of a venue’s total capacity)
  • Providing hand sanitizer at events
  • Restrictions on the length of events
  • Not providing food or drinks at events
  • Mandatory registration, so attendees can be contacted in case of exposure 
  • If there is a rise in the number of COVID cases in your area, reverting back to online events

Please share your thoughts

Please respond in the comments with your thoughts by December 16, 2020. What would the safest, in-person WordPress event look like? What do you think the WordPress Community Team can do to best support local organizers in creating safe in-person WordPress events? 

Regardless of this discussion or any subsequent decision regarding the return of in-person events, the Community Team will continue to support online events in 2021 and beyond. Thanks to our amazing community organizers for all you’ve done to help WordPress enthusiasts connect in this difficult time!

Community Team Rep Nominations for 2021

At the end of last year, @camikaos and myself (@mariaojob) were voted in as reps for 2020. It has been an insightful & fulfilling experience, and we are happy to pass the baton on to the next team reps for 2021 💯.

This post kicks off the election process with nominations to replace @camikaos and myself (@mariaojob) as Community Team Reps.

The Role

In the WordPress 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, each team has one or two (or more!) representatives, abbreviated as “reps”. On the Community team, we ask reps to commit to the role for a full calendar year.

Team reps are responsible for communicating on behalf of the group to the other contributor groups via weekly updates, as well as occasional chats. 

As a reminder, it is not called “team lead” for a reason. While the people elected as team reps will generally come from the pool of folks that people think of as experienced leaders, the 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. role is designed to change hands regularly.

This role does have a time commitment attached to it, at least one hour a week. The main tasks include:

  • Writing the agenda for the biweekly chat (example)
  • Run the chat (example)
  • Write the recap and post it in Updates
  • Keep an eye on the moving parts of the team and provide reports for quarterly updates (example).

Over the year, the team can decide to add one or two people to help, depending on how much work there is. For now, let’s get us two new reps!

How Community Team Rep elections work

Following our election process last year, the Community team is planning on these key steps: 

  1. Call for Nominations: Anyone can nominate a Community team rep! The deadline is Wednesday, November 25.
  2. Voting for Team Reps: We will open a poll for voting on Tuesday, December 1. The poll will stay open for three weeks, and close on Tuesday, December 22. We will then be able to announce our new team reps before the end of 2020! 

Call for Community Team Rep nominations!

Please nominate people for Community team rep in the comments of this post by Wednesday, November 25. Self-nominations are welcome. 

If you would like to nominate someone in private, please reach out to @mariaojob, @camikaos, or @angelasjin

If you get nominated, you do not have to say yes! We will only add people who respond positively to a nomination to the poll, so feel free to decline a nomination if you don’t feel like this is the right fit for any reason.

Finally, if you have any questions, please also feel free to ask in the comments.

#community-team, #team-reps