Maedah Batool 11:40 am on March 3, 2020  

Global Marketing Team Meeting 26 February 2020 – Notes

Introduction

Background

  • These notes cover key items and actions from the meeting and to assist with asynchronous contribution to the WordPress Global Marketing Team published on its blog.
  • We aim in the longer term to produce a short summary.
  • The current longer document is part of our work to onboard recently joined members and encourage longer term contributing and sustainability.
  • For those unable to attend a meeting due to timezone issues, please do join the discussion threads and tasks on TrelloTrello Project management system using the concepts of boards and cards to organize tasks in a sane way. This is what the make.wordpress.com/marketing team uses for example: https://trello.com/b/8UGHVBu8/wp-marketing. after the meeting and send your updates.
  • Main Marketing meeting on 26 February 2020 on Slack

Meeting led by 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.: @yvettesonneveld
Summary: @maedahbatool, @webcommsat @yvettesonneveld

Attended: (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/ IDs where advised): @maedahbatool, @JillianSMaxwell, @darls, @yvettesonneveld, @webcommsat, @antialiasfactory, @nullbyte, @gkibria69, @abdulwahab610, @oglekler, @afshanadiya, @megphillips91, @passoniate, @wpfiddlybits, @mta1, @sharaz
New contributors: welcome to @topher1kenobe

Celebration Thread/Successes This Week

Project: People of WordPress series on WordPress.org/news

Update provided by: @yvettesonneveld
Article link: https://wordpress.org/news/2020/02/people-of-wordpress-kori-ashton/

Task: Improving notes, actions, onboarding and workflow

Update provided by: @webcommsat

  • We have spent some weeks working through many of the cards on Trello. This has focused on identifying blockages and difficulties, and finding ways to move them forward as well as opportunities to help marketing team members get involved.
  • Thanks to the team reps for their input into this. Welcome to @JillianSMaxwell who has joined the notes and actions group and is working with @yvettesonneveld, @webcommsat, and @mikerbg on how we can make more use of the tools the whole team can access.
  • Thanks to everyone who has responded and to the other teams that have helped us make progress with tasks and systems.
  • Work has continued on reviewing and implementing feedback and further developing project management and systems to support the Marketing Team in its work. Thanks to @webcommsat, @yvettesonneveld, @mikerbg, @siobhanseija, @harryjackson1221, @jenblogs4u, @maedahbatool, and to previous team reps and other contributors on the wider area of work.
  • The aim of the new notes and actions is to make it:
    • more useful to team members, others in the project, WordCamps and those interested in joining as contributors
    • easier for contributors to join in with the work of the Marketing Team, promote inclusion and reduce barriers caused by different timezones and availability
    • more effective in helping other teams be aware of our work, highlight relevant streams or cards at their meetings, and give input
    • support follow-ups, longer-term planning, and strategic marketing
    • generally make the information more user-friendly.

Actions / opportunity

  • Do you have a skill in the areas above or an idea for how another’s team approach can be adapted for marketing?
  • Could you join the Notes and Actions group? Contact @webcommsat and @yvettesonneveld

Task Updates

Task: Component Maintainers Post on WordPress Marketing

Trello card: https://trello.com/c/H6sis4Az/320-component-maintainers-post
Update provided by: @JillianSMaxwell
Draft component maintainers post

Updates and actions

  • @JillianSMaxwell is working on a first draft using the information from @francina and @mikerbg. Queries have been sent to the task requester, @francina in the CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Team.
  • Input will be added by @MegPhillips91. The marketing edit/review to be done by @mikerbg and @harryjackson1221, before returning it to the Core team.
  • Social media promotion messages to be drafted after Core has approved the post. Social media input – @webcommsat and @afshanadiya.
  • Input opportunities:
    • If anyone else has experience in social media management and could assist on this or other cards, message @webcommsat
    • Component maintainers are welcome to add suggestions to this document either through the Marketing team or when it returns to Core.

Task: Proposal – Content Marketing Strategy

Task lead: @megphillips91
Trello card: https://trello.com/b/0ZCUIw4V/2020-content-marketing 

Updates

  • The working group is working on a charter document and some other items
  • New contributors welcome. Trello board has more details
  • By next week, they hope to bring a first draft of the charter to this meeting which can be read and worked on later by the larger team. Suggestions/feedback welcome in the Proposal – Content Marketing charter draft. Please use comments to add suggestions.

Contributor Events

Updates from: @webcommsat

Updates and how you can get involved

  • We received a good response from people wanting to be involved with contributor events, help new people with on-boarding and language barriers.
  • We are now seeking help with creating a way of mapping language assistance that might be available for particular contributor events which we are involved with.
  • If you are able to help with this or can help another member by being a language buddy, please contact @JillianSMaxwell, @webcommsat and @yvettesonneveld or add to the Trello card.
  • At this time, we really need language buddies who can help marketers when they are first getting started or contributing to a collaborative post.

Discussion continued about different ways marketing team members can help colleagues. If you are interested in helping explore this area within the team, these are some examples of what language buddies within the team could assist with:

  • helping translate major content pieces (e.g., we had some translate the digital citizenship story into German, Portuguese etc. so far. If you would like to translate this, let us know too. We also have a few other articles like this, e.g., the releaseRelease A release is the distribution of the final version of an application. A software release may be either public or private and generally constitutes the initial or new generation of a new or upgraded application. A release is preceded by the distribution of alpha and then beta versions of the software. schedule marketing post).
  • be willing to help work alongside other marketing contributors speaking in their native language to overcome any difficulties they are finding with using the tools etc.

Trello Cards for Contributor Events

We post cards to Trello for contributor events that will be having a marketing table and which we and the camp are able to support. If you will be attending a contributor event or are able to help/work on a task virtually or in person on the same day, please add yourself to the Trello card.

Task: Marketing table, 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. Geneva 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/. 2020 on WP Marketing

Task lead: @webcommsat, @michellebulloch
Trello card
Geneva Contributor Day 2020 link

Updates

  • We are working with WordCamp Geneva, taking place in March, on particular tasks that will be available.
  • POST-MEETING UPDATE, WordCamp Geneva has been postponed from March 2020 until later in the year.

Task: Marketing Table, WCEU 2020 Contributor Day and Contributing Area

Task lead: @webcommsat, @yvettesonneveld
Trello card: https://trello.com/c/1KagUPpT/324-marketing-table-wceu-2020-contributor-day-contributing-area

Updates

  • We have started working on the Marketing Table for Contributor Day, WordCamp Europe 2020 in June. If you have a particular idea or if you could help be a language buddy for on-boarding on the tools we use for marketing, do not hesitate in stepping forward.
  • We appreciate tickets for Contributor Day are not out yet. We will also want to help marketing members meet in smaller groups on the WCEU conference days in the Contributing Areas.
  • For supporting attendees in Persian and Turkish, @antialiasfactory volunteered.

Task: WordCamp Europe Contributor Stories

Update provided by: @webcommsat for WordCamp Europe (WCEU) Contributing Team

Updates

  • The Make WordPress Marketing Team is continuing to work with WordCamp Europe on contributor stories.
  • A call has been put out for WordPress contributors to share their stories of becoming a contributor or their favourite things about it.
  • If you have attended WCEU and would be happy to tell your story, please complete the call for stories by 10 March 2020. https://2020.europe.wordcamp.org/2020/02/15/call-for-contributor-stories/
  • If you have not attended WCEU as yet, you can also tell your story through the Marketing team. We are currently working on a similar form to help you share your contributing journey and will share this after the WCEU call for stories deadline.
  • Your stories of being a contributor will inspire others. We would love to hear from you.

Task: Video, Audio, and Lighting Tips for WordCamp Interviews

Update provided by: @webcommsat
Trello link: https://trello.com/c/5Y0pAgJM/235-blog-video-audio-and-lighting-tips-for-wordcamp-interviews

Updates and next steps

  • This has been further updated. It will now be re-reviewed by the WordPress.tv team after its meeting this week.
  • Thanks to @drbe4t and @wfckeego who have also put a lot of work into this document.
  • If there are any other experienced video or audio people in the marketing team who would like to help with expanding the conclusion in this document and finding photographs for illustration, please add a note to the card or reply to this thread.
  • This post will be published on Marketing and WordPress.tv in the middle of March, and it is hoped a condensed, adapted version will go into the handbook in April 2020.

Plugins and theme development related marketing cards

Update provided by: @webcommsat

Updates and next steps

  • The Marketing Team needs assistance from those who have particular experience or skills in identifying communications issues that may come up for 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 and theme developers.
  • We need to develop some easy scenarios to help developers in communication of potential issues and with communicate with users.
  • In the feedback from developers on these areas, it emerged that some difficulties existed on finding good practice / tips on when to communicate, identifying issues for proactive communications, and understanding the kind of scenarios which may need a considered marketing or communications approach.
  • Marketing Team members who have an understanding of plugins and themes needed to help We need to write some scenarios without scaring people, and for each one write some communications info.
  • Thanks to @mta1 for coming onboard to work on this.

Next Meeting

Wednesday 04 March 2020, 15:00 UTC, in the Marketing Channel on 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/..

Thank you everyone who has joined, attended and updated the meeting, or contributed asynchronously in the last few days.

webcommsat AbhaNonStopNewsUK 4:44 pm on December 5, 2019
Tags: WordPressRelease, WordPressUpdate   

WordPress Major Release Schedule

Stay connected

A new WordPress releaseRelease A release is the distribution of the final version of an application. A software release may be either public or private and generally constitutes the initial or new generation of a new or upgraded application. A release is preceded by the distribution of alpha and then beta versions of the software. schedule has been published with provisional dates for the next two years. Produced by the CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. team, it responds to feedback from the community to help with planning.

The timeline goes up to the end of 2021 and to a version 6.0. The dates may need to be revised when the work on the release begins, to accommodate changes in technology and the project. But this new outline of dates will give developers and other WordPress users time to be more aware of any implications for their own product timelines and work.

Be prepared

With more than 35% of the web using WordPress for their online platform, users are increasingly asking for timescale information to plan for new releases. Users may want to test and tweak their websites with new releases and this may need careful planning. It is hoped this provisional schedule will help them do this and raise awareness of future release dates.

For 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 or theme creators, this roadmap provides timeframes to help them get involved with each release’s development. It will also aid their planning for new features or testing. 

The schedule

Version Provisional release date
5.4 April 21, 2020
5.5 August 11, 2020
5.6 December 8, 2020
5.7 March 9, 2021
5.8 June 8, 2021
5.9 September 14, 2021
6.0 December 7, 2021

Find the latest release news

Please help share this provisional schedule. #WordPressRelease #WordPressUpdate

The WordPress Roadmap page which is regularly updated to help users and contributors.

You can add your comments to the WordPress Release Schedule Tentative Dates 2020-2021 post.

Stay up to date on each release through the WordPress Core Development team blog.

Or join the conversation directly and connect with more than 600 contributors who participated in the last release! 

Marketing

Thanks to contributors @mikerbg, @webcommsat, @francina, @megphillips91, @mta1 @yvettesonneveld, @OGlekler, @aurooba, @nullbyte for contributing to the marketing of this release plan.

webcommsat AbhaNonStopNewsUK 2:34 am on March 20, 2019
Tags: ,   

Why Contributing to WordPress Benefits Everyone!

WordPress is a content management system built around the culture of giving. Developers, translators, marketers, designers, and many others contribute their skills and expertise to the world-wide 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.

This widely popular platform helps millions of people across the world create websites and digital services. You can join in and contribute your time and skills like so many others, and bring benefits to you and your work too! Discover why you should become a contributor and join the international WordPress family sharing their experiences in this post.

What Is Contributing to WordPress?

There are two aspects of WordPress: WordPress.org and WordPress.com. The global open source project is WordPress.org, which everyone around the world can join in to help build, maintain and grow the platform and its digital opportunities.

The project thrives on the skills of developers, marketers, designers, translators, and many more roles. You will be able to find tasks and groups to join, developments to help plan, and be able to work with others to innovate. And while you contribute, you can benefit and learn too! Together with others, you can make the product that you use better, and network with talented and inspiring people.

Interested in joining in? Discover how you can get involved with WordPress. Read on for some personal stories about contributing to WordPress!

Who Can Contribute to WordPress?

Anyone who has knowledge about any aspect of WordPress can contribute! From full-stack developers to 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/. users, from experienced web designers to beginner graphic designers, and from marketers to community activists. They all come together to be part of an international learning, sharing, and Open Source community.

Every year, in cities across the world, thousands of people gather for one- to three-day events dedicated to the WordPress global project. These events are known as WordCamps. They are organized by the local WordPress communities and often attended by an international audience. People come together to contribute, talk and share at these events, held throughout the year. WordCamps often include a Contributor session or a whole day dedicated to both the new or long-term contributor.

Volunteers on stage at WordCamp Europe

The 170-member volunteer team assisted organizers
to coordinate the 3,000 attendees 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
(Photo courtesy of Ivan Gatic)

What Experience Will Contributing to WordPress Give You?

Contributor events last from a few hours to a full day, and can stand alone or be part of a WordCamp schedule. The best way to discover contributing is by attending one of these events or joining one of the Make WordPress teams and try it for yourself. If you are thinking about contributing, let these stories enthuse you! We’ve asked some WordPress contributors about their contributing experiences.

Giving Back to WordPress

Maziar Firuzmand, of ArtBees, said: “I was really happy with my first experience helping WordPress at WordCamp Europe in 2018, where I picked the marketing table to contribute. WordPress gave me a chance to start a business which has grown year by year, and I wanted to give back to the project with some of my time. Since then, wherever possible I have joined the contribution days at events and work with others to contribute to the marketing team.”

He added: “I have seen many people, who have different levels of engagement with using WordPress, enthusiastically come and take part in the Make WordPress teams. Many of them have full-time jobs but they are still keen to spend part of their free time contributing to WordPress.”

Maziar echoed the feedback from others attending events saying: “Contributor days are full of people who collaborate on getting things done for a software platform they like. This is accompanied with a lot of fun, chit-chat, snacks and opportunity to try different areas. WordCamp Milan was a great example of this atmosphere. You could see people organized in different teams working in harmony.”

Contributor day at WordCamp Milano 2018
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/. at WordCamp Milano 2018
(Photo courtesy of WordCamp Milano)

From Students to Experienced Professionals

Siobhan Cunningham, of Yoast, attended WordCamp Nijmegen 2018, in the Netherlands: “I had been to a few contributor days before so I was looking forward to seeing my marketing friends from different countries again, and getting more things done together! It was amazing to see a few of my Yoast colleagues, who were first-time WordCampers, really enjoying the experience too. At the Contributor event, like others, they were able to explore what team to join. Soon enough, everyone found their place. Translating, coding, planning community events, there was something to do for everyone.

Two of our interns joined the design team and had a blast! They were really enthusiastic about the people they met, the things they had learned in just one day, and especially at being able to contribute already, as students. They felt more people should know about contributing at any phase of their career.”

What Do You Get in Return for Contributing?

WordPress is driven by a commitment to open source, inclusiveness, giving and diversity. There are a lot of reasons people choose to become an active contributor. Find out how you’ll benefit from contributing to WordPress as well.

Firstly, the teams that makeup what is known as Make WordPress, have ways to thanks and recognize contributions.

Contribution Badges on Your 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/ Profile

For the contribution you make to a WordPress team, you will be awarded a contributor badge which will appear on your WordPress.org profile page. This is peer-recognition from a globally known software project which powers more than 30% of websites across the world.

The marketing badge for Make WordPress

Scott Jones, of Illustrate Digital, said: “I thought for a long time that I would have little to contribute to WordPress, until I stepped up at WordCamp US and realized I could make a difference. To top it off, I got to meet some amazing people and make some great new friends.”

He added: “Ever since then I’ve been displaying my ‘I Make.WordPress.org’ sticker with pride.”

Networking With Others in Your Field of Interest

Three contributors working on computers at Contributor Day, WordCamp Europe
Contributors working at WordCamp Europe 2018
(Photo courtesy of Mark Smallman)

The WordPress community gives you an opportunity to meet many developers, designers, marketers, and writers from across the globe. Through contributing at a WordCamp event you can get to know and share with many amazing people, networking and learning alongside them. You can also develop your skills and contribute to improving the usability and 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) of WordPress.

Access to Potential Collaborators

Piccia Neri, who since joining the community has become a MeetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. and WordCamp speaker in Spain and many other countries, said: “Contributing to the WordPress community has quite literally changed my life. When I moved to a new country, and a new city where I didn’t know anyone, volunteering with my local WordPress MeetUp gave me an instant circle of close friends, colleagues, and allies.”

She added: “Contributing also gives you access to potential collaborators, staff or contractors to work with on projects. WordCamps frequently have informal job boards showcasing the opportunities currently available in the WordPress ecosystem.

“During the course of three years, I have effortlessly created deep connections, friendships, and joint ventures across the globe. Thank you, WordPress.”

Endless Opportunities for Learning While You Work

Attendees of Delhi WordPress group listening to presenters
Delhi WordPress Meetup with Dhaka WordPress organizers
(Photo courtesy of Delhi WordPress Meetup)

Not many jobs give you the option of learning for free while you are working. In contributing you work with developers, designers and others specializing in different areas. You have the opportunity to learn more about good practices in your area of work, and of course, to take them back to your own company or team. If you’re contributing to a WordCamp Contribution session or helping one of the Make WordPress teams remotely, you have this opportunity for free.

Meeting the Most Amazing People

Maria Aragón, from ACOCO Web, said: “I volunteered to help at my first WordCamp in Soltau, Germany, when I was still very new to the community and to contributing. It gave me the chance to meet people who had been contributing for years. It was great! The amount of value, knowledge and great tips that you can learn during a WordCamp and a Contributor Event, has no parallel. I’ve been a volunteer for many different events in my life, and the WordPress community is by far one of the most talented and generous communities I’ve had the pleasure to be part of.

“Most of the people who contribute to WordPress are driven by a desire to give and to help others. This brings together really amazing people. The kind of people we all want to hang around with! And as a contributor, you get to know many of them. Being part of a group like this is always a lot of fun, it fills you with energy, and personally, it makes me very happy.”

Taking Part in Collaborative Working

Some of the Contributor Day tables, filled with volunteers improving WordPress, at WordCamp Europe 2018
Contributor Day at WordCamp Europe 2018
(Photo courtesy of Val Vesa for WordCamp Europe 2018)

If you are running or involved in a remote tech business of any kind, being a WordPress contributor can be a great opportunity for you to learn and execute remote collective working practices in action, for free. You can learn more about what it takes to participate, organize or run different teams across a range of areas as well as lead, collaborate and facilitate workflow.

As WordPress is a global project, being involved in its community promotes cross-cultural harmony and understanding.

Improve Team Working Skills

Naoto Egusa, from Japan, has attended Contributor Days across the world, said: “Through the WordPress community, I have been able to advance my skills and knowledge of how to work in broader teams, particularly across time zones and cultures. It has helped in maintaining my skills during my break from work, and given me new opportunities.

“Patience, understanding, and collaboration are something we often need to practice. The WordPress community can give you great strength in learning how to work with others from countries and cultures which are not the same as your own. This itself fosters new ideas and advances.”

Ready to Contribute to WordPress?

There is no set requirement for how much time you should put into contributing to single or multiple teams. It can range from a couple of hours in a single contributor session to a weekly commitment. It can also vary at different stages of your life and career.

The two main ways to get involved are through a WordCamp contribution session or by choosing a Make WordPress team to work with remotely.

You can discover more about the teams through the Make WordPress pages on WordPress.org. All you need to do is find a team, or teams, in which you are interested. It is easy to get started. Each team has its own tools and workflow process. You can also approach team representatives and deputies who help coordinate tasks and workflow and ensure people are welcomed. They will be pleased to provide support.

What Can You Do Next?

Becoming a contributor can help you make the most of your career regardless of which area and level you are currently working. WordPress gives you the perks of a perfect job, such as reputation, learning, networking and co-working opportunities, without having to move from your existing job and at a time which suits you.

It is not only people who run businesses and careers around WordPress that can benefit from contributing to it. Everyone who specializes in an area related to technology and wants to support Open Source platforms and community-based software, can gain significantly from contributing to the WordPress community.

Your journey can start today, visit make.wordpress.org and find out how you would like to take part.

Read More!

If you would like to learn more about the WordPress community and how people around the world use WordPress, here are some useful resources.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to @abhanonstopnewsuk and @antialiasfactory for developing and writing this feature, and to all those who contributed or were interviewed. Images courtesy of photographers at WordCamps Europe and Milan, and WordPress Delhi. Thanks to @siobhanseija, @maedahbatool, and @michelleames for their contributions.

Thanks to @webcommsat, @danmaby, and @Rubio for producing the video interview with Gary Jones at WordCamp London. This is part of a series of contributor interviews to be featured by the Make WordPress marketing team.

#contributing, #contributor-day

Bridget Willard 2:25 am on November 29, 2018  

These videos need subtitling — And you can help!

By subtitling some of the videos on WordPress.tv, you can contribute to the WordPress Project. Help us extend the reach of this amazing library of resources on WordPress.tv. The talks are well worth it!

Thousands of useful and fascinating videos can be found at WordPress.tv from the range of talks held at WordCamps and other WordPress-related events. Think of meetups, interviews, testimonials, WordPress Translation Days, and so on. Did you know that there are close to 10,000 videos on WordPress.tv? That’s a serious archive right there. Started in January 2009, we’ve come a long way.

You can choose from an online collection of interesting presentations and interviews filmed across the world. Through these free to access videos, you can share in the experience of WordCamps and other WordPress-related events. By subtitling some of the videos, you can contribute. Help us extend the reach of this amazing library of resources on WordPress.tv. The talks are well worth it!”

People from across the WordPress community donate their time and skills to present these talks. From developers and designers to content creators and community representatives. These professionals and enthusiasts share their experiences and knowledge freely with others. That’s 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.! The volunteer WordPress.tv team support WordCamps and the community on making these videos available and managing the resource.

These videos also need subtitling. And that’s where you could join in! Subtitling is important and you can contribute without needing any coding skills.

Why do WordPress.tv videos need subtitles?

There are so many wonderful and informative videos published on WordPress.tv. Unfortunately, only a very small number of them offer subtitles. Why does that matter?

1) Foremostly, a subtitled video is more accessible. Subtitles assist people with hearing difficulties to share the experience of the talk and access the information within it.

“Being deaf/hard of hearing means there is certain information I struggle to access… accurate subtitles/captions and good quality audio is essential for me in order to be able to consume video/audio-based content. Too many times I have had to cancel listening to a podcast or watching a video on the web within seconds after starting because of the audio or lack of captions or transcripts. The learning experience can be a hugely frustrating one if what I want to learn is not accessible to me.” 

Ahmed Khalifa, 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. Organizer

2) The text can enable people to watch a video without needing sound. This can be, for instance, when accessing it at work or on the train.

3) Subtitles could also be translations. They help people that don’t fully understand the talk in its original language. For instance, an English talk could also have French subtitles.

4) Subtitles can reinforce professional development opportunities and with deciphering unfamiliar jargon or terms. WordPress.tv video segments are used by some WordPress Meetups. Subtitles can help with access for their audiences, general learning, and aid participation.

5) The subtitled text can also be used on other channels if the video or part of it is featured as part of a WordCamp promotion on other video platforms, such as Vimeo or YouTube.

Creating Subtitles is Easy

You don’t need specific skills or experience to contribute subtitles. It’s easy as this:

  • Choose a Video
  • Create the Caption File
  • Submit File to WordPress.tv team for Review

As the WordPress Marketing team, we will be featuring useful videos of WordCamp talks during the next months. We hope that doing so will, among other things, inspire more people to join in and subtitle videos on WordPress.tv. Let’s make these videos more accessible so they reach a wider audience!

Great subtitling tools are available at no cost, like Amara.org. Amara offers an easy interface in which you can enter subtitles and set the correct timings while watching the video. It’s also easy to use when creating subtitles in a different language than the video is in.

How to create subtitles for WordPress.tv

The WordPress.tv team has done a great job explaining how to add captions or subtitles to a WordPress.tv video already. Here’s a great short video that walks you through the steps of subtitling for WordPress.tv.

Quite easy right? Amara lets you save your progress so you can get back to it at any time. That way, even if you only have a few minutes to spare, you can add another few lines of subtitles.

At the moment, the WordPress.tv team is uploading videos to YouTube as well. YouTube adds automatically generated subtitles, which can be edited afterward. This could make things a lot easier! Check out the WordPress YouTube channel.

Subtitles or translations?

For subtitling, all you need to do is watch the video and write the lines that you hear, in the language they’re spoken. If you are so inspired by the video talk, you can add a translation too! A lot of videos on WordPress.tv are English spoken. Adding other language transcripts increases 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) and usability for these wonderful resources.

Getting started

Subtitling is a flexible way of contributing. You can work on specific subtitles when and where you want to. You could work on them for a couple of hours or for ten minutes at a time. The length of videos also differs: short and long are videos available for subtitling. Take your pick!

Visit WordPress.tv, find a video that you enjoy and get started. Of course, it’s a good idea to check if the video has already been subtitled. Most of them aren’t, which is why it would be great to have you helping out.

We will be featuring regular blog posts on the Make WordPress Marketing blog (link: https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/) that highlight videos from WordPress.tv.

Thanks to @siobhanseija and @webcommsat for this blog series and leading the project. Thanks to @casiepa and @drbe4t for their input. Thank you to all those who are subtitling the WordPress.tv videos.

Mike Reid 2:34 pm on November 14, 2019
Tags: #5-3, WordPress5.3   

WordPress 5.3 “Kirk” releases with help from our largest contributor team ever

WordPress is thrilled to announce the releaseRelease A release is the distribution of the final version of an application. A software release may be either public or private and generally constitutes the initial or new generation of a new or upgraded application. A release is preceded by the distribution of alpha and then beta versions of the software. of 5.3 “Kirk”, which was created by our largest and most diverse contributor team ever! No less than 645 amazing volunteers from 56 countries helped put together this release.

Graph showing the number of contributors by country.
The WordPress Team for the 5.3 “Kirk” release was the largest ever in terms of the number of contributors working on the release. More than 645 contributors from over 56 countries participated in the release!

Introducing Twenty Twenty

Kirk includes more than 150 new features and a new default theme, Twenty Twenty. It also addresses more than 650 bugs and improves seven coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. blocks, making it one of the most impactful releases ever.

Read the full list of changes in the WordPress 5.3 release announcement post: https://wordpress.org/news/2019/11/kirk/

With the new enhancements to the BlockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. Editor, you can use your imagination to share your ideas and content. Whether marketer or musician, we all love the flexibility to be creative. Much like Kirk, who could play multiple instruments and often paired them together to make new combinations, the new Group Block lets content creators combine blocks and pair them together to create new and beautiful designs with ease. Creating content has never been more effortless.

Download WordPress 5.3: https://wordpress.org/download/

Still using the Classic Editor? 

Start using the Block Editor today and experience new publishing freedom. You will be able to create more beautiful content with less effort and technical knowledge. Experience the magic of blocks today!

Try GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/: https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ 

Upgrade to WordPress 5.3

Kirk is the most intuitive version of WordPress and performs beautifully right out of the box, with a gorgeous Gutenberg-ready theme and native blocks to create anything you can imagine. Upgrade quickly and easily by clicking the update button in your WordPress dashboard.

Experience Twenty Twenty: https://wordpress.org/themes/twentytwenty/ 

Marketing Contributors

Special thanks to all of the contributor teams that made WordPress 5.3 possible! In particular we would like to recognize the Marketing contributors for the 5.3 release:

Mike Reid, Sebastian Koch, Aurooba Ahmed, Meg Phillips, Yvette Sonneveld, Olga Gleckler, Abha Thakor, Mike Allen

Contributor data provided by Jb Audras.

Please share this post using #WordPress5.3 !

#5-3

Bridget Willard 7:01 pm on November 7, 2018  

How to Create a Business Website with WordPress

Is having an online presence important or useful for your organization? Let’s talk about how to create a business website using WordPress.

Is having an online presence important or useful for your organization? Then creating a business website is one of the first steps you will take. It is one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to find clients both locally and around the world.

So how do you actually create a website?  We will take you through the ten key steps.

First, let us look at why you should build your business website using WordPress.org. 

Why you should create your business website with WordPress

WordPress is one of the most trusted and used Content Management Systems (CMS) and platforms in the world. Reasons for choosing WordPress include:

  • 31% of all websites run on WordPress. With nearly two billion websites in the world, that is a lot of users putting their confidence in WordPress.
  • Websites small and large use WordPress. From personal blogs to large newsgathering sites like CNN, WordPress can handle all types of sites.
  • Get the look you want. You can create a unique style for your website by utilizing thousands of free and paid themes available for WordPress.
  • Huge community available to support you. WordPress users can access help and support from one of the largest 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. communities consisting of developers, writers, editors, and designers. You will find no end to the amount of assistance available in the community’s support forumSupport Forum WordPress Support Forums is a place to go for help and conversations around using WordPress. Also the place to go to report issues that are caused by errors with the WordPress code and implementations. https://en.forums.wordpress.com/..

If you are a small business operating on a tight budget, using WordPress helps you build an online presence more easily. The WordPress Open Source CMS is free to download and use. You need to pay for your domain, hosting, and maintenance (if you choose to hire a developer).

You also have the option to join an amazing network of people by contributing to one of the WordPress groups. These groups are organized at https://make.wordpress.org/

Now that you have chosen WordPress to help run the website for your organization, we will explore what you will need to build it.

Create Your Domain Name and Business Email

A domain name is the website ‘name’ or the web address where users can visit your site, like www.yourcompany.com. There are a variety of top-level domains available. These can be country-specific and have a suffix like .com, .uk, .ie or represent the type of organization for example .biz, .org

Many domains will have an option for you to choose an email address which uses your website address, for instance, hello@yourcompany.com

An email address where prospective clients or customers can contact you is a vital part of having an online presence. It may not look as professional if you use a personal email address.

You can purchase a domain name through a domain name registrar. There are a number of registrars available. Each one is equipped with its own set of features and comes with a number of advantages and disadvantages. Once you have identified the one that fits your organization, you can pay to register your domain name for a set period, from a year to a maximum available from that particular registrar.

Domain Name Registrar

Many of the domain name registrars will also offer email addresses for your business at an additional cost. While you are viewing the benefits of each registrar it is a good idea to see which email package fits what you require based on the number of accounts you can create and amount of storage you might need.

Now that you have your name and contact details set up, it is time to think about exactly what you want from your website.

What does Your Website Offer?

It can be beneficial for an organization to have an online presence. But do you know what you want it to achieve?

A starting point is to consider what makes your offering unique. In other words, why will people want to buy your products or services? One of the best ways to do this is to write one clear sentence outlining your company’s value proposition.

The next step is to plan what your website will include. This can include text, images, selling or sign-up options. Make a list of the features and functionality you will need. Do you need an FAQ page to answer complex questions? What about a blog? Do you need an eCommerce option to make online sales? Do you need a contact form?

At the top of this list should be what you will include on your homepage. It can’t have everything so you will need to choose what elements are the most important to your organization. This can be by considering what will maximize customer conversions – whether that is for sales, leads, subscribers or anything else

This screenshot shows how you can add pages to your website using WordPress.

What is your branding?

A strong brand is important for businesses of all sizes. It improves recognition of your organization and fosters confidence in it which, in turn, can generate more repeat customers.

The first step is to design your logo which is consistent with your existing brand or helps you define one for your company. If you do not have an offline logo you can adapt for the web, you can either design one yourself using a graphic editors or hire a design agency or freelancer. The style and wording that form part of a logo are aimed at reflecting your business and its offerings. You will want your logo to reflect your company in a meaningful way and this can be discussed and developed as you explore what you want through the design process.

Another factor to take into account is your logo’s color — something you will also need to think about for the website as a whole. Different colors create different emotions for customers. Are you creating a youthful brand or one that is a bit more mature? Your color palette can help you develop and market your brand.

Web colors are different than the ones you work with offline. There are a number of online palette tools which can help you choose web-friendly and accessible colors, find schemes which are close to your printed publication ones, and better understand how different audiences may reactReact React is a JavaScript library that makes it easy to reason about, construct, and maintain stateless and stateful user interfaces. https://reactjs.org/. to your choices.

How will you build your site?

There are two general approaches to building your business website — either doing it yourself or hiring a developer to help with part or the entire project.

If your knowledge of coding is mainly basic HTMLHTML HTML is an acronym for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is a markup language that is used in the development of web pages and websites. and CSSCSS CSS is an acronym for cascading style sheets. This is what controls the design or look and feel of a site., you can build your business website using WordPress or using a drag and drop WordPress page builder. Page builders allow you to customize much of your website without having to write complex coding yourself. However, while page builders are much more powerful nowadays, they still come with some limitations.

Page builders

The new WordPress Editor named GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ has features aimed at supporting you in developing your website pages and posts through the use of blocks.

Gutenberg and WordPress


If you have limited time and would like to work alongside a web specialist, you can hire a developer, web designer, or a web content builder familiar with using the WordPress CMS. When hiring a developer, make sure they have have a track record of building reliable, fast websites, is aware of mobile-design and has an understanding of search engine optimization (SEO).

Who will host your website?

You will need a hosting space for your website. This is where the website will live.

Before selecting a host, carry out some research on what might best fit your organization’s needs. There are generally three main factors to consider when picking a host:
● speed
● customer support
● uptime

You can start by reviewing the hosts recommended by 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/.

Hosting

What will your website look like?

Think about the look and feel you want to have for your website look and and how it is going to fit in or change your existing organization’s branding.

On WordPress you can browse through thousands of themes to select one which will help your website content stand out. In the Theme Directory, you can find out more about each theme, whether it is compatible with your version of WordPress and the experience of other users. Here are some factors to consider when picking your theme and theme provider:

● is it being regularly maintained?
● are other users of the theme satisfied with what it offers?
● does it support your chosen plugins?
● will it help make your website easier to find by search engines (more on this later)?

WordPress Theme Directory

What content will you add to your website?

Good content is what brings people to your website, stay there, and eventually make a purchase or build their relationship with your organization. This is why you will need to plan the information and how it is structured. Here are some things to think about:

  • What information do you want your customers to find on your homepage? In WordPress you have lots of options from a static homepage with a welcome message to a series of blog posts and sections showcasing your products or services
  • What will appear on the landing pages (the webpage visitors reach when they follow an external link to your website)?
  • What is the strategy for the type and style of your regular articles? These may be in the form of a blog or updates to your news pages
  • When creating content, think about how people will find your information when they are searching the internet (more on search engine optimization below).

How will your website be found?

How do you get people to find your site in the first place so that you can engage with them and encourage them to spend time on the content you are providing?

Developing a solid search engine optimization (SEO) strategy is vital. There are lots of good templates available which can be adapted for an organization’s needs and incorporate useful tips from members of the WordPress community. By following a SEO strategy, you will be helping potential customers find your website through their online searches, which in turn can improve your sales conversions and increase brand awareness.

There are two avenues you can go down to increase search traffic: paid or organic.

  • Paid search involves an advertising budget to increase a search engine result when someone types in a word or phrase.
  • Organic search is based on publishing content using good SEO practices.

An effective way to organically optimize your results is by researching “long tail keywords.” To illustrate, a shoe company may want to rank first for “shoes” as may thousands of other firms. Given the popularity of the keyword “shoes,” you would need to spend a lot of money to rank well for that specific term.

A better option would be to target long tail keywords, for example, “women’s white air force 1s.” The keyword “shoes” will have more searches, but the consumers typing in “women’s white air force 1s” are much more likely to make a purchase. If your search engine strategy involves paying for Google Ads, it can be cheaper to pay for long tail keywords than a keyword like “shoes.”

Google Ads

Once you have planned your keywords, you can also plan how they link with each other. A URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org map (also known as keyword mapping) can help:

  • your visitors in their journey around your site
  • encourage visitors to explore material you have linked together
  • help search engines in mapping the usefulness of your information, pages and posts
  • assist you in developing new content and promotion opportunities as the maps can help identify what other pages should link to each other and the keywords you are using on different pages.

Can your website scale?

Now that you have your SEO strategy planned, you will need to ensure that your website is capable to support your needs in delivering it.

WordPress plugins are like apps which you can use to add new features and functionality to your website. Plugins need regular updates to gain new functionality and to help keep your website secure.

SEO Plugins 


Your first step could be to install an SEO 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 to assist you in maintaining your website SEO by:

  • optimizing your content
  • giving you more control of your breadcrumbs (navigation paths which appear at the top of your page and help search engines understand your website’s structure
  • allowing you to set SEO metaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress.-info for pages and archives
  • and through a number of other functions.

The screenshot above shows examples of the plugins you can use on WordPress to boost your SEO.

Once you have set up your website, you can build and submit your sitemap to Google, Bing, Yahoo (via Bing) and other search engines to make it easier for them to find your site’s pages.

How can you optimize your site?

All that hard work of attracting customers to your website can be diminished if it performs poorly. Users are often only willing to give you seconds of their time before leaving a web page.

Here are just some of the checks you can make to help your website run smoothly.

  • check your images are web-friendly in size and number to avoid users having to wait a long time for the page to load
  • put in security protection to mitigate against hacks and malware which could slow down your site
  • ask if your host can add an SSLSSL Secure Socket Layer - Encryption from the server to the browser and back. Prevents prying eyes from seeing what you are sending between your browser and the server. licence to your site to help protect your users if you are using forms and collecting personal data
  • identify WordPress plugins tested for monitoring or improving website performance
  • avoid lots of plugins that you don’t need which will have an adverse effect on loading times
  • find out how visitors with 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) needs use your website and make it easier for them.

If you are not experienced in web development, you can talk with a professional web developer to help optimize your website’s performance.

Conclusion

Following these introductory 10 steps will help you highlight your business to new audiences and customers. By using WordPress, once you have your basic site you can add more features and content to expand your online presence.

Get started today by downloading WordPress.org and enjoy building your new site.

WordPress.org download

Credits

Thanks to @joelobo and @webcommsat for writing this guide, and the businesses that worked with them. Also thanks to @mcdwayne, @harryjackson1221, and @bridgetwillard of the marketing team for their contributions to it.

Mike Reid 3:30 pm on November 7, 2019
Tags: , ,   

Help promote the 2019 WordPress User Survey!

It is time for the 2019 WordPress User Survey, and the Marketing team is asking for your help in promoting the survey! We have compiled some content to promote the survey through social media, news blurbs, and news letters. We would greatly appreciate your help in spreading the message through contributors and partner’s channels.

Newsletter copy businesses can use to promote the survey

We use WordPress everyday and so do you! The 2019 WordPress User Survey is a fantastic opportunity for all of us to influence the future of WordPress. We encourage you to take the survey and add your voice; whether you’re a user, developer, designer, content creator, or business owner! Take the survey here: https://wordpress.org/news/2019/11/2019-annual-survey/

Social Media blurbs for Survey takers 

Social Media blurbs for Community Organizers

Please feel free to come by the #marketing channel for any questions/comments/or just to say hello.

webcommsat AbhaNonStopNewsUK 9:14 am on October 2, 2019  

Marketing team meeting September 25, 2019

2019/09/25

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/. Timestamp: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C0GKJ7TFA/p1569420109202500

  1. Attendance: 
    1. @mikerbg @michelleames @DijanaMuzhdeka @mapk @yvettesonneveld @karmatosed @webcommsat @jenblogs4u @nullbyte @maedahbatool @Maziar @scottjones

2) Notes

  • Notetakers: @webcommsat and @yvettesonneveld
  • Ideas:
    • in the future, attendees will be asked to add 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/ ID to their attendance confirmation if it is different to their Slack ID. This will assist notetakers.suggestion to be trialled: members attending the meeting, if they wish, to add their local time and time zone in relation to UTC, the common time zone used in the project. This is to support awareness of time zones of participants and to aid team working.
  • Update on Notes of meetings:
    • @yvettesonneveld and @webcommsat are working on options to make the meeting notes more effective and useful for both new members, those who may be contributing async, members unable to attend and seeking to catch up on actions, other teams and external audiences.
    • in the interim, a more streamlined minutes will be produced with a link to the full notes on Slack. The Google documents notes from the last meeting were available on the drive for members to read and this link was shared. Last week’s meeting was unusual as it had virtually two sub-meetings taking place within it in addition to normal updates. The notes are therefore quite extensive. Thank you to @webcommsat

3) New members welcomed

– @mapk ; @DijanaMuzhdeka joined from her first 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/. at 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. Nijmegen

4) Celebration thread

  • Slack training for supporting new contributors
    • Event: An example of a MeetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. based Slack training has been piloted at WP-Pompey in the UK. This will produce feedback to work in Make WordPress and community on ways to improve the onboarding / tool familiarization for new contributors. Thanks to Drew Westacott and xxx for other teams working on ideas for a template.Outcomes: Many of the useful tips shared in this training and its structure could be adapted for contributor events. Potential follow-ups: A potential marketing idea is to encourage local Meetups to do Slack training before a Contributor Day in the area to enable new attendees to benefit more and move to tasks earlier. Action: If anyone else runs sessions on using Slack which could be shared, add it to the onboarding cards on the Marketing TrelloTrello Project management system using the concepts of boards and cards to organize tasks in a sane way. This is what the make.wordpress.com/marketing team uses for example: https://trello.com/b/8UGHVBu8/wp-marketing.. We learnt a lot about how some of this can help at contributor events too and make slack more fun to get to grips with. (Update from @webcommsat)
  • Event: Marketing Table, Contributor Day WordCamp Nijmegen 2019 last weekend. 
  • Event: Virginia Beach WordPress Meetup 
    • Outcomes: Through marketing this is gaining momentum with attendance averaging 15 people each meeting. A good result for a new group (Update from @mikerbg)

5) WordPress 5.3 ReleaseRelease A release is the distribution of the final version of an application. A software release may be either public or private and generally constitutes the initial or new generation of a new or upgraded application. A release is preceded by the distribution of alpha and then beta versions of the software. – Marketing planning

5.3 Release Communication Update

This update comes from the 2019/09/25 Marketing team meeting. An agenda will be posted on 30 September for the 2019/10/03 meeting. 

5.3 Release Collaboration Meeting Objective

Objective: to use this meeting to review this document and review the proposed edits. We have had a lot of great feedback from other teams, many of whom have helpfully added content directly about their components.

On Monday, the expected Beta2 release, we will start the process over. This will be an iterative process as we approach release, but things get more and more stable as we approach the main release. (Update @miker)

Overall focus of the release

In the 2019/09/18 Marketing meeting, a number of questions were raised regarding the “main focus” of the release. This was clarified on 2019/9/20 by @francina:

GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ definitely deserves a very important place in the list of features but IMHO is not the main focus of the release. Nor is the theme, again according to me 🙂 As we said in the launch of the release cycle the focus is “polishing current interactions and make the UIs more user friendly”. If I had to sum it up, I would say that 5.3 is a release focused on enhancements, from Gutenberg, to a new default theme to media library. What do you think?

About Page Collaboration and Feedback

A major focus of the Marketing meeting was revising the current draft collaboration document. A number of feedback items have been incorporated over the last week. We reviewed the feedback and made a number of changes, while adding comments for further discussion. This is a work in progress and iterative document:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PW52syWz1bksFInmgczZA5OKhEGjM2dXGwNA6A5tl-M/edit# 

Suggestions from the team:

  • @yvettesonneveld suggested a readability check in the Hemingway app to make sure the reading level is at or below grade 8. @miker ran the current copy through the app and found it is currently at a 9th grade level;
  • @audrasjb requested a specific section be added on 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), which was endorsed by @francina;
  • @karmatosed raised concerns that the current document did not accurately reflect the full range of Gutenberg enhancements for the release. @youknowriad agreed and added in a list of main features, as well as starter
  • @mikerbg will compile an update on the current status of the About page to share with the major releaseMajor Release A set of releases or versions having the same major version number may be collectively referred to as “X.Y” -- for example version 5.2.x to refer to versions 5.2, 5.2.1, and all other versions in the 5.2. (five dot two dot) branch of that software. Major Releases often are the introduction of new major features and functionality. team.

Images / Feature Illustration

Points on GIFs:

  • @mapk raised a number of points related to the animated GIFs currently in the About Page collaboration doc, and added specific comments directly in the collaboration doc. The GIFs were made at an earlier stage and no longer completely reflect the current stage. Feature behavior or UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing. is slightly outdated in these GIFs;
  • @mapk did not think there was a formal process for creating these images. They had been created by a few of the Devs in local environments. He offered to provide the GIFs if we continue in this direction. He advised that to his knowledge there is not currently a guide or process for making these images. He has used LICEcap or Monosnap to create them in the past;
  • @webcommsat suggested the conversation on a guide for creating or requesting GIFs should be a conversation initially with the Design and the Accessibility teams. There has been information from the Accessibility team previously to help particular WordCamps before, there may be more resources. Checking with these times would be better and could potentially save time;
  • @karmatosed raised the concern that the impact of GIFs should be looked at collectively to consider their combined impact. She also stressed the importance of collaboration with the Design team on the overall direction of the design.

The conversation will be continued in the existing tracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. thread: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/47708 

The meeting ended without consensus on the next steps. @mikerbg expressed that his objective was to follow the lead of the Design team, and was approaching the task with the idea that flexibility was required as there will be multiple revisionsRevisions The WordPress revisions system stores a record of each saved draft or published update. The revision system allows you to see what changes were made in each revision by dragging a slider (or using the Next/Previous buttons). The display indicates what has changed in each revision. needed as we approach release.

5.3 and Social Media

As we approach the 5.3 release, we have had a number of conversations about using various social media channels to spread the message. This raised a number of questions about the current channels, and how we can interact with those:

  • a draft document was started by Maziar bringing together some of the general ideas for more proactively posting on social media. This was a starter which members were invited to add to and to make it more specific to the Marketing Team. The more time sensitive task was the survey to encourage members’ contribution and ideas (more in the minutes from last week’s meeting). Maziar working on a draft survey and to report back next meeting. 
  • For the next few weeks, we focus on helping to generate some post ideas for the 5.3 release and the Digital Citizenship week content specifically.
  • @webcommsat: We need a separate document on social media messages for the release. Perhaps this could be done on a Google sheet so that we can re-tailor messages for the different social media accounts. This would also make it easier for members to take messages and use them on their own social channels. @@mikerbg will create this doc within the Marketing google drive and share the link in the marketing channel on Slack.

This conversation is ongoing.

6) Marketing Communication and Next Steps

Background:

  • In a number of weekly marketing and more detailed meetings, work has started on ways to improve shared understanding and communication flow within the marketing team, how it communicates to other teams and wider external audiences, and responding to feedback from members, from contributor events and other teams.
  • This includes how we record meeting notes, communicate project status, and provide a roadmap of planned next steps.
  • This conversation is in conjunction with the wider strategic re-organization of marketing processes already under discussion.

Actions: @webcommsat was asked to develop some options. She is also gathering further examples and will have conversations with @yvettesonneveld and @mikerbg, @maedah, gathering input from others too, and incorporating feedback from members and at WordCamp contributor events. The main immediate action item is to treat the marketing meeting notes more as a high level overview of activity, instead of a granular “transcript” of the meeting, retaining a link to the full discussion in Slack. A summary of this will be posted at the next meeting on Wed 2 October 2019.

Mike Reid 5:03 pm on September 27, 2019
Tags:   

Summary of WordPress Marketing Team 5.3 Discussion – Sept 25

This update comes from the 9/25 Marketing team meeting. An agenda will be posted on 9/30 for the 10/3 meeting. 

5.3 ReleaseRelease A release is the distribution of the final version of an application. A software release may be either public or private and generally constitutes the initial or new generation of a new or upgraded application. A release is preceded by the distribution of alpha and then beta versions of the software. Collaboration Meeting Objective

The objective was for us to use this meeting to review this doc, and review the proposed edits. We have had a lot of great feedback from other teams, many of whom have helpfully added content directly about their components.

Overall focus of the release

In the 9/18 Marketing meeting, a number of questions were raised regarding the “main focus” of the release. This was clarified on 9/20 by @francina:

GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ definitely deserves a very important place in the list of features but IMHO is not the main focus of the release. Nor is the theme, again according to me 🙂 As we said in the launch of the release cycle the focus is “polishing current interactions and make the UIs more user friendly”. If I had to sum it up, I would say that 5.3 is a release focused on enhancements, from Gutenberg, to a new default theme to media library. What do you think?

About Page Collaboration and Feedback

A major focus of the marketing meeting was revising the current draft collaboration doc. A number of feedback items have been incorporated over the last week. We reviewed the feedback and made a number of changes, while adding comments for further discussion. This is a work in progress and iterative document:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PW52syWz1bksFInmgczZA5OKhEGjM2dXGwNA6A5tl-M/edit#  

@yvettesonneveld suggests we do a readability check in Hemingway app and make sure the reading level is at or below grade 8. @miker ran the current copy through the app and found it is currently at a 9th grade level.

@audrasjb requests a specific section be added on 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), which @francina endorses.

@karmatosed raised concerns that the current document did not accurately reflect the full range of Gutenberg enhancements for the release. @youknowriad agreed and added in a list of main features, as well as starter copy.

@miker stated he would compile an update on the current status of the About page to share with the major releaseMajor Release A set of releases or versions having the same major version number may be collectively referred to as “X.Y” -- for example version 5.2.x to refer to versions 5.2, 5.2.1, and all other versions in the 5.2. (five dot two dot) branch of that software. Major Releases often are the introduction of new major features and functionality. team.

Images / Feature Illustration

@mapk raised a number of points related to the animated gifs currently in the About Page collaboration doc, and added specific comments directly in the collaboration doc. The gifs were made at an earlier stage, and no longer completely reflect the current stage. Feature behavior or UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing. is slightly outdated in these gifs.

Per @mapk, there is no formal process for creating these images. They were created by a few of the Devs in local environments. He offered to provide the gifs if we continue in this direction.

@mapk advised that to his knowledge there is not currently a guide or process for making these images, but that he uses LICEcap or Monosnap to create them in the past.

@abhanonstopnewsuk suggests we start this conversation with the Design and the Accessibility teams on what guidance/ info they have on creating GIFs.  I think I have seen something on GIFs from accessibility team before to help WordCamps before. Think it may be worth a check with them first and save a lot of time too.

@karmatosed raised the concern that the impact of gifs should be looked at collectively to consider their combined impact. She also stressed the importance of collaboration with the design team on the overall direction of the design.

The conversation will be continued in the existing trac thread: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/47708 

The meeting ended without consensus on the next steps. @miker expressed that his objective was to follow the lead of the design team, and was approaching the task with the idea that flexibility was required as there will be multiple revisionsRevisions The WordPress revisions system stores a record of each saved draft or published update. The revision system allows you to see what changes were made in each revision by dragging a slider (or using the Next/Previous buttons). The display indicates what has changed in each revision. needed as we approach release.

Social Media

As we approach the 5.3 release, we have had a number of conversations about using various social media channels to spread the message. This raised a number of questions about the current channels, and how we can interact with those.

@Maziar created a doc for use as a starting point when looking at various social channels: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15Y3EF-B-RU0YwB-_3iO1XVPMVtOkRqbD4GwK7Xrddv0/edit# 

From @abhanonstopnewsuk: We need a separate document on social media messages, perhaps this could be done on a Google sheet so that we can retailor messages for the different social media accounts. This would also make it easier for members to take messages and use them on their own social channels.

@miker will create this doc within the Marketing google drive and share the link in the #marketing channel.

This conversation is ongoing.

Marketing Release Communication and Next Steps

Outside of the public marketing meeting, we have had a number of conversations about improving clarity and communication coming from the marketing team. This includes how we record meeting notes, communicate project status, and provide a roadmap of planned next steps. This conversation is in conjunction with the largest strategic re-organization of marketing processes already under discussion.

@abhanonstopnewsuk organized the conversations with @yvettesonneveld and @miker. The main immediate action item is to treat the marketing meeting notes more as a high level overview of activity, instead of a granular “transcript” of the meeting. We will still link to the full conversation 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/., but will focus the notes more on the take aways and outcomes. We will also work more to vet the information going out in the marketing notes, instead of just reposting what was said in the channel to ensure consistency with broader communication from other teams.

In addition, we are moving to publish a formal agenda in advance of the meeting. Historically, we have used the same meeting agenda every meeting, and relying on task leads to communicate activity and needed input on their specific initiatives. While this is important, and we will continue to rely heavily on individual task leads, we will be proactive communicating specific agenda items and discussions as far in advance as feasible.

This will hopefully make it much easier for other stakeholders within WordPress to be aware of where and when specific conversations will happen. The goal is for all stakeholders to be able to attend conversations relevant to their specific initiatives.

Bridget Willard 6:55 pm on February 28, 2018  

WordPress Jargon Glossary

It's easy to forget that in WordPress we use a lot of jargon. So the Marketing Team has created this document and a downloadable PDF as a resource for you.
It’s easy to forget that in WordPress we use a lot of jargon. So the Marketing Team has created this document and a downloadable PDF as a resource for you.

*Note: Changes have been made to this post and not the PDF 10/4/18.

.htaccess

.htaccess is a configuration file for use on web servers running the ApacheApache Apache is the most widely used web server software. Developed and maintained by Apache Software Foundation. Apache is an Open Source software available for free. Web Server software. When a .htaccess file is placed in a directory that is in turn ‘loaded via the Apache Web Server’, then the .htaccess file is detected and executed by the Apache Web Server software.

a11yAccessibility 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)

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) (https://a11yproject.com/). A11y is an acronym for accessibility. The 11 represents the 11 letters that were removed between the a and y to make accessibility shorter to write particularly on social media.

Apache

Apache is the most widely used web server software. Developed and maintained by Apache Software Foundation. Apache is 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. software available for free.

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.

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.

Atom

Free and Open Source text editor designed for code development- https://atom.io/.

AvatarAvatar An avatar is an image or illustration that specifically refers to a character that represents an online user. It’s usually a square box that appears next to the user’s name.

An avatar is an image or illustration that specifically refers to a character that represents an online user. It’s usually a square box that appears next to the user’s name.

Back-end developerBack-end developer A back-end developer modifies database and features of the WordPress core. In other words, it manages everything under the hood.

A back-end developer modifies database and features of the WordPress coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.. In other words, it manages everything under the hood.

BacklinkBacklink Incoming links to a web page. Search engines view backlinks as a reputation builder. The more quality (as determined by the search engine) incoming backlinks a site has usually helps a site to rank better in search engine results.

Incoming links to a web page. Search engines view backlinks as a reputation builder. The more quality (as determined by the search engine)  incoming backlinks a site has usually helps a site to rank better in search engine results.

Continue reading →