Category Archives: Programs

Hari Shanker R 7:28 pm on August 16, 2024
Tags: contributor-mentorship, , mentorship, mentorship-cohort-november-2024, ,   

WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program Cohort #3 (2024 Q4): Call for Mentees & Mentors

Update: We have closed the call for mentors and mentees for the 2024 Q4 Mentorship Program cohort, as of August 26th, 23:59 Pacific Time. Thank you for the overwhelming response! The contributor working group will start evaluating applications from current and early applicants and will aim of finalize a group of mentors and mentees at the earliest. We hope to finalize our cohort by next week and plan to reach out to our selected mentors and mentees at the earliest by the week of September 16. Got questions? Drop a line to: wpcontributors@wordcamp.org or comment on this post with questions.

Following the success of our 2023 Q3 and 2024 Q1 cohorts, I’m thrilled to announce the official launch of the third WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program cohort, set for the final quarter of 2024. This program connects seasoned WordPress experts with newcomers, offering a fantastic opportunity for mentees to gain hands-on experience contributing to WordPress, while mentors share their expertise and improve their leadership skills. 

Note: If you applied during the early call for interest in June-July 2024, you do not need to re-apply. This application is for new applicants.

Criteria for Mentees

Whether you are new to WordPress or looking to enhance your skills, this program offers a unique opportunity to learn from experienced contributors. Receive personalized guidance, develop your skills, and network within the WordPress community.

New to WordPress? Participating in this program may get you up to full speed as a contributor in a very short time — You’re strongly encouraged to apply!

Criteria for Mentors

If you have experience in WordPress development, design, community engagement, or any other WordPress-related area and wish to guide new contributors, this is your chance to make a significant impact. Through mentoring, give back to the community, enhance your leadership skills, and connect with emerging contributors.

If you have a project in mind and want to guide 4-6 mentees, this program is ideal. Learn more about project-based mentorship.

Read more about an optional project-based mentorship.

The formal call for mentors and mentees for the WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program Q4 Cohort has closed as of August 26th, 23:59 PT. We will be reaching out to selected/paired mentors and mentees by the week of September 2 September 16.

Program Goals and Details

Our program connects seasoned WordPress experts with newcomers. Mentees will gain hands-on experience in contributing to WordPress and grow their network of contacts within the global WordPress community, while mentors share their expertise and develop their leadership skills. Over six weeks, mentors and mentees will collaborate, learn, and contribute within a diverse, global community of talented contributors. Mentees will also get opportunities to directly contribute to WordPress 6.7 (the next and latest WordPress release) and also gain an inside view of WordPress contributions. 

WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program flowchart

We are offering early contribution opportunities for those interested and available to spend an extra month. These opportunities include dedicated training and may lead to leadership roles within the project. You can indicate your interest in the application form.

Selection Process

Mentors and mentees will be selected based on various criteria, including mentor availability, participant interest, individual profiles, and adherence to WordPress Community Guidelines. Our goal is to include as many mentees and mentors as possible in this cohort.

Timeline

  • Application Opens: Thursday, August 16, 2024
  • Application Deadline: Monday, August 26, 2024
  • Selected Mentors and Mentees Announced: By September 9, 2024
  • Program Duration: October 7 to November 15, 2024 (6 weeks) 

Benefits

  • For Mentees: Receive personalized guidance, develop your skills, and expand your network within the WordPress community.
  • For Mentors: Give back to the community, enhance your leadership skills, and connect with emerging contributors.

Over 55 mentees have graduated, and 35 mentors have participated in this program thus far in two cohorts, with excellent results. Curious to learn more about the mentorship program and its impact? Check out the following blog posts:

Join us in this exciting journey of learning and collaboration!

Want to learn more about the Mentorship Program? Please visit the WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program handbook page.

This post was collaboratively written by Contributor Working Group Members: @estelaris @harishanker @kirasong @oglekler @patricia70, @tobifjellner

#contributor-working-group #wpcontributors, #mentorship-program #mentorship-cohort-november-2024 #mentorship #contributor-mentorship

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Lauren Stein 2:07 am on March 23, 2024
Tags: , WC Asia, WC Asia 2024   

WordCamp Asia 2024 Q&A

WordCamp Asia 2024 took place from March 7 to 9 in the vibrant city of Taipei, Taiwan. Over 1,300 attendees came together for three days of collaborating, learning, and community-building to celebrate connection and innovation in the WordPress project.

Following an exceptional lineup of speakers, workshops, and a busy 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/. was the finale: a Q&A session featuring WordPress Cofounder Matt Mullenweg, who took live questions from the audience. You can read more about the event or watch the full recording of the session:

Matt Mullenweg answers questions from a live audience 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. Asia 2024.

There’s no more passionate community than WordPress, and with that comes an abundance of insightful questions. As with past events, this post gathers questions that Matt was unable to answer live—with answers from WordPress leadership and contributors.

Q. In what ways do you believe we can make the 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. model of WordPress more sustainable for times to come?

By continuing to build, iterate, and innovate with WordPress. There’s high-impact, exciting work happening across the project to transform the WordPress experience and how users approach creating on the web. You can find it in projects like the Admin redesign or other elements of Phase 3 in the product roadmap, which focuses on collaboration and workflows. 

By unlocking the web and making data as readily and easily portable as possible. The Data Liberation initiative, which Matt introduced at State of the Word 2023, is focused on creating one-click import and migrationMigration Moving the code, database and media files for a website site from one server to another. Most typically done when changing hosting companies. tools for anyone to move to (or from) WordPress. Data Liberation is an ecosystem-wide effort that can bring more people to WordPress and the values driving open source software. 

Finally, by growing the community and welcoming more perspectives. WordPress events and meetups have always been an essential part of the project. They’re evolving to better serve the needs of attendees, including events with more specific programming or themes, offering niche experiences within the broader community where attendees can learn and connect on a deeper level.

Q. How can we leverage a wave of generative AI to make WordPress better?

Matt’s discussed a number of ways generative AI can help improve WordPress and everyday life. Matt stands by his recommendation to learn AI deeply, whether it’s for building smarter plugins, experimenting with new content, or finding and fixing bugs faster.

Q. How can we better support working mothers [and all parents] in organizing events?

Organizing teams can take steps to support working parents by offering flexibility and creating environments that allow them to prioritize their lives and families. Simple actions include promoting asynchronous collaboration, having flexible meeting times, and recording meetings to allow parents to participate independently. 

Employers can also support organizers and employees by sponsoring their work through Five for the Future. This can provide needed financial resources and time to contribute to the WordPress community, and is a great way to support the future success of WordPress events. 

If you have other suggestions or ideas for supporting working parents in organizing events, please join the Community Team and share your thoughts.

Q. The Annual Survey saw a drop in contributor satisfaction and competitiveness, what steps are being taken to reverse this trend?

Along with continuing to encourage a culture of recognition within the WordPress project, there are a number of active programs and initiatives dedicated to evolving the contributor experience. These include the Contributor Mentorship Program, which provides mentorship and guidance to new contributors, and Five for the Future, which welcomes companies that offer sponsorship for contributions. 

If you’re interested in improving the contributor experience, you’re invited to join the Contributor Working Group meetings to share your ideas.

Q. How does the WordPress team prioritize which new features or improvements to work on?

As an open source project, WordPress welcomes anyone to submit a Trac patch or GitHub pull request to add new features. Features that align closely with the vision and product roadmap established by project leadership have a stronger chance of being reviewed and merged sooner. If you have an idea for a new feature or improvement, being familiar with the roadmap is a helpful first step.

Q. Are there any plans for establishing proper product marketing for WordPress itself?

There are a few existing initiatives in the project that are helping transform how WordPress is positioned in the market. The ongoing website redesign for 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/, along with the launch of the new Showcase, are a couple of ways the community is able to take on these kinds of challenges organically. The Developer Blog is another example, reaching a more targeted audience with product-related developer-focused content, published by our own talented contributors. 

If you’d like to join these efforts, or pitch new ones, join the community of contributors making WordPress in https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.

Q. Can we finally curate the dotorg theme directory?

The beautiful thing about the WordPress project is that opportunities for change are ready when you are. If you’re passionate about themes or have ideas about the organization of the Theme Directory, you’re invited to get involved with the Themes Team.

Do you have a question? Comment below, and join one of the many teams making WordPress for answers.

#qa, #wc-asia, #wc-asia-2024

Hari Shanker R 2:31 pm on August 11, 2023
Tags: , , , mentorship-cohort-july-2023, ,   

The Inaugural Cohort of the WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program has Concluded

I am thrilled to announce the successful conclusion of the Initial Cohort of the Experimental WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program, which commenced on July 12th and concluded on August 9th, 2023. Organized by the Contributor Working Group of the WordPress Community Team, this four-week pilot initiative marked an impressive milestone in fostering the growth and involvement of contributors within the WordPress project.

The inaugural cohort had a group of 13 contributors who were selected as mentees from a pool of around 50 applicants. Out of this group, 11 contributors completed all the required courses, interacted with their mentors to learn about the program, got onboarded to Make/WordPress teams of their choice, and made their initial contributions to the WordPress project. Please join me in congratulating all our mentees who have graduated from the program!

Vanja Vukadinovic

Vanja Vukadinovic
@wanjlica

Priyanka Adhikari

Priyanka Adhikari
@prikari

Sheila Bravo

Sheila Bravo
@sheilabravo

Lisa Risager

Lisa Risager
@risager

Benedikt Ledl

Benedikt Ledl
@benniledl

Josep Maria Fernández Morán

Josep Maria Fernández Morán
@josepmoran

Lisa Risager

Rita Best
@rbest

Subash Chandra Poudel

Subash Chandra Poudel
@subashpoudel

Cynthia Norman

Cynthia Norman
@cnormandigital

Néstor Brito Medina
@necobm

Jonnathan Santos

Jonnathan Santos
@jonnps

The Mentorship Process

Our mentors, mentees, and facilitators joined forces in a dedicated 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/. channel in the Make/WordPress Slack. For the first two weeks of the program (July 12th through July 25th), our mentees learned about the project, by taking certain courses and through support from their mentors. For the next two weeks (July 26th through August 9th), they attended onboarding sessions of different Make/Teams and made some initial contributions to the WordPress project. In between, mentees also got to see a bird’s eye view of how a WordPress release works, through our dedicated shadowing and onboarding sessions supported by our facilitators and Make/Team representatives. More details can be found in our launch post.

Achievements from Our Program

Our mentees did a fantastic job as part of the mentorship program! Overall, they were quite active, going the extra mile to complete their required courses, and attending onboarding sessions, with many folks even shadowing the WordPress 6.3 release and attending team chats! Here’s a (non-exhaustive) list of achievements from our cohort members.

  • 12 participants completed the required Learn WordPress courses – 89% completion rate
  • Two members gained CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Contribution badges (@prikari and @josepmoran). @benniledl submitted his first core patch as well! 
  • Suggested 400 translations in Danish and got involved in 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. Denmark (@risager)
  • Actively participated in forums with 51 replies (@benniledl)
  • Suggested over 1200 translations in Catalan, and multiple bug reports on Learn WordPress (@josepmoran)
  • Suggested translations to WP 6.3 in Brazilian Portuguese (@jonnps)
  • Reported a Photo Directory bug and suggested 200+ translations (@necobm)
  • Contributed to the Documentation Team by updating a screenshot for WordPress 6.3 (@prikari)
  • Four contributors submitted photos to the Photo Directory (@risager @benniledl @subashpoudel and @necobm)
  • Several contributors contributed to the Make/Training Team – @cnormandigital provided validation for two Content Feedback submissions and submitted their work too.

One of our big wins from the program was how we tried to broadcast the same towards a broader audience in the #contributor-mentorship channel of the Make/WordPress Slack, where several contributors followed-along the progress of the events and participated asynchronously in the mentorship program. The channel will continue to remain active, and we plan to use it to facilitate more public mentorship opportunities for contributors! 

Another milestone for our group is about how local communities are attempting to adapt this program for their own locales. For instance, @javiercasares is already working on translating key materials of this program to Spanish with a plan of potentially hosting a future cohort for Spanish speaking folks. There has also been significant interest from the German community thanks to outreach efforts from @coachbirgit who has also kick-started efforts to bolster contributor onboarding at the upcoming WordCamp Germany 2023!

Learning Materials from the Mentorship Program are now available!

Learn WordPress Courses

Online Workshops on the Project

Thank you!

This program was a true group effort, with members of the WordPress Contributor Working Group working hand-in-hand to make this pilot program a reality. We faced a lot of challenges, but we all worked together to ensure a smooth contributor experience for our mentees. 

Big thanks to everyone involved in making this program a huge success! 

Mentors
@adityakane
@thehopemonger
@coachbirgit
@mysweetcate
@foosantos
@kafleg
@javiercasares
@ninianepress
@unintended8
@casiepa
@st810amaze
@topher1kenobe
@tobifjellner

Make/Team Representatives
@jeffpaul
@kirasong
@oglekler
@francina
@mysweetcate
@unintended8
@milana_cap
@ninianepress
@topher1kenobe
@tobifjellner
@nao
@mrfoxtalbot
@foosantos
@webtechpooja
@courane01
@courtneypk

Facilitators
@angelasjin
@askdesign
@cbringmann
@courane01
@realloc
@francina
@harishanker
@jeffpaul
@jominney
@desrosj
@juliarosia
@leogopal
@leonnugraha
@nomadskateboarding
@kirasong
@nao
@oglekler
@onealtr
@patricia70
@webtechpooja
@sereedmedia
@sumitsingh
@yoga1103

What next?

We will be asking our mentees and mentors to fill out a survey to learn about their experience participating in the program. The working group is currently working with our mentors to help mentees optionally create a contribution plan to sustain the momentum they have gained from the program to keep making ongoing contributions to the project. The working group also aims to check in with mentees later this year to see how they are doing with their contributor journeys. 

Our work is far from over. The contributor working group will continue its monthly chats, and will continue its work on improving the contributor pipeline for WordPress. Going by the success of this cohort, we also aim to start working on the next iteration of our program. Stay tuned for more updates!

The following people contributed to this post; @harishanker @nao @oglekler @javiercasares

#5ftf #five-for-the-future #contributor-working-group #wpcontributors, #mentorship-program #mentorship-cohort-july-2023

Hari Shanker R 5:30 pm on June 23, 2023
Tags: , , , ,   

Launch your WordPress Contributor Journey through the Mentorship Program Pilot

Update: The Contributor Mentorship Program Pilot is no longer accepting new applications, since we are past our June 30th deadline. We received an overwhelming response for our pilot, and the contributor working group is extremely thankful to all our contributors for this response. We will be reaching out to all applicants over the course of the next few days!

Interested in contributing to WordPress, and want to start your contributor journey with the help of veteran contributors? Join the brand new WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program to gain the necessary skills and guidance that will help you become a successful contributor 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! 

What is the Contributor Mentorship Program?

Organized by the Contributor Working Group of the WordPress Community Team, the mentorship program pilot is a four-week event between July 12th and August 9th, 2023.

Participants (mentees) will asynchronously work together in a cohort with a group of mentors to build a strong foundation in the WordPress project and make initial contributions to the contributor team of their choice. This will be made possible through cohort-based and personalized 1:1 mentorship, guided courses, and live online workshops. The program aims to: 

  1. Inspire you to contribute your talents to WordPress.
  2. Help you navigate the ins and outs of the WordPress project.
  3. Provide you with the necessary guidance to thrive in your contributions and careers.
  4. Ensure you are aware of opportunities, limitations, and tasks within the various WordPress contributor teams.
  5. Upskill you through hands-on experience with open source contributions.
  6. Enhance your career prospects by fostering networking, mentorship, and open source contributions.
  7. Connect you with a global network of talented contributors, fostering friendships and professional relationships.
  8. Provide you a chance to directly support more than 40% of the web. 😊

Here is a flowchart that briefly explains how the program looks like:

Flowchart showing the steps involved for mentees as they go through mentorship and graduate from the program.

Sign up now!

This program is open to everyone, irrespective of your skill-level, knowledge, experience, or any other socially identifying criteria!

Want to participate in this mentorship program? Fill out this form to express interest in joining our first cohort which starts on July 12th, 2023 (Wednesday)! Application Deadline: June 30th 2023 (Friday), 23:59 UTC. Sign-ups for the pilot program are now closed, since we are well past the deadline. Selected participants will be informed over email by July 5th, 2023. 

But wait, there is more! Read on to get all the details about the program and find out how you can participate along with other details about the program!

Continue reading →

#5ftf, #contributor-working-group, #five-for-the-future, #mentorship-program, #wpcontributors

Hari Shanker R 8:10 pm on May 17, 2023
Tags: , , , , ,   

WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program: Pilot Program Proposal

In February 2023, I proposed a project-wide WordPress mentorship program. Positive feedback and support from our community led to the revitalization of the WordPress contributor working group in March 2023, which has since been working on building a mentorship program for our project. Based on feedback from our chats thus far, our group decided to test this idea of project-wide mentorship by running a pilot program. 

I’m excited to announce that the contributor working group has now prepared a first draft for a project-wide mentorship program! Read on to find out more.

What is the Contributor Mentorship Program?

The Contributor Mentorship Program aims to provide cohort-based and 1:1 mentorship to new and aspiring contributors. The program is intended as a pathway to help new contributors find their way into WordPress contributions.

It aims to set new contributors up for success by providing them the necessary guidance, skills, and knowledge around the project and helping them make their first contributions.

In its ideal form, the program will:

  • Help and inspire its participants to make ongoing contributions to the WordPress project
  • Explain the different areas of contribution in the WordPress project to participants
  • Help participants to successfully select their area of participation in the WordPress project
  • Provide necessary guidance and community connections that will help participants be successful with their contributions
  • Help participants find success in their career through successful 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. contributions

A Brief Overview of the Program Plan

The flowchart below offers a high-level pictorial representation of the program flow, which I have tried to explain in brief through this post. A detailed description of the program can also be found in its white paper prepared jointly by the working group.

A flowchart depicting the contribution flow of the proposed mentorship program
  • A call for mentees (participants) goes out and from the pool of applicants, 10 mentees are selected (primarily new contributors). Mentors are handpicked from a pool of experienced contributors and working group members. Selected mentees and mentors answer a pre-event survey to gauge their knowledge, interest in contribution areas, and confidence-levels. Mentors will receive specific guidance on guiding mentees through the program. 
  • We invite all Make/Teams to take active part in this initiative to bring contributors to their respective teams. Interested teams can propose their team members as mentors to the program.
  • A short cohort of new contributors (not more than 10 mentees) and experienced contributors (not less than five mentors) are to be brought together in a dedicated space (potentially a 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/. channel in Make/WordPress) to work together for a certain period (about four weeks or one month)
  • During this time, mentees will learn pre-prepared training material (existing contributor courses in Learn WordPress).
  • Each mentee will be assigned a mentor depending on multiple factors such as their locale, time zones, contribution interest, etc. Mentors and mentees will have at least two 1:1 mentoring sessions (over text chat and/or video) throughout the course of the mentorship. 
  • Additionally, the group will have at least three group mentoring sessions on broad contribution topics (over text or video). Each week, mentees will also report their progress in the Slack channel and will have the space to interact with each other too. 
  • Once mentees are done with the broad contributor training courses in Learn WordPress (ideally in the first two weeks of the mentorship program), they work with mentors to identify contributor teams of their choice (if not clear already before joining the program) and go on to make a certain number of contributions (depending on the team they select). They will have completed these contributions by the end of the mentorship program. Optionally, should they wish to, mentees will create a three-month contribution and learning plan with their chosen mentor. 
  • Once all the courses and training sessions are complete, and once mentees have made their initial contributions, they graduate from the program, and the mentorship program wraps up. Mentees will be recognized for their contributions in public on an official WordPress space. 
  • Once the program concludes, Mentees will continue working with the Make/Team(s) of their choice, and will be connected to multiple team members from their chosen team for ongoing guidance as they continue their contributor journey. 
  • Post-wrap-up, mentees can continue to reach out to their cohort and mentors for ongoing guidance and support.

To find out about the proposed mentorship program in detail, please check out its white paper by clicking the button below:

Read the white paper on the Proposed Contributor Mentorship Program

How do we measure the success of this program?

The program will be considered extremely successful if:

  • At least 80% of the participants of the initial cohort graduate from the program (they complete the course, required lessons, make their initial contributions, and create their three-month plan)
  • At least 50% of the participants make ongoing contributions to WordPress as per their contribution plan, three months after completing the mentorship program

Other areas to measure impact:

  • Improved confidence after the mentorship program (measured through surveys)
  • Improved knowledge after the mentorship program (measured through surveys)
  • Feeling of belonging and commitment to WordPress (measured through surveys)

Action Items and Request for Feedback

Request to Make/Teams: The contributor working group invites Make/WordPress Teams to join our pilot program as mentors. If you contribute to a Make/Team and wish to be involved in building this program, please express your interest in the comments.

  • First of all, what do you think about this program in its current form? Please share your feedback in the comments of this post. 
  • You will notice that this post only explains the program in brief. The working group has prepared a white paper that explains the program in detail. Please review it and share your feedback – either as comments in the document or as comments on this blog post.
  • Does this program excite you? Would you like to be a part of building a mentorship program for WordPress? We could use your help – Join the WordPress Contributor Working Group –  participate in one of our mentorship chats, comment on this post expressing your interest, or pingPing The act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” me in Make/WordPress Slack (I‘m @harishanker over there).

Big thanks to all members of the contributor working group in helping draft this proposal!

This post was jointly-written by members of the contributor working group: @adityakane @nao @oglekler @yoga1103 @kirasong @st810amaze @onealtr @carl-alberto @tobifjellner @javiercasares @sz786 @meher @courane01 @jeffpaul @sereedmedia @cbringmann @angelasjin @juliarosia @askdesign @nomadskateboarding @harishanker @javiercasares @gounder @unintended8 @webtechpooja @thewebprincess @unintended8 @desrosj @askdesign @webtechpooja @webcommsat @kcristiano @leonnugraha and @evarlese

#5ftf, #five-for-the-future, #proposal #contributor-working-group #wpcontributors #mentorship-program

Hari Shanker R 5:00 pm on January 9, 2023
Tags: , ,   

Request for Feedback: How can we Improve the Five for the Future Contributor Journey?

The WordPress project has made great strides this year thanks to its contributors. As WordPress enters an exciting new era of growth in 2023, it is time to examine how Five for the Future can best support the project and the people behind it. 

This post shares research on the contributor journey for individuals and organizations committed to the Five for the Future initiative. Your feedback will be valuable in further refining the contribution experience for pledged contributors. 

Self-sponsored Contributors and Pledging

At this time, individual self-sponsored contributors can edit their wordpress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ profiles to update and share the number of contribution hours per week towards their chosen contributor teams. However, after pledging contribution time towards their respective teams, the onus is on the contributors to follow up on their commitments. Below is a flowchart representing the current contributor journey for self-sponsored contributors in Five for the Future.

A flowchart depicting the contributor journey for individual self-sponsored WordPress contributors in relation to Five for the Future.

As depicted in the flowchart, many contributors pledging their time to Five for the Future tend to drop off. Based on conversations with contributors, I identified some reasons why this may be happening: 

  • Self-sponsored contributors do not get any direction on navigating the project or identifying contributor teams.
  • There is no onboarding for self-sponsored contributors pledging their time to the Make/Teams of their choice. 
  • Making the first contribution can require a lot of coaching and guidance, which is currently not available to self-sponsored contributors.
  • Pledged contributors frequently do not get any additional guidance or support on making ongoing contributions to the project. 
  • There is a lack of clarity on what constitutes a Five for the Future contribution.

When a contributor making a recurring time commitment to a big project like WordPress lacks guidance on how they can honor their commitment, their contributions could stagnate. In other words, at this time, the journey of a pledged contributor is not very much different from a non-pledged contributor.

Companies and Pledging

Companies have a more nuanced relationship with Five for the Future. They are listed on the Five for the Future website with dedicated profiles, which include lists of the Make/Teams they contribute to, linked contributors, and the total number of hours pledged. However, like individual contributors, once a company commits time and resources to Five for the Future, they frequently also lack direction or guidance on contributing. 

You will find below a flowchart representation of the current contributor journey for companies. As you can see below, in an ideal world, when a company pledges to Five for the Future, they should go on to make ongoing contributions to WordPress and build a mutually successful relationship. At this time, companies have to figure out the nuances of contributions themselves and put in extra effort to provide ongoing contributions to the project. If they are unable to get that support, their contributions could stagnate.  

A flowchart depicting the contributor journey for companies pledged to WordPress through Five for the Future.

Companies and organizations that have grown alongside WordPress or that already have experienced contributors may be able to navigate through the process more efficiently. However, many companies in the program (especially newer companies) could have a tough time figuring out WordPress contributions. Some of the issues faced by Five for the Future companies include: 

  • Lack of guidance on the next steps after pledging (Ex: How can a company start contributing to a Make/Team – example, Make/CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. or Make/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))
  • Missing direction for companies navigating their Five for the Future contributions (Ex: How does a company build a Five for the Future strategy? How do they effectively make contributions as a company? Are contributions aligned with company goals and WordPress project goals?)
  • Significantly less ongoing support for their contributor journey.
  • Little or no awareness of how companies can benefit from Five for the Future 

These issues could potentially lead to some companies reducing the quantum of contributions or even dropping off the program. 

How Can We Improve the Five for the Future Contributor Journey?

As @chanthaboune mentions in Episode 35 of the WordPress Podcast, Five for the Future intends to foster “generous collaboration toward the long term health and stability of our project for the future.” While the program has made great strides since its formal launch in 2019, starting the journey to the next iteration of Five for the Future will make that vision a reality. With improved onboarding and better cross-team communication between companies and contributors, that reality will also enjoy an unmatched contributor experience that benefits both the WordPress project and contributors alike. 

  • What do you think about the existing contributor journey? What are our successes and pain points?
  • How can we improve the contributor journey for Five for the Future contributors and sponsoring companies?
  • What more can Five for the Future do to help its contributors?
  • How can Five for the Future contributors best support Make/WordPress Teams? 

Please share with us in the comments on this post! Your feedback will go a long way in shaping the contributor experience of our favorite 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. 

Additionally, if you are an existing WordPress or Five for the Future contributor or work closely with Make/WordPress Team, @angelasjin and I would love to chat with you. Please express your interest in the comments of this post, pingPing The act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” @angelasjin or myself (@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/., or simply drop a mail to getinvolved@wordpress.org so that we can schedule a conversation based on your availability.

#five-for-the-future #5ftF #discussion

This post was jointly written with @angelasjin.

Chloe Bringmann 3:33 pm on September 19, 2022
Tags: WCUS, ,   

WCUS 2022 Q&A

WordCamp US 2022 convened from September 9 to 11 in San Diego, California. It felt reminiscent of earlier gatherings that offered a comfortable environment for reconnecting, learning, and discussing all things WordPress. The highlight for many was the closing session with the project’s co-founder, @matt, who shared a sneak peek at features slated for the upcoming 6.1 release and engaged in conversation with attendees in a Town Hall Q&A.

WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. US 2022 Q&A

In an effort for no questions to go unanswered, those submitted on Livestream and Twitter are listed below with answers from WordPress contributors. 

Q1. How do we convince legacy web builders, agencies, and companies to more quickly adopt new WordPress features? I’m seeing a ton of opportunities to support older sites (5.0), but very few agencies/projects/companies are moving to build on 6.0.

A1. A few teams are working hard to share and educate users about new features in the latest WordPress releases. The Training Team publishes tutorials to help ease adoption. Marketing highlights new #WordPress features across multiple social networks. @annezazu hosts regular Hallway Hangouts in Test. Your thoughts on additional adoption initiatives are welcome.

Q2. How close is WordPress to editor collaboration? It’s sometimes frustrating that two people can’t be in the editor at the same time. 

A2. The project roadmap shows the big picture goals and upcoming releases, and @matveb shared some early thoughts about building a “multiplayer” experience, but there is no release date for this feature yet. As noted in the Q&A, some big questions need to be addressed before collaboration can be addressed. That said, some exciting plugins explore comments and other collaborative tools.

Q3. Any thoughts on p2’s release date for self-hosting? It looks lovely!

A3. The new version of P2 requires WordPress.comWordPress.com An online implementation of WordPress code that lets you immediately access a new WordPress environment to publish your content. WordPress.com is a private company owned by Automattic that hosts the largest multisite in the world. This is arguably the best place to start blogging if you have never touched WordPress before. https://wordpress.com/ hosting to power its more advanced feature set, so there is currently no self-hosted version available. You’re welcome to try the O2 plugin and the P2 Breathe theme, but please note that this 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 is not in active development.

Q4. What commitment does WordPress CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. have to advance 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) for disabled WP users and also for baking it into WordPress sites created?

A4. Accessibility is top of mind while developing WordPress, and WordPress 6.1 has seen 40 accessibility improvements listed under milestones 13.1-14.1 in the 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/ GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ repository, if you would like to follow along, with more expected in upcoming releases. As Matt mentioned in the Q&A session, there is an interest in slowing down the fast clip of Gutenberg development to allow for necessary improvements, like accessibility.

Q5. What is the plan for making the Site Editor accessible?

A5. Every new release includes a variety of accessibility improvements. You can read about WordPress 6.0 Accessibility Improvements and expect more in 6.1. You can also get involved with this work by joining the #accessibility channel in Make Slack.

Q6. Are there any plans to make future WordCamps hybrid to take advantage of the aspects of video conferencing that we discovered during the pandemic?

A6. WordCamp US 2022 had a captioned Livestream available throughout the event (recordings also available). Community members in San Diego and at home kept the conversation going with #WCUS across social platforms, especially on Twitter. WordCamp organizers are committed to iterating and exploring how best to bring the experience to participants both in-person and online.

Q7. What is the timeline for removing the “BetaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process.” tag from the Site Editor?

A7. The Core Team is discussing open issues and blockers to the removal of the Beta label. You can follow along with the discussion on GitHub.

Q8. Right now, the navigation 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. is basic. Are they planning to improve this? For example, I would like to easily create a mega menu.

A8. Navigation is a crucial part of the site editing experience and can cover a wide array of use cases, from simple “all pages” navigation to complex structures. Currently, the project is focused on ensuring the best experience possible for the most common use cases while still allowing extensibility. Once that experience is polished enough, the editor will be extended to allow more complex navigation structures such as mega menus.

Do you have a question? Comment below, and join one of the many teams making WordPress for answers.

#wcus2022

Angela Jin 4:59 pm on May 23, 2022
Tags: ,   

Request for feedback: Recording Five for the Future contributions

Have you kept up on the latest updates to the Five for the Future (5ftF) program? In addition to addressing spam and dormant pledges, @josepha has proposed a definition for 5ftF pledges and contributions. Most notably:

Participation in Five for the Future means consistent effort by an individual or a company via a Make WordPress team to directly support 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 and the project’s current big ideas, rather than the sole benefit of a company or individual.

Another important iteration to the 5ftF program is identifying and recording contributions made; this will help Make Teams follow activity and progress (dashboards, anyone?!) and support all WordPress contributors to recognize all the great work achieved.

Upcoming improvements for the 5ftF program are tracked in GitHub. There are a number of suggested contributions to record that apply across Make Teams, such as props, HelpScout activity, or attending a Make Team meeting. There are also suggestions for Team-specific contributions to record, thanks to input from the Training, Documentation, and Community teams.

Of course, there is much, much more activity to celebrate. This is where I would like your input. Based on the definition we now have of 5ftF contributions, what other activity, specific to a Make Team or across multiple teams, should be recognized and recorded? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

#5ftf, #five-for-the-future

Andrea Middleton 8:38 pm on September 10, 2021
Tags: ,   

Suggested iterations for the Five for the Future program and tool

The Five for the Future site and tools launched at the end of 2019, and then the pandemic hit. It’s been difficult to make time to iterate on the program, but eventually the window of opportunity for changes will open, and I wanted to collect my suggestions here, in case they will be helpful in the future.

The program has a few major challenges that have kept it from reaching its full potential. Here’s my take on those problems, and how they might be resolved:

Spam or dormant pledges

The program runs on the honor system, and it wasn’t clear how much of a risk that would be, at launch. Two years later, there have certainly been more “spam” pledges than anyone would want, and surprisingly (to me) few reports of fake or spam pledges. What that tells me = either people don’t go surfing around in the pledge lists, checking for accuracy, the Report feature is too hard to find (unlikely), or people don’t really care whether pledges are accurate or not.

I do think that a substantial number of false/fake/spam pledges are a problem, because they depreciate the value of the sincere/active/real pledges. If we never intend to clean up the rolls, then we should probably consider shutting down the program or putting more disclaimers on the site. 🙂

I don’t think it’s time to get that drastic, though. Here’s what I think could work, to increase the signal to noise ratio in pledges, in no particular order:

  • Share the list of pledges with leaders on each contributor team, asking them to mark the contributors they’ve never worked with or seen participate on the team.
  • Send the “absent” contributors a friendly email, letting them know that we’re cleaning spam pledges from the site, and asking them to confirm that their pledge is not-spam. Share the names of those who confirm not-spam back to contributor teams and encourage them to reach out to that list with opportunities to help work on things.
  • (This will depend on each team being able to provide a list of ways to contribute. Worse comes to worst, I suppose we can send pledgers to each team’s handbook page that talks about how they can help.)
  • For those who do not confirm within a reasonable time period, remove their pledges from the site, and email them with a friendly message that we have been removing apparent spam pledges. Let them know how they can re-pledge if they simply missed our previous message asking for confirmation. It would be interesting to know if people who only come back once we’ve removed their pledge, actually become active or not. I’m not sure what will happen there.
  • Institute a biannual 5ftF spam-check, following the above process. Maybe that’s too often — maybe only once every year?

Disconnect between contributor teams and pledged contributors

For whatever reason, the outreach that I imagined would happen, between contributor teams looking for help and the list of pledged contributors that was added to every sidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme. on the Make network…. never really came to pass. I’m not sure if that’s because contributor teams don’t feel comfortable pinging someone out of the blue and asking for help (it’s very likely that I have less shame than most, in my recruitment work), or if that *has* been happening, but just hasn’t been productive.

I was talking to Courtney Engle Robertson about this a little, this week, and she mentioned the idea of a tagging system on Make blog posts, that could automagically alert pledged contributors of posts that included opportunities to help out. I think we’d need to add some opt-in steps there, for privacy reasons of course, but I think this idea has merit.

When contributors re-confirm their pledges, they could be asked to click a box on their Profile page if they want to be emailed posts from Make blogs with a #5ftF tag or something, and maybe even specify which blogs they’d like to hear from in that way.

Another idea in this vein = inviting people to mark what kind of work they’re interested in doing for WordPress, when they make their pledge. I’m envisioning options like:

  • administrative (answer emails in a queue, take meeting notes, etc)
  • feedback (review and comment on blog posts,
  • testing (CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. testing, contributor tool beta testing, pre-beta testing for new features, etc)
  • writing (write new or update old documentation, revise contributor team handbooks)
  • and the like.

Then contributor teams could get a regular report that (for example) 24 people have pledged 2 hours per week to their team, and 10 of them are willing to write or edit documentation. This could aid in the outreach/recruitment that contributor teams do, when they need to find people to work on a new or dormant project.

Train the pledgers, train the recruiters/onboarders

Another thought I had, about how we don’t seem to see a strong connection between pledged contributors and the teams they’re pledged to, is that not everyone knows how to effectively recruit people to contribute — even if they’re “qualified leads” (which is what I’d consider pledged contributors).

And not all people making pledges, necessarily know how to *find* the pages that tell them how to get involved.

So I think a two-pronged approach could help here. We write some docs or a training on how to recruit (and onboard?) contributors, and then we alter the email that pledged contributors get when they pledge, to include links to the onboarding docs for the teams they indicated. That’s work, y’all! But I think it would have a positive effect even beyond this program.

Discuss!

What do you think of these ideas? What ideas do YOU have for making the Five for the Future program more reliable and useful? Share your ideas/feedback and discuss in the comments, below!

#five-for-the-future