Dev-squad GitHubGitHubGitHub 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/ triage: Thursdays 07:00 UTC
Welcome! Please post in the #training channel or reach out to a team member to help you with contributing. Resources to check out our onboarding program, and our Guide Program.
Meeting recap notes are one of the best ways to get started contributing to a team, and you can find details on how to write notes in this handbook page.
We’re also looking for nominations of active Training Team contributors to interview next. Either leave your nominations in the Slack thread here, in the spreadsheet in the document, or pingPingThe 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.” @ironnysh or @ardianimaya.
Looking for volunteers
We’re looking for volunteers to outline a new Learning Pathway for contributors to the WordPress project.
So far, the team has curriculum outlined for User, Developer, and Designer learning pathways. We’d also like to create a pathway for Contributors. This will involve outlining a curriculum like Learning Pathway: Intermediate User #2002, identifying what resources already exist on Learn and what new resources need to be created.
What requirements should the team look our for in a translation pluginPluginA 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 for https://learn.wordpress.org/?
We’re looking for any interested team members who can help test translation plugins on the Learn.WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe 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/ local development environment. If you’re interested, please comment on the GitHub issue.
Important The team also decided to switch to holding 2 triage sessions a month going forward, on the 2nd and 4th week of the month. We have been very successful in keeping untriaged issues and PRs to a minimum, so this change will allow more time between triage sessions.
If you’re not attending in-person, then check out the online contributor session Training will be hosting in just a few hours! Sign Up Now!
@west7 and @psykrowill be hosting two more content creator office hours in March.
These sessions are a great time to ask the team’s experienced content creators about the process of creating content. The first session is scheduled for March 14, 2024, at 14:00 UTC (meeting link), and the second will be scheduled during the week of the 25th of March.
We currently have 15 issues requiring editor assistance cc/ @faculty-editors
Contribution Acknowledgement
Last week, @ironnysh was awarded the Training Contributor badge. Thank you for your contributions to the team, Ronny.
If you are interested in applying for a badge, then come checkout the team handbook page: Team Profile Badges.
Props: Would anyone like to celebrate the contributions of team members?
I’d like to thank all the Training Team members attending WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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 this week and representing the team there. In particular, props to our Contributor DayContributor DayContributor 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/. table leads @west7 and @digitalchild.
Have you been contributing to content creation for the WordPress 6.5 release? Please leave your update here so we can recognize your contribution
Faculty updates
We invite all Faculty to share their updates with the team at least once a month. @faculty, feel free to answer any or all of the questions below:
What have you been working on and how has it been going? – @devmuhib creating content and triaging issues. @psykro working on Learning Pathways and getting ready to publish lessons. @lada7042 learning pathway recording. @cnormandigital submitted all the theme related lessons for review.
Anything you’ve accomplished since the last meeting? – @lada7042 posted my first monthly team update & newsletter.
Do you have any blockers? – @lada7042 had a blocker on her video editor screen setup and @zoonini help her fixing the issue in various ways.
Can other Faculty or Training Team members help you in some way? – Discussed on previous thread.
Open Discussions
You can see all meetings scheduled on this meeting calendar. If you are new to the Training Team, then come walk through our onboarding program to get to know the team and how we work. And if you have questions, feel free to reach out in the #training Slack channel at any time.
The Skill Tree format appears to be something available from the SkillDisplay platform, where they have collaborated with other open-source projects, including TypoCMS.
I would recommend that folks interested in this discussion read the original comment linked above, and the rest of the threaded conversation, to understand the benefits.
The idea here is that the skill tree format could allow teachers to “cherry pick the skills (aka learning path tree nodes) they really need, instantly render their own curriculum for a handout and get matching learning resources that are tailored towards her use case.”
Converting Learning Pathways into Skill Sets would involve using the SkillDisplay tool to create the Skill Set and then hosting the Skill Set somewhere on the Learn.WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe 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/ website.
I want to invite anyone interested in this process to read through the suggestions and share their thoughts in the comments on this post.
If this is something we as a team would like to consider, then we might want to decide on:
when we want to do this
who will be managing the process
Please leave your thoughts in the comments on this post by by Friday 22 March, 2024.
Welcome! Please post in the #training channel or reach out to a team member to help you with contributing. Resources to check out our onboarding program, and our Guide Program.
You can see all meetings scheduled on this meeting calendar. If you are new to the Training Team, then come walk through our onboarding program to get to know the team and how we work. And if you have questions, feel free to reach out in the #training Slack channel at any time.
Welcome to another edition of the Training Team’s Contributor Spotlight! In this series, we introduce one of our many valued contributors and invite you to learn more about their journey.
In what is quickly becoming a tradition, in recent months, Oneal has been busy helping organize WordCamp Asia 2024, just like he did in the 2023 edition.
When not contributing to the community, Oneal works as a Project Manager, Agile Coach, and IT Instructor. He also manages WordPress sites for family members, non-profit groups, and charity organizations.
May the Force be with you
Oneal is a big Star Wars fan. Actually, that’s what led him to WordPress in 2007: he volunteered to build a website for a global fan club.
How did you discover WordPress, and why did you start using it for your projects? “I used Drupal to build a website for my costuming group but found WordPress easier for non-technical users, with more community support. It was also better supported by developers in the community.”
After migrating the first site, Oneal continued using WordPress to build websites, blogs, and community membership sites for family members, small businesses, and other charity and community organizations.
His passion for George Lucas’ epic series still burns: Oneal spends his weekends building and wearing Star Wars-themed costumes for charity events, fundraisers, and children’s hospital visits.
Training for the Training Team
Oneal’s online journey has often involved training. In the 1990s, he ran an internet cafe, teaching people how to use the internet, join chatrooms, and play and run LAN games. Then, he trained co-workers on doing customer support over the phone, Skype, and IRC.
Eventually, he joined one of the biggest logistics companies in the Philippines as an IT Learning and Development Specialist, training thousands of people each year.
What motivated you to go beyond using WordPress and start contributing to the open-source project? What drew you to the Training Team? “I discovered the global WordPress community during the pandemic. I had been using WordPress since 2007, but my work hours prevented me from getting involved in the local WordPress community. The lockdowns in 2020 left me with free time to join the Training Team meetings. Then, Courtney Robertson asked me to run one of the Team’s online meetings.”
Oneal also helped Jill Binder organize the #WPDiversity workshops. He’s run events in the Philippines, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, India, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and Switzerland, and helped Jill run workshops in South America.
In July 2022, Oneal was invited to join the Training Team faculty as an Administrator, where he currently helps vetting Training Team online workshop facilitator and training presenter applications.
He is also on the WordPress Community Program Support Team, helping vet WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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. and MeetupMeetupAll 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. applications.
What was your first contribution, and how did seeing your work reach so many people feel? “I helped run online meetings, edited meeting notes, and supported team members running online workshops. It made me feel like I’m part of the community of contributors. The WordPress community is not only made up of developers or coders—there are many avenues of contribution where anyone could make a difference.”
Could you share any challenges or obstacles you faced when starting to contribute and how you overcame them? “Time zones are a big challenge. I’m based in the Philippines (APAC timezone), and many meetings I helped run were usually in the US or UK timezone. l had to be awake at 1 am to join; eventually, the Training Team shifted to a two-meeting arrangement, accommodating contributors across the globe.
Another challenge is the cost of attending WordCamps and Meetups. “In the US and Europe, you can drive to an event. If you want to attend a WordCamp in Asia, you have to fly, which not only costs money but also means taking time off from work.”
Nonetheless, when Oneal heard about WordCamp Asia 2023 in Bangkok, Thailand, he decided that this had to be the first WordCamp he would attend in person. “I applied as an organizer, and for almost a year, 50 of us took time out of our week for meetings and prepared a flagship WordCamp in another country.”
Were there any specific resources that helped you along your journey as a contributor? “A great resource in WordPress is the vast amount of content created by the Training Team. There are workshops and videos on every aspect of WordPress, and many are translated into multiple languages for broader reach.
But the best resource is the people in the community. There are people who will guide you and those who will bend over backward to help you, and there are those who will sit and listen to you. They are the greatest assets, and why many of us still contribute.”
Can you share any memorable moments or achievements while contributing to WordPress? “One of the most satisfying times was when I was asked to contribute to an online workshop, discussing how the Training Team Faculty admin performs the vetting process for content contributors and how to ensure they comply with the GPLGPLGPL is an acronym for GNU Public License. It is the standard license WordPress uses for Open Source licensing https://wordpress.org/about/license/. The GPL is a ‘copyleft’ license https://www.gnu.org/licenses/copyleft.en.html. This means that derivative work can only be distributed under the same license terms. This is in distinction to permissive free software licenses, of which the BSD license and the MIT License are widely used examples..”
What advice would you give someone who wants to start contributing to WordPress? “Jump in! Just join any team you feel you can contribute. Everyone is friendly and willing to help. There is always something to do, and there are many areas where you can make a difference. The community is dynamic and always moving, and people are welcoming and encouraging.
WordPress is not just software, code, ones, and zeros. WordPress is people. WordPress is a community. That is what makes WordPress stronger and keeps people coming back.”
Thank you, Oneal, for all your dedication and contributions to the Training Team and the WordPress Open SourceOpen SourceOpen 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!
Are you interested in contributing to the Training Team? Check out our Getting Started guide or join the Guide Program for mentorship with an experienced contributor. We’d be happy to have you join us!
Welcome! Please post in the #training channel or reach out to a team member to help you with contributing. Resources to check out our onboarding program, and our Guide Program.
I also want to tie in a conversation @Courtney shared in #meta recently which ties into accessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (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) work as well https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02QB8GMM/p1708544941159409 (note that this thread will take you out of the meeting)
Looking for volunteers
WordCamp Asia 2024 Contributor Day — we are currently looking for a host on site for the online portion. If you will be attending WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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 and could assist with hosting the online portion of Contributor dayContributor DayContributor 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/., please let us know!
Updates from last week’s dev-squad triage session
Dev-squad GitHubGitHubGitHub 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/ triage meetings happen in #meta-learn every Thursday at 07:00 UTC — if you have developer experience or are interested in helping manage that work please tune in later today!
They also updated the Dev-squad triage handbook page to include details on validating Content Feedback issues for future meetings.
Other News
Discussion: Translation Plugin on Learn — This conversation is now closed– thank you to everyone who shared their insights! In summary, we will proceed with testing Polylang and WPML for our translation needs on Learn WordPress.
Ooop, this should have been in Looking for Feedback, my apologies! This conversation is ongoing until February 25th. Please share your thoughts on how we can measure impact on Learn WordPress.
We will also begin testing Polylang and WPML for translation purposes on Learn.
Faculty Updates
What have you been working on and how has it been going?
Anything you’ve accomplished since the last meeting?
Do you have any blockers?
Can other Faculty or Training Team members help you in some way?
Open Discussions
Want to bring up a tweet by Amber Hinds that we should add for future discussion. A lot of talk about accessibility. The home page of Learn WordPress has 9 insufficient color contrast errors; 2 links with ambiguous anchor text; 2 links that open in a new tab without warning. https://twitter.com/heyamberhinds/status/1760140361429622848
Thank you for bringing this to the meeting, Laura! I want to tag in @francisco and @Nick Diego — our contacts helping us with the Learn WordPress redesign for their insight into this.
You can see all meetings scheduled on this meeting calendar. If you are new to the Training Team, then come walk through our onboarding program to get to know the team and how we work. And if you have questions, feel free to reach out in the #training Slack channel at any time.
Welcome! Please post in the #training channel or reach out to a team member to help you with contributing. Resources to check out our onboarding program, and our Guide Program.
Discussion: Translation Plugin on Learn — we have just kicked off a discussion on what translation pluginPluginA 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 we could use on the Learn WordPress website to facilitate the translation work contributors have been doing in the interim to the Phase 4 Multilingual release on native WordPress. If you have some recommendations, please join the conversation!
Looking for @faculty to help run the Guide Program? — With the new Guide Program Management handbook page in hand, we’re looking for Faculty to take on the administration of the program. Comment in the thread if you’re interested in helping
Meeting Note Takers — we are looking for two more folks to volunteer to post notes for this month’s final two meetings.
Updates from last week’s dev-squad triage session
Due to me not getting the agenda published earlier the dev-squad updates will be added in the thread at a later date.
Focus on hosting release-related Online Workshops around the time of releases.
Submit release-related feedback about content as new Feedback issues in GitHubGitHubGitHub 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/. When doing so, link to original issues where possible to keep a trail of changes that happen on a piece of content.
Update on GatherPress- @LauraA has joined the GatherPress Slack group to help facilitate testing during the pilot program when ready. No set date at this time. If you would like to follow GatherPress page.
During February @west7 and @psykro will be testing out learning pathway content creator office hours. This is an opportunity for anyone working on learning pathway content, or anyone interested in working on learning pathway content, to meet, discuss what content they are working on, ask questions, or find content to work on for the learning pathways.
There will be office hour sessions: Thursday 29 Feb @ 14:00 UTC hosted by @psykro.
If you are currently working on any learning pathway lessons, or are interested in creating lessons for learning pathways, please feel free to join these sessions.
Zoom meeting URLs for these office hours will be shared in the #training Slack channel closer to the time.
The Faculty Survey Results – Q1 2024 were released and a lot of these updates are largely in response to the feedback shared. Thank you to @faculty for sharing your candid feedback on how we can improve this program.
@bsanevans will be hosting two onboarding workshops on February 15th and February 16th titled Starting your contributor journey with the WordPress Training Team
Faculty Program Online Workshop — @piyopiyofox will be hosting two Make WordPress Training Team Faculty Program Information Sessions at the end of this month on February 21st at 00:00 UTC and 08:00 UTC
You can see all meetings scheduled on this meeting calendar. If you are new to the Training Team, then come walk through our onboarding program to get to know the team and how we work. And if you have questions, feel free to reach out in the #training Slack channel at any time.
Thank you for joining the Training Team for WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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 Contributor DayContributor DayContributor 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/. on Thursday, March 7th! We’ve prepared activities for new and experienced contributors to join on the day. See the schedule for WCAsia Contributor Day day here.
We plan on hosting an online event during Contributor Day, too, so that people who couldn’t attend WordCamp Asia can still participate remotely! Please follow this post to receive updates or register on MeetupMeetupAll 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..
You can prepare for Contributor Day by ensuring you’ve created a .Org account, joined the Training Team Slack channel, and set up a GitHubGitHubGitHub 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/ account. Instructions for preparing in advance can be found here: Welcome to the Training Team! If you are a developer, check out these Dev-squad guidelines.
Training Team Mission
The WordPress training team helps people learn to use, extend, and contribute to WordPress through synchronous and asynchronous learning as well as downloadable lesson plans for instructors to use in live environments via learn.wordpress.org.
I’m new to the Training Team!
Thanks for joining! Please walk through our Onboarding Program. This will give you an overview of the team, help you set up the accounts you need to contribute, and even walk you through your first contribution!
We expect the onboarding program above to take 30-60 minutes. Once you’ve completed onboarding, jump into these other activities to continue contributing!
Write a script for a learning pathway lesson
Start by searching for a piece of content you’d like to work on from one of the User or Developer learning pathways. Once found, you can assign yourself as one of the contributors to the lesson and mention that you will write the script. You can add the script to the GitHub Issue once it is completed.
Review published content and submit feedback
The WordPress software continues to grow, and new features are always added. Reviewing published content and updating content is important in keeping the Learn WordPress website current. Follow the team guide about reviewing published content to leave feedback about any content below. (Reviewing older content would be helpful!)
Have a look through the Learn WordPress website. Are there any topics you feel would be great to add to the website? Add your topic ideas to our GitHub repository from the link below:
Thanks for joining! Depending on your interests, there are a few ways you can get involved. For each of the tasks below, the team handbook should help you with process specifics. But if you have any questions, feel free to reach out!
Content Creation / Scriptwriting
Are you interested in creating content? If so, creating content related to the Learning Pathway Project or the 6.5 release is our priority today.
Considering the time constraints associated with Contributor Day, it would be beneficial if you could develop a script for one of the learning pathway lessons. Alternatively, you could craft a script focused on one of the upcoming 6.5 features. If you have the capacity to complete the recording of the lesson when you return home, please let us know.
Start by searching for a piece of content you’d like to work on in the Recent Release project board or a lesson from one of the User or Developer learning pathways. Once found, you can assign yourself as one of the contributors to the lesson and mention how you will contribute. You can add the script to the GitHub Issue once it is completed.
Join an in-person discussion with @westnz to gain practical insights into lesson creation.
Are you interested in translating content? If so, then translate the content mentioned in the LearnWP Content – Localization GitHub Project Board. We have some high-priority content that needs to be translated. There are a few courses about onboarding contributors specifically that will help in the WordPress mentorship program:
Reviewing content waiting to be published is also a priority for us.
Start by finding a piece of content to review in our content development board. This GitHub view has filtered all content waiting for reviews before it is published. Follow the team’s Guidelines for reviewing content and leave your reviews right there in GitHub.
Subject Matter Expert
A subject-matter expert is someone who has extensive knowledge in a particular field or area and can provide advice, guidance, and direction in that subject. If you would like to help vet topics, please visit the Vetting Topic Ideas handbook page.
Triage Developer Issues
Are you a developer interested in working on issues for the Learn website? If so, then working through our Website Development project board is our priority today.
Start by reviewing issues “In Review.” Any help you can provide regarding issues “In Progress” would be great, too. But in general, any attention you can give to any issue would be much appreciated.
If there are enough interested Developers, then we can also create a developer-focused working group so that they can focus on related issues.
Cross-team collaboration opportunities
Discuss or share ideas of how the Training Team could collaborate more with other Make WordPress Teams such as Marketing, Documentation etc.
Before you leave…
We’d love to hear what you achieved on the day. Before leaving the table, please submit the Contributor Day Attendee Feedback Form and respond to the relevant thread in Slack.
While the WordPress project aims to have native multilingual features in Phase 4, with the understanding that this is still a few years away, I’d like to explore interim solutions together to facilitate multilingual management on Learn WordPress.
I understand that numerous plugins are available that could enable us to better handle multilingual functionality, but we need the one that best suits our specific needs. Given our current requirements and Content Translator work, we are more inclined to those plugins that offer effective translation management rather than automatic translation.
To help bring perspective to this conversation, I’d like to invite you to share if you have any experience with such translations plugins on WordPress? If you have, please share your experiences and recommendations. Specifically, we’d like to know:
What pluginPluginA 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 did you use?
How user-friendly and efficient it was in managing translations within WordPress?
What notable benefits did it bring to your site?
Were there any drawbacks/limitations?
Are there any other recommendations or considerations you can share?
Your insight will be incredibly valuable in helping us decide the best temporary solution so we can continue our mission to cater to a broader, multilingual audience as soon as possible.
Thank you team in advance for your invaluable help. 🙂
Welcome to another edition of the Training Team’s Contributor Spotlight! In this series, the Training Team introduces you to one of our many valued contributors, and you can learn more about their contribution journey.
Introducing Tracy!
Today’s featured contributor is Tracy Rhodes! Tracy is a Faculty Member with the Training Team, contributing as an Administrator, Content Creator, Editor, and Subject Matter Expert.
Tracy’s Background
Tracy brings a unique perspective to the WordPress Training Team! He is a graduate of the US Air Force Academy and served 20 years in the USAF as a pilot and Aeronautical Engineer. After retiring from the Air Force, Tracy was a pilot for Northwest Airlines (and Delta Airlines after the merger) for a total of 22 years.
Tracy has always enjoyed technical subjects. He earned a BS degree in Engineering Sciences and an MS in Aeronautical Engineering. His early programming experiences were using Fortran (and punch cards), then around 1985 he bought his first computer—a Zenith 100 desktop—and taught himself Basic/Visual Basic.
When not in the WordPress world, Tracy is immersed in the world of aviation. He owns a small 2-seat airplane that he flies and maintains. He is also the president of the local chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association and volunteers as a FAA Safety Team Lead Representative with the Reno FAA Flight Standards District Office. He and his wife also take care of their two dogs, a Border Collie and an Australian Shepherd.
WordPress Origin Story
Tracy’s journey with WordPress began during a challenging period in the aviation industry around 2005. As major airlines declared bankruptcy and renegotiated employee contracts, Tracy experienced a significant reduction in salary and potential retirement income. In an effort to regenerate some of that loss, he and his wife decided to start a business focused on selling homemade dog toys at events and through an ecommerce store.
This new venture required Tracy to acquire skills in ecommerce development, and SEO/marketing. He started out studying PHPPHPPHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. http://php.net/manual/en/intro-whatis.php., HTMLHTMLHTML is an acronym for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is a markup language that is used in the development of web pages and websites., CSSCSSCSS is an acronym for cascading style sheets. This is what controls the design or look and feel of a site., and MySQLMySQLMySQL is a relational database management system. A database is a structured collection of data where content, configuration and other options are stored. https://www.mysql.com/. databases. He pursued online courses, consumed programming manuals, and attended programming and marketing conferences.
It wasn’t long before Tracy discovered WordPress as a CMS that simplified website creation. This discovery marked a turning point in his trajectory. Upon retiring from airline flying, Tracy established his own single-member LLC and began creating WordPress websites for clients.
First Contributions
Tracy’s enjoyment of teaching played a big role in his decision to contribute to the Training Team. With his background as a flight instructor, Tracy has been giving civilian flight instruction since 1972, making teaching a natural inclination for him.
Inspired by his experience at the Reno-Tahoe WordCamps in 2011 and 2012, Tracy, along with a few others, started up the Reno WordPress meetup. Soon after, he started leading discussions within the group then became a co-organizer for the 2013 Reno-Tahoe WordCamp.
For Tracy, joining the Training Team was a logical continuation of his participation in promoting and teaching WordPress to new users. His first contribution was part of the Training Team’s onboarding process, engaging in a content review for a Tutorial. Tracy found the process to be very rewarding, as his comments and suggestions were received well and appreciated by the Tutorial creator.
“It felt great to be a contributing part of the team and to be able to help out, even a little bit.”
Overcoming Challenges
When he began contributing, Tracy struggled to find a clear path to becoming a better contributor. Having come from regulated industries with clear paths to success, he found it frustrating to not have clearly outlined steps on how to progress with the Training Team. However, this challenge was greatly mitigated by the efforts of the team in the past year.
“This first challenge has been largely taken care of with the tremendous changes this year that can be found in the Training Team Handbook. Thank you to all who have contributed to that effort.”
Tracy also encountered challenges in determining his level of participation. As a self-taught programmer in WordPress languages and without prior experience working in a website agency, he wasn’t familiar with aspects such as pull requests and code development as part of a team. Due to this, Tracy had to dedicate lots of time and effort to research and catch up in this area. Yet, even when he became a training team faculty member with the ability to carry out significant tasks within the Training Team systems, he initially hesitated.
“At first I was very reluctant to participate because even though I had the ability to do things I wasn’t sure if I really should. Discussions with and questions to @courtneypk, my self-designated ‘faculty mentor’ have helped me through this challenge. Many thanks for the guidance, Courtney.”
The Rewards of Contribution
Conducting WordPress Meetups, where Tracy had the opportunity to assist new users in solving the problems they have been facing has been rewarding for him.
Additionally, witnessing the success of WordCamps has also been rewarding. Seeing the tickets sell out and the event come together is satisfying, as it shows the valuable impact and interest that the WordPress community generates.
Tracy also enjoys helping presenters and developers with Online Workshops. The appreciation expressed by attendees through their comments and words of thanks is a great feeling, and serves as a reminder of the positive impact that the team’s contributions make within the WordPress community.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to get started with contributing to WordPress?
“The WordPress Training Team is an international volunteer organization and as with any volunteer organization, what you get out of the organization is directly related to what you put into the organization.
If you really want to know what WordPress and the WordPress project is all about then become part of the project by participating in one of the many teams that make up the project.
Are you new to WordPress and don’t feel you have anything that you can contribute? You are wrong. There are many things just on the training team that you can accomplish as a new user. Take a look at the Training Team Handbook and get started with your training team onboarding process today.”
Thank you Tracy, for sharing about yourself, your contribution journey, and advice with us! The Training Team appreciates all your contributions and your dedication to the WordPress Open SourceOpen SourceOpen 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.
If you are interested in getting started with contributing to the Training Team, please check out our Getting Started guide and/or join the Guide Program to be mentored by an experienced contributor. We’d be happy to have you join us!
TL;DR: A survey was conducted among the Training Team Faculty members to gain insights into their experiences and perspectives. Main takeaways are to continue improving documentation, collaboration, and communication. Improvements to Faculty onboarding are also suggested.
As we established last year, a regular check in with all Faculty members was conducted again this year to gain insight into their experiences and perspectives on the Faculty program. This also included asking their estimated amount of contribution hours they could dedicate to Faculty tasks, so we could determine if there is a need to train new Faculty members.
Faculty check-ins were accomplished by sharing a check-in survey with Faculty members. This post serves to share the findings and insight from the survey.
Training Team Faculty at a glance (as of 30 January, 2024):
Number of Faculty members: 37
Number of completed surveys: 27
Faculty roles:
13 Administrators
16 Content Creators
13 Editors
15 Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
10 Translation Coordinators
*Note: Some Faculty members fulfill more than one role on the team, which is why the numbers add up to more than the total number of Faculty members.
Let’s explore what our Faculty members had to share. Please read on for more details!