Contributor Hour

What is a Contributor Hour?

Contributor Hours are online events the Training Team hosts prior to major WordPress releases. There are three focuses to these events:

1. To update existing content on Learn to reflect changes that will be introduced in the new release.
2. To create new content relevant to the new features that will be introduced in the release.
3. To onboard new contributors to the Training team’s processes.

Contributor Hours are hosted adhoc or weekly for one month prior to each major WordPress release. They consist of:

• Optional Zoom calls where people can connect and ask questions as they work on reviewing/updating/creating content.
• Dedicated times where a Faculty member will be present to answer any questions in SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/..

While we will have an open video conference, we will also aim to have a synchronous Slack discussion in the #training Slack channel to include folks not in the call.

Team reps will post details about the next round of Contributor Hours on the team blog.

How can I attend a Contributor Hour?

You will get the most out of a Contributor Hour if you have first completed the Training Team’s Onboarding Program. This will walk you through creating a 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/ account, a Slack account, and a 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/ account, which will all be needed to participate.

Once you’ve completed onboarding, then all you have to do is come prepared to contribute! Detailed instructions will be provided in the announcement post on the team blog, and by the Faculty member hosting the Contributor Hour.

For Faculty – How to host a Contributor Hour

1. Create a Meetup Event for folks to register for the Contributor Hour before hand and share what the contributor hour will be about. (See example event)
2. Secure a videoconferencing room (See steps to schedule a zoom meeting here)
3. (Optional) Find cohost
4. If possible, announce the event at least a week in advance
5. Run the event in the videoconference and optionally, in Slack (See Slack example)

How the session is hosted is completely flexible, but we recommend first asking the group what their contribution goals are and then attending to the group’s specific needs. If possible, setting up a Zoom “breakout room” can be beneficial for hosting space for multiple needs (Ex. Onboarding breakout room + content creator breakout room).

(The team will create this section after we’ve hosted the first Contributor Hours and we know what we’re doing… 😁)