Recap of October 13, 2015

Slack Log  (Requires 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/. login to view. Set one up if you don’t have a Slack account)

  1. Welcome
  2. Recap of last meeting
  3. Lesson plans status and questions
  4. Testing status and questions
    1. Feedback provided on “Anatomy of a Lesson Plan” via Pittsburgh WP MeetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area.
  5. Update on slide decks from tested plans
    1. Upcoming blog post with a list of tested plans that we’re looking to collect slides from, hopefully in the next week
  6. Continuation of the location of team documentation discussion
    1. Our handbook is currently being used to store our lesson plans.  This is confusing for those looking for our handbook.
    2. Pain point: the confusing nature of the “empty” lessons that have been started with just the template and are sitting there in the handbook
    3. Suggestion to make the lessons plans that are in-progress not public
    4. The web address https://make.wordpress.org/training/handbook/ says that it is a handbook, but in fact it’s the parent page for Lesson Plans. (@courtneyengle)  It reads visually as a page error – I was waiting on something to load (@irishguy)
    5. No matter where we store Lesson Plans – that top page for them is awfully blank… like no book cover art.  It’s just a jump to the table of contents.  It’d be weird if that were a paper book
  7. Review of plan to ensure accurate lesson plans and call for volunteers to get this started
    • Moving forward we will use a new column in our Lesson Plan Tracking Spreadsheet  titled “Ongoing Review” to identify the lessons that need to be revised because of changes to WordPress itself. Team training will divide responsibility for monitoring changes to WordPress itself between regular contributors to the team and 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/. volunteers. The tracking process will cover major or point releases and will include the following steps:
      1. We will use the change logs found in the Codex (example: https://codex.wordpress.org/Version_4.3) and the release blog posts (example: https://wordpress.org/news/2015/08/billie/) to determine whether there are plans that need to be updated.
      2. If a component of WordPress is significantly changed in an update of the software itself then we will run a keyword search to flag ALL lessons that mention that component.
      3. We will review the flagged lessons and remove any from the list that aren’t affected.
      4. Any lesson plans with confirmed updates required based on updates to WordPress itself will be redirected to the team training queue of plans that need content updates made to them
  8. Upcoming Contributor Days
    1. Documentation on current WordPress releases can be found in the Codex (see Current Version of WordPress at https://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Versions) and on the Blog in the “ReleasescategoryCategory The 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging..
    2. We’re only looking for possible inaccuracies on the lesson plans that are approved for testing.
      1. One person to scan through the point releases and make sure nothing beyond security stuff is in them that would impact the plans. It is identifying “if a component of WordPress is significantly changed in an update of the software itself” and noting what that change is.
      2. Run a keyword search to flag ALL lessons that mention that component.
    3.  @mikemueller volunteers to start reviewing lesson plans approved for testing compared with WordPress 3.9.  Mike Mueller and @judylwh will collaborate for WordPress 4.0 accuracy.

 

#content-audit, #contributor-days, #procedures, #slides

Recap of October 6, 2015 Meeting

Slack Log  (Requires 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/. login to view. Set one up if you don’t have a Slack account)

  1. Welcome
  2. Time Zones – Our team meetings will continue to be 17:00UTC when daylight savings time happens in the US and Europe and anywhere else. Our team site now displays the next meeting time in the 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. widgetWidget A WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user. in a way that is now localized to the time zone you are in. YAY!
  3. Recap of last meeting
  4. Slides – We are still working toward what needs to be done before WCUS to submit our official request for slides, and what/how they are created, etc. Please comment on our P2 post! We had a little impromptu discussion on slides and what kinds of comments we’re looking for to propel our conversation forward at WCUS. We talked a little about the PDF option specifically and had the following questions/thoughts:
    1. Is there a workflow that we could use that would result in PDF only slides that would be able to be created by and edited by anyone, regardless of whether or not they have licenses for proprietary software?
    2. One of the concerns with PDF is that it can’t be edited. Perhaps if we go with a slide 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 (that makes the slides HTMLHTML HTML is an acronym for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is a markup language that is used in the development of web pages and websites. of some sort) is that it has an “export as PDF” option. That way if something is updated in the lesson plan, then the PDF will be updated when the presenter exports one as needed.
    3. A possible existing plugin to explore in terms of capabilities: https://wordpress.org/plugins/html5-slideshow-presentations/
  5. 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/. calendar
    1. We now have a calendar of upcoming contributor days. Thanks to @judylwh for getting this populated!
  6. Lesson plan updates
    1. The customizerCustomizer Tool built into WordPress core that hooks into most modern themes. You can use it to preview and modify many of your site’s appearance settings. user plan is up for grabs if anyone would like to work on it.
    2. @meaganhanes will take on the What Can You Do with WordPress plan.
  7. Testing updates
    1. The Pittsburgh meetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. is testing the Anatomy of a Theme plan tomorrow
    2. We received feedback from the Intro to CSSCSS CSS is an acronym for cascading style sheets. This is what controls the design or look and feel of a site. plan that was also tested at the Pittsburgh meetup
    3. @bethsoderberg will make a list of plans that have been tested and will post something to the P2P2 P2 or O2 is the term people use to refer to the Make WordPress blog. It can be found at https://make.wordpress.org/. requesting all existing slide decks from people who have tested plans. We’ll use what we gather to inform our slides conversation.
  8. Location of Documentation
    1. What are the pain points with the current structure of where data is located on make.wordpress.org/training?
      1. We are not easily able to find our stuff or know what stuff there is to find. – @juliekuehl
      2. Our main navigation menuNavigation Menu A theme feature introduced with Version 3.0. WordPress includes an easy to use mechanism for giving various control options to get users to click from one place to another on a site. contains some of this stuff… but doesn’t include what we’ve started to come up with for other things… like our new procedure for audits and contributor days. – @courtneyengle
    2. What needs do we have in terms of organizing documents and collateral for the training team?
      1. We need to be able to find our stuff efficiently. – @juliekuehl
      2. If EVERYONE else is using the [handbook to store documentation], we should too. – @mikemueller
      3. WordPress TV’s is an example of a handbook that we all love: it is accessible, organized, etc. – @courtneyengle, @mikemueller, @meaganhanes
      4. We need to dig back into the archives and also consider what belongs in the handbook, and then think about where to store the pages that contain lesson plans. – @courtneyengle
  9. We started talking about how to move forward with reviewing plans to make everything up to date per our larger conversation on ensuring accurate lesson plans. We ran out of time and will loopLoop The Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post. https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop. back to this next week.

#contributor-days, #procedures, #slides, #testing

Where should we store documentation?

Right now the documentation is scattered about make.wordpress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org//training. Some of it is in the regular navigational structure, but quite a lot of it is hidden within the P2P2 P2 or O2 is the term people use to refer to the Make WordPress blog. It can be found at https://make.wordpress.org/. blog. Especially as the team is currently focused on streamlining processes and inventing new processes for things that need it, we need a centralized place to keep all of our documentation.

After looking through all of the other Make sites, it seems that the other teams nearly universally use the handbook  to store their documentation. Thus far, we’ve used the handbook to store lesson plans in progress only.
 
The questions we have for the team are:
  1. What are the pain points with the current structure of where data is located on make.wordpress.org/training?
  2. What needs do we have in terms of organizing documents and collateral for the training team?

Thus far we’ve identified some of the problems, but need to think through and determine if there are other issues that we haven’t considered yet. Finding a solution for this one will take some time and thought – please note any thoughts you have either on pain points (question 1) or team needs (question 2) in the comments below.

Note: This topic was initially discussed during our regular team meeting on September 29, 2015.

#procedures

Recap of September 29, 2015 Meeting

    1. Greetings
    2. Recap of last meeting
      1. We need further input from the team regarding what we want to see for Slides.
    3. Lesson plans status and questions
    4. Testing status and questions
      1. @melindahelt will be testing the Anatomy of a Theme next week
      2. @melindahelt anticipates feedback on the Intro to CSS lesson tested last week
    5. Contributor day process proposed and ratified process moving forward:
      • Someone monitors the 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. sites and adds any upcoming contributor days to a shared calendar so that the team knows they are coming.
      • We will use that calendar to determine what posts need to be scheduled in the P2P2 P2 or O2 is the term people use to refer to the Make WordPress blog. It can be found at https://make.wordpress.org/. to go out for each event.
      • Different people can take the lead on writing each post.  Remember that prescheduling on the P2 appears in UTC.
      • Each post will include instructions for the participants to leave their comments/progress as comments on the P2 post and to go to 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/. to ask questions, ideally of a pre-established person who will be on call and check for messages throughout the day.
      • If an in-person human is available, then questions can go first to them, then to Slack. Posting the questions on Slack also allows for others on the team to jump in when we see things if the on-call person isn’t there at the moment.
      • During our team meetings we review the feedback from the P2 posts and make assignments amongst ourselves to make changes to the plans according to whatever feedback we’ve received. (or other changes, etc.)
      • @judylw will review WordCamps listed on Central for Contributor Days and add them to our shared calendar until this ticket is resolved.
    6. Location of training team documentation
      • Consideration for using the team handbook as a handbook on procedures, and moving Lesson Plans to Custom Post TypeCustom Post Type WordPress can hold and display many different types of content. A single item of such a content is generally called a post, although post is also a specific post type. Custom Post Types gives your site the ability to have templated posts, to simplify the concept. or Pages.
    7. WordCamp US Brainstorm
    8. Training team will observe 17:00 UTC for meetings, no matter the daylight saving time changes globally.

 

#contributor-days, #procedures, #wcus

Recap of September 8, 2015 Meeting

  1. Greetings
  2. Recap of last meeting
    1. Key points include that abandoned plans will be reviewed quarterly and our next review will be in November. Also we’ll start using categories and tags on the P2P2 P2 or O2 is the term people use to refer to the Make WordPress blog. It can be found at https://make.wordpress.org/. more consistently. New tags will be assigned during team meetings.
  3. Slides
    1. Please take a look at the slides post on the P2 and leave your thoughts in the comments. We need feedback from the team to move forward with this process. Specifically we are looking for ideas of what you think a slide solution NEEDS and DOESNT NEED and specifics if your idea is already there so that we know how to describe/implement the idea. We need a workable list of requirements by the WCUSA meeting in December.
  4. Lesson plans status and questions
    1. @courtneydawn is still working on the Local InstallLocal Install A local install of WordPress is a way to create a staging environment by installing a LAMP or LEMP stack on your local computer. lesson plan.
    2. @mikemueller is still working on the Managing Media lesson plan.
    3. The lesson plan tracking spreadsheet now has correct titles for all of the plans and also has links from the spreadsheet to the plans.
    4. @mikemueller compiled the reviews from lesson plans from the East Bay MeetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. and details are available in this Google doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/11oxmPS9LGCLRd_SyjuydoJr0pvZt4Qo8yJw8Y6ZIcXA/edit?usp=sharing. We will review and discuss these items next meeting and make recommendations on what should be changed in the lesson plans.
  5. Testing status and questions
    1. @courtneydawn is testing the child themes lesson plan next week, but the include/enqueue issue needs to be updated. Does anyone have time to make this edit to this plan? Please DM @courtneydawn if you have time.
    2. @kdrewien completed feedback on the four lesson plans she’s tested.
  6. 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. 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/. Onboarding
      We want to review the intro language on the blue box to more fully describe the goals of team training.
    1. Our previous conversations regarding Contributor Day Onboarding are summarized here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AAjcvs_r2SO6dYc5T47Iok4BeGJ7ZIfALvQuBLvH3zE/edit

#contributor-days, #procedures, #testng

Ensuring Accurate Lesson Plans

The training team has recently initiated a conversation about how we will ensure that the lesson plans that our team produces will continue to be up to date when WordPress itself is updated.

Questions we have asked so far include:

  • When do we start tracking our plans to make sure they are up to date?
  • Do we start tracking after the plans have been copy edited and ready to test?
  • Do we only pay attention to completed approved plans?
  • How should we track the changes to WP and which plans they may impact?
  • How and who will do the updating of content?

In the fall of 2014 we explored an idea in our meetings and 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. San Francisco about adapting the Content Audit pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party or something similar for use in tracking changes from the dashboard of make.wordpress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org//training. This was an idea that was thoroughly researched and documented by @juliekuehl in this post: https://make.wordpress.org/training/2014/11/08/request-for-the-content-audit-plugin/. Moving forward, we should continue this conversation as part of the larger conversation about how to ensure accurate lesson plans.

The conversation has boiled down to two fundamental issues that we need to address, which are:

  • What process will we use to make sure plans are up to date?
  • When is a plan considered “complete enough” to start tracking to ensure it is accurate?

This post will be the place where we keep a running documentation of our conversation around this issue. Please leave your thoughts in the comments!

#content-audit, #procedures

Recap of August 11, 2015 Meeting

Slack Log  (Requires 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/. login to view. Set one up if you don’t have a Slack account)

    1. Greetings
    2. Recap of last meeting
    3. Slides
      1. Recap of July 31 Slides meeting
        • We have agreed since the beginning of training that slides make sense as part of the lesson plan package.
        • We need slides to illustrate points.
        • We do not want to have to make slides and then update both slides and lesson plans each time.
        • We want slides to have these features:
          • 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)
          • backwards compatibility
          • reuse
          • minimal learning curve
          • ability to use without internet
          • design consistency between different sets of slides
          • maintainability
          • ease of updates
          • ability to account for different aspect ratio displays
      2. We will continue to discuss slides every other week, with @courtneydawn guiding the discussion.
      3. @courtneydawn will write up questions based on the 7/31 meeting for everyone to think about and will post these questions in the P2P2 P2 or O2 is the term people use to refer to the Make WordPress blog. It can be found at https://make.wordpress.org/.. The team will comment and collaborate there until we reconvene on the slides topic during our regular meetings.
    4. No updates on lesson plans
    5. Testing
      1. @melindahelt‘s meetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. group is meeting next week to decide what they’d like to learn about, she will compare their list to our list to see if there is another opportunity to test something with her group.
    6.  Status of abandoned plans
      1. We are doing a full audit to determine an accurate list of plans people are currently working on. If the plan you are listed with is correct, please 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.” @abuango or @bethsoderberg to let them know. If you can no longer work on the plan listed, please ping and let us know.
        • User Lessons:
          • Local InstallLocal Install A local install of WordPress is a way to create a staging environment by installing a LAMP or LEMP stack on your local computer.@courtneydawn
          • Managing Menus – @wpnzach
          • What to do When You Forget Your Password –@pwbrowne
          • Managing Updates – @kshivler
        • Theme Lessons:
        • Speaker Lessons – all of these @jillbinder
          • Creating Great Slides
          • Imposter Syndrome
          • Finding a Topic for a WordPress Talk
          • Writing the Pitch for your WordPress Talk
          • Creating your WordPress Talk
          • Becoming a Better Speaker
          • Women Talking WordPress
    7. The team discussed initial thoughts on content changes/additions to the Getting Started page and the blue box on Training homepage.
      1. We all agree that listing out ways people can contribute immediately would be helpful. Ideas include:
        • Copyediting
        • Content review to make sure plans are technically in line with the current version of WordPress
        • Writing lesson plans
      2. We all agreed that we should remove the design bullet point from the “ways to contribute” list since that hasn’t really applied to what we’ve actually produced as a team.

 

#procedures, #slides, #testing

Recap of August 4, 2015 Meeting

Slack Log  (Requires 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/. login to view. Set one up if you don’t have a Slack account)

  1. Welcome and recap of last meeting
  2. Recap of Slides Meeting
  3. Lesson plans status and questions
  4. Testing status and questions
  5. Status of abandoned plans
    1. Notify @bethsoderberg or @abuango of lesson plans missing from spreadsheet or status of lesson plans assigned to you. Current lesson plans out reviewed by @abuango and confirmations sought.
    2. Discussion to be announced later on what lesson plans could be connected together to conduct workshops.
  6. 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. Contributor Days onboarding
  7. Lesson Plan continuity with WordPress updates
    1. When do we start tracking?
      1. Concern about lesson plans not approved but being initially tested matching up with the current version of what instructors and students may be using
    2. How and who will do the updating of content?
    3. Review @juliekuehl’s request for content audit plugin.  Further discussion at August 18th meeting.
  8. Alternate weekly discussions between Slides and Content Audit

#content-audit, #contributor-days, #feedback, #procedures, #slides

Recap of last meeting July 21 2015

Slack log (Requires 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/. login to view. Set one up if you don’t have a Slack account)

  • Recap of last meeting
  • Lesson plans status and questions
  • Testing status and questions
    • @melindahelt shared her lesson plan testing experience with Dashboard overview and High Level Overview
  • Slides update
  • Slides – Master view to tweak updates
  • Review initial Contributor Day process 
    • Calendar needed for manual tweaking about contributor days.
    • @courtneyengle will check on 3rd party integration with bots
    • Discussion on autotweeting the event hashtags with a general join WP on Slack https://make.wordpress.org/chat link @courtneyengle will check with Outreach
  • Questions & Misc
    • Welcome Wagon members will communicate together on who reached out to new members to avoid duplication

#contributor-days, #procedures, #slides, #testing

Recap of June 23, 2015 Meeting

Slack log (Requires 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/. login to view. Set one up if you don’t have a Slack account)

  1. Hello and recap of last meeting
  2. Lesson plans status and questions
    • Team reports work in progress
  3. Testing status and questions
    • Seeking suggestions for finding venues
      • Library
      • Chamber of Commerce
      • Cowork spaces
      • Colleges
  4. Questions on new team roles
    • Welcome Wagon DM script
    • @courtneyengle Create a script for 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. Point of Contacts
  5. Slides – @courtneyengle will migrate Training Slides PSDs to Google Slides templates and report back next week

#procedures, #roles, #slides, #testing