Last Thoughts on the State of the Word from the Community

Adam Warner

Hey Bob, Adam from GoDaddy Pro here. My biggest takeaway from State of the Word was that there are a few new focuses, but what I was very happy to hear is that the work will continue to focus on enhancing and solidifying the work that’s already in progress with Gutenberg and other initiatives. And I think it was definitely the right move to postpone the release of 5.9, and then to continue to iterate, and again focus on those things that will make the platform, the editor, and other things more solid before moving into the next phase of Gutenberg.

Joe Wells

Hey, how’s it going? My name is Joe Wells. I work on the Easy Digital Downloads team. I was really impressed with the State of the Word, and I really am thankful for everything the community is doing with Gutenberg. I love using Gutenberg, it’s really impressive what’s been done and what’s going to be done.

One overall thought I had about the presentation, the livestream, was just that I would’ve loved it to be a little more slick, a little more professional. WordPress is running 43% of the internet. It’ll probably be 50% soon. I just feel like we should put on a live streams State of the Word that’s more like an Apple event or a Google Pixel phone release. Just a little more polished, a little more slick. We’re going against some competitors who are using more and more money to do advertising and fancy presentations like Shopify. I just think the State of the Word should be a little more of a show. Maybe we could put together some sort of volunteer team, a contributor team of people with video backgrounds. I have a video and broadcast background. Maybe we could come to word camp US a few days early and make sure that the keynote comes off with a lot of polish. Just thought. I’m not a good public speaker, so I’m not criticizing anyone. It was still a great presentation, very informative, and I’m appreciative of everything Matt and the community’s doing.

Michelle Frechette

Hi, this is Michelle Frechette. The number one takeaway for me from State of the Word this year is hope. I’m so hopeful about the future of WordPress. I think that what we’ve seen over the last year, year and a half in acquisitions, means more jobs and more opportunities for people. I think it means a lively and robust future for the ecosystem in WordPress, and opportunities for people and WordPress plugins, themes, projects to continue to grow. I am hopeful for the future of WordPress bringing in our youth. I’m very excited about the different opportunities that we have for education and growth within WordPress, and bringing in the next generation through those things.

I’m also very excited about the opportunities that we have in the immediate future. Things like the open verse and being able to contribute photographs, and show people that you don’t have to be a developer in order to contribute to WordPress. Very exciting.

Rob Cairns

Hey Bob, Rob Cairns here. I just wanted to share my thoughts on State of the Word, since you were asking. First of all, I think Matt was the best spoken I’ve ever seen him in the last four or five years. He was really energized, which was good. But frankly, I think there was something missing. A lot of it talked about what they did last year, the roadmap, the 5.9 delay, and I was a little disappointed that Matt didn’t spend a little more time on the community. As you know, for me community in the WordPress space has been a big push this year. More than it’s ever been, and I think the community matters. Yes, he mentioned five for the future, but that was how the community could benefit WordPress, and how they could give back to WordPress. He didn’t tackle any of the outstanding community issues we’ve had, and I think he should have. I think he needs to, and I think the leadership comes from the top.

So that’s a little bit about my thoughts of State of the Word. Hope it helped, and I hope everybody’s well.