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:
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.