… as WordPress was not the development tool I had hoped it would be, mainly because it prioritizes end-users over developers (and for a valid reason). And just when I considered switching, I experienced the one thing that has continued to keep me in this space: the WordPress Community.
Alain Schlesser
It’s a community full of passioned and inspiring people, and when you come into contact with it for the first time, it can be very intoxicating – I was hooked right away!
But with time, I noticed more and more that this highly inspiring and addicting environment did have a negative long-term effect on some community members.
Thousands of volunteers make WordPress, while a $10 billion industry powering one-third of the web profits. What drives so many to give so much of their time and energy? OPEN explores the open-source community making WordPress. This is a story about community giving freely of their time, expertise and energy to software driving the online economy.
OPEN was filmed at WordCamps, local events around the world organized by volunteers to further the mission of democratizing publishing. With over 150 WordCamps and 600 meetups worldwide, this grassroots community brings together more than just programmers and bloggers. WordCamps can attract hundreds of local WordPress users, each with their own story of how and why they use WordPress.
It’s always a pleasure to listen Matt’s point of view on how to make people feel at home to obtain their best for his/the “company” business
Contributing to the WordPress Project is a rewarding way to give back to the Community.
This Slide Deck (PDF) was created so that any Meetup can easily present ways to participate in Make WordPress.
Thanks to the Make WordPress team for sharing those slides! I’m gonna translate it in Italian ASAP.
On the Make WordPress.org website yesterday was posted the article Proposal to Increase the Maximum Ticket Price for WordCamps ☞ . There it was asked to the Community – you and me, in fact – what’s the arguments in favor and disfavour of WordCamp tickets price raising.
WordCamps are events by the WordPress Community for everyone following the main goal of the WordPress foundation that’s “Empowering Web Publishing”, and are organized locally everywhere in the world from New York to Pokhara (Nepal) — mentioned as an example, I’d love to attend there…
So, after having read the first reactions, I’ve decided to add my reply … which was:
To me the most important thing is: I think that pricing should not be “imposed”.
Each organizing team has to study what are the goals of the Camp, decide how many people to handle and then calculate the event’s ticket price as a ratio between costs of the basic services (ie venue) and visitors with an elementary division.
Like I’ve written above free food or drinks or after-party is nice to have, but not mandatory.There are lots of cool things to have (swag, green room for speakers, free hotel room for them or free transport from air/stations to the venue) but not all of them are required – or will make me decide to come to your camp … it’s mostly the quality of the topics of the Camp and, in second place, the fame of the organizing community and ease to reach the city / nation of the event.
My invite is to add YOUR comment to the topic, and help us to choose what’s best to do… Community and Open Source means participation, and this time you won’t be asked to code.
I think most people would be better served by subscribing to small b blogging. What you want is something with YOUR personality. Writing and ideas that are addressable (i.e. you can find and link to them easily in the future) and archived (i.e. you have a list of things you’ve written all in one place rather than spread across publications and URLs) and memorable (i.e. has your own design, logo or style). Writing that can live and breathe in small networks. Scale be damned.
When you write for someone else’s publication your writing becomes disparate and UN-networked. By chasing scale and pageviews you lose identity and the ability to create meaningful, memorable connections within the network.
Tom Critchlow: ☞ Small b blogging
Thanks to Ma.tt for the hint…
Our friend Pascal Casier has realized an entire website gathering events from all over the Italian WordPress community under a single umbrella, complementary ti all other channels made by the community.
Among the many sections present in the website, there’s a page devoted to show off the ‘social’ events of the current month … the URL si Calendario Eventi. Here you can find all the details of the announced meetup, WordCamps and various encounters officially sponsored but the community.
As you can see in the above screenshot when you visit the page you have the full month view, with everything listed in the particular date and, highlighted in yellow, the current day.
In the second part of the screen, instead, you have a map of the official communities over Italy, followed by an alphabetically sorted list of the groups [clicking on a city’s name you are redirected to the relative Meetup group page].
Here you have also infos about the current number of the “meetup group subscribers” and, when present – as in the Bari’s case below – the formal link to the announced event.
I think his initiative is excellent and commendable, and I invite those who have suggestions to contact him on the WordPress’ international or Italian Slack channels.
Also, if you’re into WordPress and are coming to Italy maybe you can plan to say Hi to a local group, and possibly share some of your knowledge and experiences with us. You will be welcomed for sure!
