I attended WordCamp San Francisco this weekend. WordCamps are held all over the world but WordCampSF is special. With Automattic’s headquarters (they own WordPress.com) just down the street this event is the BIG ONE!
The schedule here is usually two big rooms with various speakers taking the stage.
There is a keynote from Matt Mullenweg called “State of the Word” that looks at where we are and where we are going.
The crowd is typically developer types. These are people who write code, create themes and plugins. There are a few WordPress users and power users but I think for this event the majority of people are code junkies. What’s really amazing is that people come from all over the world to attend this WordCamp.
What it's like to be at #wcsf14. 2 members from @gdiphilly and @gdisnj here, repping the east coast! @LilJimmi & me. pic.twitter.com/z3wscd16an
— Pamela Bey (@BrilliantPamela) October 25, 2014
I attend because the speakers are fabulous. Their content and thoughts are usually very different from what I’m used to. I walk away from WordCamp each year with so many ideas I have to reign myself in, slow down and implement one thing at a time. It’s such an idea overload!
WHO BUILDS WORDPRESS?
Did you know that WordPress is built not by some big corporation but by individuals and volunteers? There’s a world wide group of enthusiasts who put in countless hours to create that latest update you forgot to do. 😉
One of the things I’ve always wanted to do is get involved in WordPress.org and be a part of this building process. Last year, to help people like me get into it they created something called Make.WordPress.org
The problem for me was I just didn’t know where to jump in. So I didn’t.
You see they have broken up the work into different modules and none of them really grabbed me.
This year they had a table set up in the lobby. On Sunday I approached the table, described my skill set and what I was passionate about and they suggested a place to dip my toe in the water. It was a new group that they started – I’ll bet if you know me you can guess which one it is.
Did you guess Community? Close! I actually jumped into the Training arena. I’ll join Community next.
Essentially what we are doing is creating lesson plans for anyone to use to teach WordPress to others (and do it right!)
Doesn’t that sound a little like what I do here? I thought so too! Right now I’m working on the Managing Media lesson plan. I just started creating it so it’s a work in progress. When it’s done it’ll be tested and refined before it’s launched to the public. It won’t (and shouldn’t) have my name on it. When I’m done with that I’ll move on to another topic and another and so on.
This is a picture of the room we were in. Some of these tables were people working on WordPress Core, some on themes, others on the next plugins and some others, just on proper punctuation and grammar. They are all volunteers and all are wonderful human beings!
17:00 and it's still packed with contributors #wcsf14 pic.twitter.com/SJW47cRZ1g
— Rian Rietveld (@RianRietveld) October 27, 2014
The Training Table:
I spent a few hours on Sunday with friends I just met from all over the country and more!
(the woman across the table from me was from Germany!)
You already know what a nut I am for WordPress. It has given me so much more than I could quantify. It’s provided me a level of income I might not be able to make in the corporate world. Years ago, when I was laid off (1,500 of us were that day) I simply started building on WordPress the very next day.
I’m volunteering my time for one reason. To give back a little to the thing that has given me so much. It’s a small thing I am doing but in the end I will have contributed to the betterment of WordPress everywhere. So, the next time I’m in line at the coffee shop and I hear someone mention “WordPress” pardon me if I smile just a little. Now, I can say “We made that!” 😉
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