Category: Cool Stuff

“I’m done with this; I don’t want to do this again. I’d rather just be a recluse!”

It’s probably not too surprising that these were the first thoughts I had when initially I arrived at WCEU 2022 and wandered around Porto’s Super Bock Arena.

Since March 13, 2020, when we made it home from a vacation in Antigua just as Canada battened down the hatches, we have welcomed only three guests inside our home. Living on a lake in rural Ontario, Covid seclusion has been remarkably easy and comfortable. Our social life has mostly consisted of chatting to neighbours from across the road or the end of the dock. To go straight from this to an event attended by over two and a half thousand participants was bound to be a shock to the system and more than a little scary.

I find it very liberating to give myself permission to have no real agenda; not to tour the stands and chat and pick up swag; only to attend talks that really interest me; not to talk to anyone if I don’t feel like it!

‘. . . the community is where the heart is’

It is also unsurprising that what gently reeled my back in was what I have always valued and admired about WordPress; its strong sense of community, of connection and affirmation. Milan Ivanovic summed it up perfectly in his opening WCEU 2022 Track 1 presentation, Why we community?

“The code is poetry, but, the community is where the heart is.”

I found particularly moving and powerful his reflection on the way in which the WordPress commitment to inclusivity and diversity broke down the barriers he personally had put up against ‘otherness’ growing up in a small Serbian village.

A WordPress user and blogger, I have some technical knowledge. But who I am is rooted in facilitating change, connecting people – to each other and to information – and the creation of community. WordPress has not been my career focus. But I have volunteered at and attended WordCamps in the past. I also co-founded a local WordPress Meetup.

I don’t know what it is about ‘community’ people. There seems to be an extraordinary, instinctive, gravitational pull that draws us together. There was a heartwarming hug from Josepha, a longstanding community team friend; a lively dialogue with Community Engagement Specialist, Cate, at the WordPress Community Booth; and, out of the blue, a lunchtime conversation with Julia, a Community Steward, that ran so deep it could have gone on all day. I found re-connection, new heart-kin, and so many kindred spirits of all kinds throughout the passing exchanges of the two days. This was a timely reminder of the riches such interactions can bring.

The other sessions I attended, on partnerships and acquisitions, also reinforced the values I associate with the building of strong communities; resilience, curiosity, openness, mutuality, providing a positive and consistent client experience; and appreciation of employee and volunteer effort.

Support, affirmation, inclusivity, and connection

My husband and business partner, Paul Bearne, spends about half his time working for distributed agency XWP. They currently sponsor him to work on WordPress Core. I found it heartwarming that the sense of support, affirmation, inclusivity, and connection seemed so much greater with the XWP team (for both of us) than almost any work environment I can remember. Paul suggests this is because people need to have a special kind of energy to be self-motivated enough to work in a distributed setting. They may also have to make a much more conscious effort to build connection. And, of course, this is backed up by the WP ethos of community. Whatever the reason, it made for a positive and life-affirming re-emergence into the post-Covid world.

‘Finding your WordPress lifestyle – insider insights from a veteran coder’

Honestly, the prospect of attending Paul’s talk was much too nerve-wracking for me! I sweated with him over creating the slides and we will review the video recording together on WordPressTV if he is planning to deliver it again.

For someone who is much more accustomed to giving tech talks, this kind of ‘lifestyle’ topic was quite a challenge. Paul’s XWP colleagues were most generous in contributing their time to helping shape and refine his content and delivery. I’m glad to say there was a lot of positive feedback – people seem to have found it genuinely useful and interesting. As well as recording a podcast interview for WP Tavern, he was interviewed by HubSpot. His insights are now featured on their Blog, which reaches over 1.3 million readers a month. A good day’s work.

The talk brought me some degree of personal notoriety. Standing in line to pick up a coffee when I arrived that day, the person to whom I was chatting glanced at my badge and said, ‘oh, you’re Gina!’ A gracious acknowledgement of my back-up role, the slide ‘Everybody needs a Gina!’ emphasized the importance to remote workers and freelancers of effective support.

From recluse to WCEU 2022 party animal

Part of the appeal of WordCamps is the opportunity to interact in person with colleagues from all around the world. In many cases, these are people you may have known for years yet never met. It was a delight to see Paul recognized by so many, often greeted with a hug (a bit scary as an emergent recluse) and with obvious affection.

Paul embraced the party spirit to the full. For him there was an XWP Team Day with a scavenger hunt around Porto and Douro boat trip, a Codeable dinner at the Baroque Palacio di Freixo on the banks of the Douro, the WCEU 2022 Speakers’ Dinner at the cruise ship terminal, as well as the traditional WordCamp After Party held at the Super Bock Arena. I attended about half of these. This suited me fine as I still found that many unmasked people (for eating and drinking) in indoor spaces a little daunting.

Yes, remaining a recluse certainly has its attractions. But WCEU 2022 was a welcome reminder of the joy and energy that can be generated when like-minded individuals are able to spend time together. Perhaps Covid may have given us an opportunity to understand that, in the best of times, both have value. It doesn’t have to be either/or.

If the WordPress culture of community has caught your attention, you may be interested in this 2019 blog post, The WordPress Community – Passion and Participation

It was almost with trepidation that we took off for  WCUS in Philadelphia at the end of November 2016. In the wake of the Trump election victory, even before his inauguration and what followed, US travel already seemed somehow less appealing.

Justice, equality and freedom of the press

In the event, I am really glad that we were there in that moment. It was a reminder of so much that is good in America. To stand beside the Liberty Bell was particularly poignant. To read of past success in the struggle against injustice and inequality was a heartening reminder that there always have been and still are many who will fight for the best of what it is to be human.

We had a day together in which to explore. The Liberty Bell was a ‘must see’. Benjamin Franklin’s printing press resonated well with our attendance at WCUS. After all, WordPress specifically seeks to democratize publishing. Franklin’s grandson’s statement on the freedom of the press is as relevant now as it as ever been.

WCUS itself was a fascinating experience for someone who functions at the edge of the WordPress community. What stays with me is the depth of commitment to making WordPress accessible to all. In 2016 there were 115 WordCamps in 41 countries, with close to 90% of the costs (though not the travel) covered by sponsors.

WordPress is available in 50 languages and there is a strong push for internationalization and accessibility. All this exists in the context of a code-base  written by volunteers (Paul has ‘core commits’ in a number of WordPress releases).

The third day of the conference was ‘Contributor Day’. Hundreds of people gave a full day of their time to coding, bug fix, testing, review, documentation, translation and more. In five years, the WordPress market share has grown from 13% to 27% of the web and this effort is what underpins it. What a fantastic model for social co-operation!

While Paul focused on the more technical sessions and networking, I tapped into the wider content. Topics included ‘Version Control Your Life’, ‘Five Newsroom Tips for Better Website Content’, ‘Care and Feeding of Your Passion’, as well as a really helpful session on releasing a WordPress product.

‘Darth Vader wins over Yoda every time!’

Perhaps most pertinent to world events was a great talk on ‘The Dark Side of Democratization’. It seems that content that elicits emotional response is what goes viral, particularly if it arouses anger (hence the headline quote!). Therefore we all need to cultivate an ability to evaluate both our emotional response to content and the ‘facts’ in a post-truth world. An interesting suggestion was the importance of monitoring ‘news’ from sources that reflect the people who don’t think like you, engaging with understanding and tolerance, not judgement.

You can find’ the full 40 min session at https://dennis.blog/democratization/,  together with a great set of resource links including fact checkers.

Partying with dinosaurs

The ‘corridor stream’ is always a key element of any WordCamp and the after-party is a fun extension of this. In this case, we partied with dinosaurs at the Academy of Natural Sciences, making some useful contacts while were were about it!

(This review of WCUS 2016 was originally published as part of a longer article on Gina’s personal blog.)