Tag: WCEH

  • In response to Matt Mullenweg’s “WordCamp Canada Talk”

    In response to Matt Mullenweg’s “WordCamp Canada Talk”

    I had the privilege of speaking twice at WordCamp Canada (“WCEH”; as in WordCamp, eh?)this year but had to leave before Matt Mullenweg’s town hall because of a family emergency.  After catching up later through his recap post, I was struck by how much ground he covered, from personal publishing tools and encrypted journaling to AI, open media, and the future of the web itself.

    His remarks touched on several themes that feel central to WordPress’s next chapter: helping people reclaim their online identities beyond centralized platforms, and navigating the tension between openness and authenticity as AI reshapes how we create and trust content.

    I wanted to ask Matt two questions that build on those ideas about the role WordPress can play in making “publish once, syndicate everywhere” a reality, and how it might help rebuild trust in what’s real online.

    Let me give a little update on what I’ve been up to. My life’s mission is to democratize publishing, commerce, and messaging.

    On the social side of publishing, I have Tumblr, which is a microblogging social network, but right now it’s on a different technical stack. I need to switch it over to WordPress, but it’s a big lift. It’s over 500 million blogs, actually, and as a business, it’s costing so much more to run than it generates in revenue. We’ve had to prioritize other projects to make it sustainable. It’s probably my biggest failure or missed opportunity right now, but we’re still working on it.

    Day One is a fully encrypted, shared, and synchronized blogging and journaling app that runs on every device and on the web. You can also have shared encrypted journals with others. It uses the same encryption as one password. It’s the first place I go to draft an idea—for example, to write this talk. Its editor is not as good as Gutenberg yet, but it’s pretty decent at allowing multimodal input—which means you can record voice notes, draw things, etc.—and capturing it all. It’s mostly replaced Evernote, Simplenote, and even private P2s for me. It has some fun features, like when you make a new entry it records, the location, what music you’re listening to on Apple Music, how many steps you’ve taken, the weather. Honestly, some features that would be nice to get into WordPress, at least as a plugin.

    So WordPress.com Studio is built on an open source project called Playground that we created to allow you to spin up WordPress in a WASM container in about 30 seconds, right inside your browser.

    So my first question to Matt is this: WordPress powers much of the open web, but most people still publish primarily on centralized social platforms.  There were some good talks at WCEH on the open web, the social web, and the indie web, shared by Dave Winer and Evan Prodromou this week and by Tantek Çelik at WCUS 2019.  What role do you see WordPress, either in core or through plugins, playing to help people reclaim their online identity and make ‘publish once, syndicate everywhere’ a mainstream reality?

    However, when AI creates a face, there’s no such restrictions there. So something that we could actually start to do, because right now I think we have some anti-AI rules in the photo directory, I think we should probably start to look at evolving that. So, for example, you can take a picture of me right now, change my face with AI to a face that has never existed, and that could be CC0-licensed and anyone in the world could use it. So I think there’s some possibilities there.

    I also think there’s some opportunities to use AI analysis of all the photos to give a better semantic understanding and a better search that we currently offer, which right now is typically monollingual, I don’t think it translates well into the, you know, 60-plus languages that WordPress supports, and it’s manual tagging. So there might be things to do, like a more automated understanding, which, of course, gets better over time.

    You know, we started to incorporate some of the AI models like Gemini and other things on WordPress.org to make us way more efficient on things like plug-in submissions and some code scanning. I actually think we’re very much in chapter one of where this is going to be.

    So first I will say, I don’t want to say that there’s bad actors. I think there might be bad actions sometimes, and just temporarily bad actors who hopefully will be good in the future. You know, every saint has a past, every sinner has a future. I never want to define any company or any person as permanently good or bad. Let’s talk about actions.

    Which leads to my second question for Matt: As AI makes it harder to tell what’s real online, trust in content is slipping.  The Breaking News episode of RadioLab in 2019 showed how deepfakes blur the line between truth and fiction.  How can WordPress and the open web help rebuild that trust?  For example, could it support initiatives like the Content Authenticity Initiative that use open tools to verify the source and history of digital media?

    Featured image source: https://canada.wordcamp.org/2025/thats-a-wrap-for-wordcamp-canada-2025-wceh2025/

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  • WordCamp Canada 2025 conference talk

    WordCamp Canada 2025 conference talk

    I’m thrilled to share how the Shipping WordPress Without Shipping Code talk went at WordCamp Canada 2025 (aka “WCEH”; get it WC, eh?).  For folks who couldn’t attend, here’s a summary of what we covered, insights from the audience, and next steps you can try yourself.

    If you’d rather watch than read, here’s the full WordCamp Canada 2025 talk:

    In the talk I walked my own path, from helper to release deputy to AI team lead, all without ever having commit access.  Along the way I shared how non-developer roles often get overlooked, practical patterns I’ve used to keep releases moving, and encouragement for designers, strategists, writers, or project leads who want to jump into this space.  Here’s how the session unfolded, with some highlights and sample quotes.

    A close up of a sign

    Opening & Framing

    I started by confronting the myth that only engineers lead in open source.  My aim was to shift perspectives: YOU can lead, even if your strengths lie outside code.

    The Historical Gap

    We talked about how WordPress projects have historically lacked project and product management support, and how that gap creates friction.  I quoted from the WordPress release handbook:

    “The main focus of the release team is to lead the release from its beginning through to launch … to act as connectors and facilitators.”

    It resonated: many in the audience nodded when I called out that non-developer contributions are often invisible or undervalued.

    My Journey

    I shared my own timeline: involvement in WordPress 4.7, then 4.8, 4.9, 5.8, 6.1, and 6.8.  I also noted that WordPress 4.7 had 482 contributors, including 205 first-timers, to emphasize how major release cycles need more scaffolding than code alone in order to support that many new contributors.

    What “Glue Work” Looks Like

    This was a core section of my talk.  We broke down how “glue work” such as triage, alignment, decision logging, and volunteer motivation is the connective tissue in a release.  I used the quote:

    “Triage is the practice of reviewing existing issues to be sure they are relevant and actionable.”

    And I referenced how Apache PMC members and Kubernetes maintain non-coding roles, showing that this isn’t just WordPress-specific but a pattern in mature open source communities.

    Tools, Patterns, & Gotchas

    Here, the audience got actionable advice. Some highlights:

    • Use GitHub issues and projects with clear labels (needs-decision, punt, etc.)
    • Maintain decision logs so the same debates don’t repeat
    • Establish scope gates (feature freeze, RC readiness) to protect the release timeline (go/no go decisions)
    • Beware burnout and invisible labor

    I referenced Karl Fogel’s Producing Open Source Software from my notes in a recent WordPress Book Club hosted by Aaron Jorbin roughly as ~“If it’s not written down, it didn’t happen.” And Nadia Eghbal’s note that “Maintainers simply don’t have the energy to onboard every person who shows passing interest.”

    From Contributor to Leader

    We laid out a three-step path:

    1. Start small: take notes, triage, run a meeting agenda.
    2. Own a lane: coordinate docs, dev notes, or release notes.
    3. Lead a release: coordinate across teams, make decisions, facilitate.

    I also referenced the Kubernetes “leads and shadows” model as something WordPress could use to mentor future contributors.

    Practical Playbook

    Seven habits you can take into your own contributor journey:

    1. Write the agenda, end on time
    2. Keep a decision log
    3. Guard scope with labels
    4. Close stale issues
    5. Default to public and async
    6. Give credit often
    7. Leave breadcrumbs

    I urged the audience to pick one habit and try it immediately.

    Takeaways and Q&A

    I wrapped up by reinforcing that leadership lives outside the repo and glue work makes shipping possible.  I invited folks to pick a lane, join a triage session, or help curate the next release.

    The question period surfaced great stories: people surprised they could participate in release work without code, and others asking how to balance contributions with full-time jobs.

    What I Learned from the Room

    • Many talented people hesitate because they don’t see non-developers in core.
    • The “playbook” habits resonated; people wrote them down quickly.
    • There’s appetite for more structured mentorship paths for project contributors.
    • Some folks suggested pairing systems (non-developer lead and developer lead) to onboard new contributors.

    Next Moves You Can Try

    • Join the next WordPress core triage or bug scrub session.
    • Volunteer to take notes for a devchat.
    • Pick one of the seven playbook habits and try it in your own project or team.
    • Consider how your current job or project might adopt glue roles, like coordinating features, managing scope, or writing decisions.

    Final Thoughts & Thanks

    Before wrapping up, I have to say how special it was to experience WordCamp Canada in Ottawa.  The Carleton University campus was absolutely stunning, with crisp fall air, the leaves just starting to turn, and Richcraft Hall overlooking the canal and nearby lake creating an incredible setting.

    A red and white flag with a white w in the middle

    Ottawa itself is a beautiful mix of history and energy, with old architecture and monuments along the Ottawa River that show how much care the city puts into preserving its character.

    And of course, none of this would have been possible without the amazing organizers, volunteers, and sponsors who made WordCamp Canada feel every bit like the flagship event it is becoming.  The warmth and generosity of the Canadian WordPress community really stood out, from hallway conversations to contributor day collaborations.

    Running this talk in Canada felt meaningful.  It’s part of a larger conversation: WordPress needs more voices who see beyond code, people who connect, facilitate, and help the system work.  I can’t wait to see what happens when more contributors realize they are leaders already.

    If you were in the session, thank you.  If we met, thanks again.  If not, I hope you’ll drop me a line, try one small piece of this playbook, and remember that leadership doesn’t always look like a commit; sometimes it’s the work no one sees, but everyone depends on.

    If you missed the talk, then below are my slides.

    documentDownload
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