Starting a blog is easy and free on WordPress.com. But what if you’re new to blogging? If you need guidance on best practices, actionable tips on how to grow your audience and find inspiration to write, and constructive feedback from experts and fellow bloggers, you should join us at Blogging: From Concept to Content. It’s a three-day, hands-on, intensive workshop that will take you from “I’m not entirely sure what I’m doing?” to “I’m a blogger!”
Date: June 16–18, 2020 Time: 7:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. PDT | 8:00 a.m. –12:00 p.m. MDT | 9:00 am-1:00 pm CDT | 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. EDT| 14:00 – 18:00 UTC Location: Online via Zoom and private blog Cost: Early Bird Price — US$99 until 23:59 UTC on June 8, 2020. Regular price — US$179 from June 9 – June 15, 2020. Register now: https://wordpress.com/blogging-basics-workshop/
Featuring guest speakers and WordPress.com experts in areas like content and writing, SEO, design, and digital marketing, the workshop will include daily assignments and interactive discussions. You’ll also have plenty of opportunities to interact directly with the instructors as well as with Happiness Engineers. At the end of the workshop, you’ll walk away with:
A ready-to-launch blog.
An editorial calendar for the next 8–12 weeks.
A well-stocked toolkit of tips and techniques to continue to develop your blog and grow its reach.
Finally, and at least as important: a community of new blogging friends to learn from and grow with long after the workshop has ended.
We created this workshop for new bloggers who crave a structured, step-by-step approach to creating a blog that reflects their vision and voice, and who don’t want to waste time looking for answers all over the web. Be prepared to dive in and do the work! You won’t regret this investment, and you’ll be in great company.
Seats are limited to facilitate interaction between participants and instructors, so register now to save your slot. By registering this week, you’ll take advantage of our Early Bird Price of US$99 through June 8, after which the regular registration price of $179 will take effect.
May was an action-packed month for WordPress! WordPress organizers are increasingly moving WordCamps online, and contributors are taking big steps towards Full Site Editing with Gutenberg. To learn more and get all the latest updates, read on.
Gutenberg 8.1 and 8.2
Gutenberg 8.1 was released on May 13, followed quickly by Gutenberg 8.2 on May 27.
8.1 added new block pattern features making it easier to insert desired patterns, along with a new pattern. It also added a button to collapsed block actions for copying the selected block, which will help touchscreen users or users who don’t use keyboard shortcuts.
8.2 introduced block pattern categories and a `viewportWidth` property that will be particularly useful for large block patterns. There is also a new content alignment feature, and enhancements to improve the writing experience.
Both releases include a number of new APIs, enhancements, bug fixes, experiments, new documentation, improvement to code quality, and more! To learn the latest, visit the announcement posts for Gutenberg 8.1 and Gutenberg 8.2.
Gutenberg Phase 2: Steps Towards Full Site Editing
Contributors are currently working hard on Phase 2 of Gutenberg! Where Phase 1 introduced the new block editor with WordPress 5.0, Phase 2 sees more customization and includes one of the biggest Gutenberg projects: Full Site Editing (FSE). At the moment, work on WordPress 5.5 has been initiated and contributors decided to include basic functionality for Full sSte Editing in this release. FSE hopes to streamline the site creation and building process in WordPress using a block-based approach. There’s a lot of conversation and new information about FSE, so communication around the project is very important. On May 28th, a conversation was held in the #core-customize channel to discuss FSE and the future of the Customizer. To help everyone track the latest information, this post summarizes ways to keep up with FSE.
Representatives of the Themes Review Team have decided to update their team name to “Themes Team.” This decision reflects changes that the block editor brings to the landscape of themes with the Full Site Editing project. The team has always been involved in projects beyond reviewing WordPress.org themes and lately, the team has been contributing more to themes in general — including open-source packages, contributions to Full Site Editing, the Twenty Twenty theme, and more. You can read more about the name change in the team’s meeting notes.
On May 13th, BuddyPress 6.0.0, known as “iovine’s,” was released. This release includes two new blocks for the WordPress Editor: Members and Groups. It also saw the completion of the BP REST API, adding the six remaining endpoints, and the move or local avatar management to the Members component. Beyond that, 6.0.0 includes more than 80 changes, made possible by 42 contributors.
WordPress Meetup organizers in Spain joined hands to organize WordCamp Spain online from May 6 to 9, which proved to be a huge success. The event had more than 5,500 attendees, 60 speakers, and 16 sponsors. Over 200 people from around the world participated in the Contributor Day. Matt Mullenweg hosted an AMA for the participants, facilitated by Mattias Ventura’s on-the-spot Spanish translation.
The WordCamp Asia team has published a call for organizers for the January 2021 event — the call will close on June 8.
PHP and core version checks are coming into WordPress. This feature will prevent end-users from installing or activating a theme that is incompatible with their current version of PHP or WordPress. The change that has already been merged to core is slated to land in WordPress 5.5.
Happy Pride Month! Last year, I shared resources and highlighted organizations doing awesome work in the LGBTQ+ community. This year, I’m excited to tell you more about Out in Tech, an organization that Automattic has partnered with for the past four years. I’m proud to say that this year, the Queeromattic Employee Resource Group — an employee-led collective for LGBTQ+ initiatives at Automattic — is co-sponsoring this partnership for the first time.
“We’re a global nonprofit community of 40,000 members working toward a world in which LGBTQ+ people are empowered, well-represented in the tech industry, and have full agency, from intern to CEO,” says Gary Goldman, the Senior Program Director of Out in Tech. As the Queeromattic Lead, I’ve been fortunate to benefit from the wonderful and empowering community Out in Tech has created through their Qorporate Roundtables, vibrant Slack community, and virtual hangouts in light of COVID-19. It brings me great joy to share more about Out In Tech with you all in this recent interview with Gary.
Q. Tell us a bit about yourself! How do you identify? How did you get started with Out in Tech?
I identify as a cisgender gay man. Before Out in Tech, I worked as a United Nations consultant for five years in data management. During that time, I was a volunteer for Out in Tech as head of the New York chapter. It has been a dream come true to transition to being a staff member and work for my actual favorite organization out there.
Q. Can you share any exciting things Out in Tech has planned for Pride?
The unsung heroes of the LGBTQ+ community are the activists working on the ground in the 70+ countries where being queer is illegal (and sometimes even punishable by death).
On June 20, we’ll be building WordPress.com websites for 10 incredible organizations in these countries; they’re planning on using these sites to advocate for policy change, grow their community, and fundraise.
We’re also hosting a virtual Pride series the second week of June for those working in customer experience (June 10) as well as a day of workshops for folks currently navigating the job market (June 13). To learn more, visit outintech.com.
Q. Is there one person you’ve helped over the years (or a project you’ve worked on) that stands out in your memory?
I’ve noticed that a lot of people in the LGBTQ+ tech community have been eager to leverage their skills to make the world a better place.
Derrick Reyes was an early recipient of the Out in Tech Coding Scholarship. Since graduating, they’ve been leveraging their new skills to create an incredible company called Queerly Health, which helps you find and book LGBTQ+ friendly health and wellness practitioners. It was a real full-circle moment to welcome them as a panelist at an Out in Tech event back in January.
Q. Has partnering with Automattic helped your work?
This partnership has made all the difference in Out in Tech’s work, and that’s not an understatement. When I was a United Nations consultant, I traveled to dozens of countries where being LGBTQ+ is outlawed, and where activists needed a digital platform to amplify their voices.
WordPress turned that vision into a reality.
Since 2017, the Out in Tech Digital Corps has built over 100 WordPress.com websites for activists in 50+ countries.
Automattic provides these activists with hosting, themes, and domains free of charge. We also have Automatticians support us technically during the Digital Corps build days — a special shout-out to Mindy Postoff, who has been to over 10 build days!
Simply put, Out in Tech is powered by Automattic, and we’re incredibly grateful to Marlene Ho, Megan Marcel, and Matt Mullenweg for making it all happen.
Out in Tech’s mission is to create opportunities for our members to advance their careers, grow their networks, and leverage tech for social change. During COVID-19, we’re still doing just that — but digitally.
Every week, members have an opportunity to hear from dozens of companies that are actively hiring and to network with each other during Queer and Trans People of Color (QTPOC) socials and even RuPaul’s Drag Race viewing parties. We also have virtual events featuring prominent LGBTQ+ tech leaders, such as Arlan Hamilton, the founder of Backstage Capital, and Jeff Titterton, the chief marketing officer of Zendesk.
When it comes to leveraging tech for social change, 100 volunteers built websites for organizations in Senegal, Uganda, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe (among others), and we’re doing it again in June. This spring, our mentorship program connected 83 LGBTQ+ youth to tech mentors for eight weeks. They’re graduating at the end of this month, and we hope some of you reading this will hire them as interns!
Q. What do you look for when partnering with organizations and LGBTQ+ activists around the world?
Out in Tech accepts applications from LGBTQ+ groups on every continent on a rolling basis. When our Digital Corps leadership team reviews applications, they assess four main criteria:
Does the LGBTQ+ organization have a good reason for needing a website? This can range from needing to crowdsource input from the community to applying for grants.
Do they already have a website and just need a revamp? We only select organizations who either do not have an existing web presence, or whose website is very challenging to navigate.
Has the organization been around for more than one year? We want to ensure that the groups we support are established and are going to stick around for the long haul after we build their shiny new website.
Does the organization have at least a few volunteers to keep the website active and up to date once we deliver a user guide to them? We regularly track and monitor which sites are active and how they’re being used. This helps us to continuously improve our efforts to unite the global LGBTQ+ community.
Community is so important, especially in these times, and I’m doubly thankful for people like Gary who have helped the LGBTQ+ community remain strong. What organizations are you celebrating this month? How are you creating community from afar? Share in the comments below!
An app should be intuitive to use, so you can do what you need to do while you’re in a hurry or on the go. The newest versions of the Android and iOS mobile apps are reorganized based on how you actually use them. Publishing and finding what you need have never been faster, so you can spend less time hunting and tapping — and more time creating and engaging.
How did we decide on these changes? We analyzed our apps for pain points and hard-to-do tasks. We looked at the data and talked to people about which features are most important to them. We interviewed WordPress users and showed them prototypes. All these changes come from you — thanks!
Fewer tabs for faster focus
We’ve simplified the app into three main sections focused on the key things you do every day: managing your site, finding and reading great content, and keeping up to date with notifications.
Your account, whereit should be
People expect to find account information and settings in the upper-right corner, so that’s where it is now: get to your profile and account by heading to the My Site screen and tapping on your photo. It’s where you expect it to be when you need it, and out of the way when you don’t.
Start drafting, right now
There’s one button to tap to create new posts or pages. It’s big. It’s pink. It’s got a plus sign on it. It’s always there on the My Site screen, waiting. Tap it and type away!
The links you use the most, right at the top
There are a lot of things you can do with your site, but there are some things you do more often than others — check stats, edit posts, upload photos. We made links to those actions big, and we put them at the top of the My Site screen, right under a more prominent site name and logo.
Content discovery, your way
You’ll now see great content from the sites you follow as soon as you open the Reader. Use the top tabs to switch between different streams of content, or narrow things down with the filter bar if you’re only interested in specific sites or tags.
To see the improvements, make sure you’ve updated your app. The WordPress mobile apps are free and available for both Android and iOS devices. If you have any questions or feedback, reach out to us directly from the app — in My Site, tap your profile image → Help & Support → Contact Us.
Many of you are increasingly building your sites and reading other sites on mobile devices, so we’re constantly looking for ways to make our apps easier to use. Look out for upcoming changes that streamline site management and further refine the reading experience!
