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In this episode, WordPress Executive Director, Josepha Haden Chomphosy articulates the vision for a collaborative ecosystem where knowledge sharing and contributions to open source tools lead to a more interconnected and empowered web.

Have a question you’d like answered? You can submit them to wpbriefing@WordPress.org, either written or as a voice recording.

Credits

Host: Josepha Haden Chomphosy
Editor: Dustin Hartzler
Logo: Javier Arce
Production: Brett McSherry
Song: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod

Show Notes

• State of the Word 2022
• PHP Foundation
• Josepha’s Big Picture Goals 2022
• Small List of Big Things
  • Gutenberg 17.1 has been released and is available for download! The latest release includes new enhancements, bug fixes, and continued work on Phase 3 features.
  • Announcing the 2023 Annual Meetup Survey – The Community team proposed a survey for all meetup members and organizers. Please complete the Annual Meetup Survey  by January 14, 2024– even if you haven’t participated in a meetup recently!
  • Request for feedback: Lesson Handbook pages – As the Training team progresses towards the 2024 launch of Learning Pathways, they’re developing a set of content creation guidelines to streamline and scale the process. These guidelines will focus on efficient methods for developing, reviewing, and updating content. To gather input, a Google Doc has been created where you can share your ideas. Please provide your feedback and comments on this document by Tuesday, December 19, 2023.
  • WordPress Playground makes WordPress instantly accessible for users, learners, extenders, and contributors.
  • Embracing Matrix for Enhanced Communication

Transcripts

[00:00:00] Josepha: Hello everyone. And welcome to the WordPress Briefing. The podcast where you can catch quick explanations of the ideas behind the WordPress open source project, some insight into the community that supports it, and get a small list of big things coming up in the next two weeks. I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Here we go.

[00:00:28] (Intro music) 

[00:00:40] Josepha: If you’re already familiar with the WordPress project, and if you’re listening to this podcast, I feel like it’s a safe assumption that you’re probably also familiar with the fact that we are what’s considered a free and open source software project. We adhere to the four freedoms of open source. We track bugs in the open, and we believe that knowledge sharing can only improve our products. 

But you might not be aware of the other open source projects that are foundational to ours and otherwise are integral to our commitment to the open web. At last year’s State of the Word, Matt mentioned that one of the coolest things about being a plugin or theme author in WordPress is that you get to run your open source project on the same infrastructure that WordPress runs on. So, no matter whether you have five installs or five thousand, you’re getting the benefits of our bug trackers, messaging, and network of project sites. But beyond those, which are, of course, near and dear to us, we also support projects like PHP and its foundation. Openverse and its founding organization Creative Commons, and of course, the two that we’re hearing a lot about this year and next, Playground and Matrix.

[00:01:52] Josepha: That’s a lot of projects and not even a comprehensive list. And honestly, it can seem, I don’t know, a little weird. Like, we’re a FOSS CMS, right? You probably know why we contribute back to PHP. It’s the same reason we ask people to contribute to WordPress. But why are we giving so much time to a media search engine, or a Web Assembly implementation, or even a messaging protocol?

At first glance, there are, of course, a lot of quick and easy answers. For instance, like, open source is open source. Any open source contribution is going to be a good contribution. All open source in the world increases good and freedom in the world. Like, open source is open source. Makes sense, right?

Another quick and easy answer is, you know, they’re part of us. And that’s true, definitely, for PHP, like, they’re part of us, and so we should be contributing back to them. Because we rely on them so much. And then a third quick and easy answer is that we, as the biggest open source CMS on the planet, basically, we can, spare a lending hand. We can offer a little bit of help to those around us. 

[00:03:03] Josepha: And those are all true. I don’t think that anyone would disagree with any of that. But the thing that ties it all together for me is something that’s a little harder to see. In the 2022 goals that I posted, I said that my second goal for our year was to support open source alternatives for all site-building necessities.

At the time, I was primarily talking about Openverse and the directory of photos that was being created as a CC-first source. But that also applies to all of our directories. It did then, just as it does now. And Trac, and our vast network of WordPress sites. All the tools we use in order to collaborate with, and lead for, and learn from each other.

I want us to be able to do everything it takes to build an online presence using open source tools and methods because WordPress is just a glorious little microcosm of the interconnected web. It reminds me of this art installation I had the privilege of experiencing. It’s called Meow Wolf. I went to the one in Denver, but there are a few different installations across the U.S. The one that I went to is this massive art installation, and it is designed to be interactive, but it wasn’t until you started sharing your experience sharing your knowledge with other people that you realized it was also collaborative, a set of buttons you pushed in one room would cause a light show in some other room.

[00:04:34] Josepha: So you were enhancing the experience of strangers in some completely disconnected room to yours, and they couldn’t distinguish it from an automation or something they did, or just plain old magic. And that’s what we’re doing by supporting these other open source tools. Yes, every new open source contribution results in more freedom in the world. Yes, we owe support to the components that got us where we are today. And yes, we absolutely can and should pay it forward. But more importantly than all that, we’re creating the opportunity for new interactions, new brilliance, and new defenders of the open web every time that we work on these open source products.

[00:05:20] Josepha: And it doesn’t matter if we will ever see any of those people. And it doesn’t matter if they will ever thank us. What matters is that we see that knowledge like this is worth preserving and worth sharing. Because knowledge shared, information shared is like light. The more you share it, the more there is.

And I want you to be able to take that sharing and use it to light the world. I want you to be able to go out and tell people how open source has changed your life, how WordPress has opened doors for you, or how much these tools have empowered your clients. I want you to remember why you came to WordPress in the first place, and I need you to hear me when I say that I need you here in WordPress today because every little ripple of good that we create makes the world a little more good.

[00:06:12] (Music interlude) 

[00:06:20] Josepha: (SLBT) And now, my friends, that brings us to our time for the small list of big things. I’ve got a kind of a big list because I always kind of have a big list anymore, but the first thing on my list is Gutenberg 17.1. That has been released and is available for download. It includes several new enhancements, loads of bug fixes, and continues that work on phase three features that we are starting to see come through. If you don’t have it already, go out and grab it, test it, break it, and tell us what you tested and how it broke things. 

[00:06:52] Josepha: The second thing on my small list of big things is that there is currently an annual meetup survey out. So, we’ve had an increase in our meetup events, and certainly an increase in the active number of meetup groups that we have, but the community team is proposing a unified survey for all meetup members and organizers, and if you haven’t participated in it yet go and fill it out. You don’t have to have actually gone to a meetup event recently in order to take it, but, you know, it might be helpful. Either way, you have until January 14, 2024, to fill that out.

[00:07:30] Josepha: The third thing on my small list of big things is a request for feedback. The training team is working toward launching Learning Pathways in 2024. They’re looking to create a new set of content creation guidelines that enables the learning pathways to scale with a straightforward process for developing, reviewing, and updating that content. There’s a Google doc for you where you can contribute your ideas, and that doc will be open for feedback through this week and into next week. I believe it closes on Tuesday, the 19th of December, 2023.

[00:08:04] Josepha: And then the final thing on my small list of big things is actually, it’s a dual call-in. I already said with my first one about the Gutenberg plugin: get in there and test it and break it, and then tell us how it broke and what you were doing when you were testing it and broke it. And I encourage you to do that also for Matrix and Playground.

So Playground has been a really big deal all year long. It was a big deal at the end of last year. It showed up for us in November 2022 and has been really just growing in surprising ways all the way through 2023. So if you have not yet seen it, you haven’t gotten your hands on it yet, it’s a WordPress installation that is loaded entirely in the browser, totally server-free, and we’re looking at a couple of new implementations that make it easier for users who are trying to, like, kick the tires of WordPress before they decide, and developers who are wanting to test new pull requests and things like that.

So keep an eye out if it sounds interesting; it is interesting. And wander over and figure out how that’s working. And the other thing in that last call for collective testing is Matrix. So Matrix is an open source federated messaging protocol, and like so many technology projects out there at the moment, we are trying to make sure that we are preparing ourselves for the future arrival of Web 3 and all of the things that are coming along with current advancements in federated everything and AI and etc., etc.

And so, Matrix is an open source messaging protocol. There are a lot of different ways to get connected. I’ll share a link to one of the posts in the show notes over on WordPress.org/news. But if you’re interested in learning a bit about it and you don’t really want to like figure out what sort of client is comfortable for you to use. There’s also on-site chat implementations for, I want to say, like 10 or 12 of our largest or most regularly meeting groups that we have. You can go to parts of the website like make.WordPress.org/core/chat and check those out. If you have a WordPress.org account, then you can have access to that on-site chat, and that is it.

That’s the whole low barrier to entryway of figuring that out with us. Come and break stuff with us, everyone, and tell us how to make it better. 

[00:10:33] Josepha: And that, my friends, is your small list of big things. Don’t forget to follow us on your favorite podcast app or subscribe directly on WordPress.org/news. You’ll get a friendly reminder whenever there’s a new episode. If you liked what you heard today, share it with a fellow WordPresser. Or, if you had questions about what you heard, you can share those with me at wpbriefing@WordPress.org. I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Thank you for tuning in today for the WordPress Briefing, and I’ll see you again in a couple of weeks.

[00:11:00] (Music outro) 

November is usually a busy month for the WordPress project, and this year is no different. Following the empowering release of WordPress 6.4, the energy continues to build, setting the stage for the anticipated State of the Word and upcoming projects. 

Read on for all the exciting updates that marked the past month.

Get ready for State of the Word

Mark your calendars—State of the Word 2023 is approaching fast. In this annual keynote, WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg celebrates the progress of the open source project and offers a glimpse into its future.

For the first time in WordPress history, the event will be held outside North America, in the vibrant city of Madrid, Spain, on December 11, 2023.

If you’re unable to attend the State of the Word in person, you can watch it live on the WordPress YouTube channel or join one of the many community-led watch parties. Find one near you or organize one.

Meet Twenty Twenty-Four

Along with the release of WordPress 6.4 “Shirley,” the new default Twenty Twenty-Four theme was introduced.

This theme breaks away from the tradition of previous default themes that focused on a specific topic or style. Instead, Twenty Twenty-Four was created to fit any website and explore different use cases for entrepreneurs, artists, and writers.

You’ll find more than 35 beautiful patterns, including full-page patterns for templates like homepage, search, and more. Twenty Twenty-Four boasts the latest site editing capabilities and a sophisticated aesthetic inspired by contemporary design trends.

New in the Gutenberg plugin

• Gutenberg 17.0 was released on November 9, 2023. It introduced improvements to the Command Palette, an alternative implementation of the DropdownMenu component, additional visual cues for LinkControl, and various accessibility and performance iterations.
• Gutenberg 17.1 shipped on November 22, 2023. In addition to several accessibility and writing flow enhancements, this version brought a new block spacing control in the Quote block.

https://wordpress.org/news/2023/10/episode-64-patterns-in-wordpress/

Team updates

• WordPress is switching to Matrix in replacement of the Making WordPress Slack by the end of this year. The move stems from the project’s commitment to implementing a new chat system aligned with WordPress’s open source values. If you haven’t already, now is the time to explore Matrix and share your questions.
• With phishing scams on the rise, the WordPress Security team is actively monitoring the current threat and has posted an advisory to help you protect your site.
• The Plugin Review team is now reopening applications to join their team. They’re looking for three new members who can improve the state of the plugin review queue and help create a diverse and inclusive team.
• Over the past few months, contributors have been working on redesigning the WordPress.org Developer Resources section.
• This post outlines proposed dates for major WordPress releases in 2024.
• The Meta team shared an improved version of the plugin preview feature. This version builds on feedback and allows plugin developers to safely test the preview experience for their plugins in a WordPress Playground environment.
• Polyglots and Meta contributors introduced a new plugin called Tour, which enables the creation of tours to guide contributors through a Make WordPress blog.
• Are you looking to broaden your knowledge and improve your WordPress skills? See what’s new on Learn WordPress in November 2023.
• The latest edition of People of WordPress features back-end web developer Artemy Kaydash from Ukraine.

https://wordpress.org/news/2023/10/episode-64-patterns-in-wordpress/

Requests for feedback & testing

• The Community team announced the 2023 Annual Meetup Survey. Both event attendees and organizers are encouraged to provide feedback in this 5-minute survey to help strengthen WordPress meetups in the future.
• Version 23.7 of the WordPress mobile app for iOS and Android is ready for testing.

WordPress events

• WordCamp Asia opened the third round of ticket sales and announced that their first speaker is WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg. The conference will be held in Taipei, Taiwan, on March 7-9, 2024.
• WordCamp Europe opened its call for sponsors and speakers for their conference slated to take place in Torino, Italy, on June 13-15, 2024. 
• Don’t miss these upcoming WordCamps:
  • WordCamp Ahmedabad 2023, India on December 9, 2023
  • WordCamp Lahore 2023, Pakistan on December 9-10, 2023

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Have a story we should include in the next issue of The Month in WordPress? Fill out this quick form to let us know.

Thank you to Bernard Meyer for contributing to this edition of The Month in WordPress.

Dan Alatorre murders people for a living. Not literally, but literarily: His thrilling mystery novels have captivated audiences around the world, landing him on multiple bestseller lists. 

Like so many authors of the internet age, Dan started his writing journey with a blog. Back then, his posts were focused more on the day-to-day happenings of his life, and they eventually provided the fodder for his first book: a silly autobiographical tale about a father and his daughter. 

Dan has always had many different stories to tell. He published titles in a variety of genres, such as horror, romance, humor, and science fiction, before he tried his hand at murder mysteries. It didn’t take long for his unforgettable characters and unique storytelling to captivate audiences. 

“It is great when some stranger you’ve never met picks up your book and reads it. You wrote words down, they read it, and it changed their life.”

For inspiration when writing his novels, Dan looks to what has piqued his interest throughout his life–1950s film noir classics, modern-day crime shows, and mystery authors like Agatha Christie–and then puts his unique spin on things. In his most popular series, Double Blind, he’s found an equation for success: two detectives, with an underlying current of romantic tension, working to solve a murder. Each case is its own self-contained story, so it not only works as part of the series, but it also makes a good standalone novel. “Good ideas were and are everywhere for an author, so I have about twenty additional story ideas for the characters,” he says. “As long as readers enjoy reading them, I’ll keep writing them.”

His creativity unlocked, Dan was able to concentrate on that all-important but oft-ignored aspect of any creative business: marketing. His website, danalatorre.com, was already his personal space on the web but it also gave his fans a VIP entrance to interact with him. With his Readers Club, Dan is able to go above and beyond simply promoting his books, building an active community of engaged readers. That sense of connection—with other murder-mystery fans as well as with him, the author—makes each new novel even more likely to be a success. 

“It’s a great way to build that rapport with your fan base. If they’re interacting with their favorite author, they’re a fan for life.”

But don’t just take his word for it. If you’re an active (or aspiring) author, there are many other reasons to carve out a corner of the internet just for yourself and your fans. 

Always be writing

Since writing is already something you do, an active blog can help provide insight to your audience about your writing process, upcoming events, story ideas, and so much more. It will position you as a valuable resource for readers and potential collaborators, leaving them eager to hear more from you.

Build your brand

Your website is a distillation of your personal brand, reflecting your unique literary style, voice, and identity. Choosing the right theme for your site—from colors, to fonts, to layout, and more—can help reinforce your work as an author. A good website builds trust, and it can help you stand out like a literary beacon in the vast sea of books.

Control the story

In an age of online reviews and social media commentary, other voices can often shape the narrative. A personal website provides a platform for you to tell your own story, highlighting your work in the way that you want.

Ready to write your success story? Use coupon code wpsuccessda for 25% off annual plans. Visit WordPress.com/pricing or click below to get started:

WordPress 6.4.2 is now available!

This minor release features 7 bug fixes in Core. The fixes include a bug fix for an issue causing stylesheet and theme directories to sometimes return incorrect results.

This release also features one security fix. Because this is a security release, it is recommended that you update your sites immediately.

You can download WordPress 6.4.2 from WordPress.org, or visit your WordPress Dashboard, click “Updates”, and then click “Update Now”. If you have sites that support automatic background updates, the update process will begin automatically.

WordPress 6.4.2 is a short-cycle release. The next major release will be version 6.5 released in early 2024.

For more information on this release, please visit the HelpHub site.

Security updates included in this release

The security team addressed the following vulnerability in this release.

• A Remote Code Execution vulnerability that is not directly exploitable in core, however the security team feels that there is a potential for high severity when combined with some plugins, especially in multisite installs.

To help the security team and WordPressers around the world, you are encouraged to responsibly report vulnerabilities. This allows vulnerabilities to be fixed in future releases.

Thank you to these WordPress contributors

This release was led by Aaron Jorbin.

WordPress 6.4.2 would not have been possible without the contributions of the following people. Their asynchronous coordination to deliver maintenance and security fixes into a stable release is a testament to the power and capability of the WordPress community.

Aaron Jorbin, Aki Hamano, Akira Tachibana, Alex Concha, Angela Jin, Anton Vlasenko, Barry, bernhard-reiter, Caleb Burks, Corey Worrell, crstauf, Darren Ethier (nerrad), David Baumwald, Dennis Snell, Dion Hulse, Erik, Fabian Todt, Felix Arntz, Héctor Prieto, ironprogrammer, Isabel Brison, Jb Audras, Jeffrey Paul, Jessica Lyschik, Joe McGill, John Blackbourn, Jonathan Desrosiers, Kharis Sulistiyono, Krupal Panchal, Kylen Downs, meta4, Mike Schroder, Mukesh Panchal, partyfrikadelle, Peter Wilson, Pieterjan Deneys, rawrly, rebasaurus, Sergey Biryukov, Tonya Mork, vortfu

How to contribute

To get involved in WordPress core development, head over to Trac, pick a ticket, and join the conversation in the #core. Need help? Check out the Core Contributor Handbook.

As a final reminder, The WordPress Security Team will never email you requesting that you install a plugin or theme on your site, and will never ask for an administrator username and password. Please stay vigilant against phishing attacks.

Thanks to @angelasjin and @desrosj for proofreading.

It’s almost time for State of the Word 2023! Join us for this live stream event on December 11th at 10am ET.

State of the Word is the annual keynote address delivered by the WordPress project’s co-founder and Automattic CEO, Matt Mullenweg. Every year, the event shares reflections on the project’s progress and the future of open source. Expect all that and more in this year’s edition.

For the first time ever, this event is venturing beyond North America, bringing the WordPress community to a new and vibrant city: Madrid, Spain! The event will be live-streamed to WordPress enthusiasts and newcomers alike via the WordPress YouTube channel.

Join Matt as he provides a retrospective of 2023, demos the latest in WordPress tech, and comments on the future of the WordPress open source project.

Watch State of the Word 2023 live!

What: State of the Word 2023

When: Monday, December 11, 2023 @ 10:00 am ET (15:00 UTC)

How: The live stream is embedded in this post, just above, and will go live at the time of the event. It will also be available through the WordPress YouTube channel. Additionally, there are a number of locally organized watch parties happening around the world if you’d like to watch it in the company of other WordPressers.

Don’t worry, we’ll post the recorded event early next week if you aren’t able to catch it live.

The WordPress Security Team is aware of multiple ongoing phishing scams impersonating both the “WordPress team” and the “WordPress Security Team“ in an attempt to convince administrators to install a plugin on their website which contains malware.

The WordPress Security Team will never email you requesting that you install a plugin or theme on your site, and will never ask for an administrator username and password.

If you receive an unsolicited email claiming to be from WordPress with instructions similar to those described above, please disregard the emails and indicate that the email is a scam to your email provider.

These emails link to a phishing site that appears to be the WordPress plugin repository on a domain that is not owned by WordPress or an associated entity. Both Patchstack and Wordfence have written articles that go in to further detail.

Official emails from the WordPress project will always:

• Come from a @wordpress.org or @wordpress.net domain.
• Should also say “Signed by: wordpress.org” in the email details section.

The WordPress Security Team will only communicate with WordPress users in the following locations:

• the Making WordPress Secure blog at make.wordpress.org/security
• the main WordPress News site at wordpress.org/news

The WordPress Plugin team will never communicate directly with a plugin’s users but may email plugin support staff, owners and contributors. These emails will be sent from plugins@wordpress.org and be signed as indicated above.

The official WordPress plugin repository is located at wordpress.org/plugins with internationalized versions on subdomains, such as fr.wordpress.org/plugins, en-au.wordpress.org/plugins, etc. A subdomain my contain a hyphen, however a dot will always appear before wordpress.org.

A WordPress site’s administrators can also access the plugin repository via the plugins menu in the WordPress dashboard.

As WordPress is the most used CMS, these types of phishing scams will happen occasionally. Please be vigilant for unexpected emails asking you to install a theme, plugin or linking to a login form.

The Scamwatch website has some tips for identifying emails and text messages that are likely to be scams.

As always, if you believe that you have discovered a security vulnerability in WordPress, please follow the project’s Security policies by privately and responsibly disclosing the issue directly to the WordPress Security team through the project’s official HackerOne page.

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Thank you Aaron Jorbin, Otto, Dion Hulse, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, and Jonathan Desrosiers for their collaboration on and review of this post.

The Jetpack app is getting better and better every single day. We’re excited to share a few updates we’ve made across the mobile experience to make your WordPress.com content creation and management more efficient and enjoyable.

Look for these updates when your app updates to version 23.7.

Posts and Pages improvements

Redesigned posts and pages screen

The Posts and Pages screen has a fresh new look. Notably, the “default” and “compact” display options have been consolidated, making the user interface more streamlined. This means that you now have a more intuitive way to navigate your content and find what you need.

New context menu

Navigating to  “Stats,” “Comments,” and “Settings” has been moved to the context menu for a cleaner and more organized look. This enhancement simplifies the user interface, making it easier to access and manage your content.

New swipe actions on iOS

With the introduction of swipe actions, you can now swipe left to view a post or page, and swipe right to share or delete it. This intuitive feature adds a layer of convenience to your workflow, allowing you to perform actions with a simple gesture.

Improved search and filtering on iOS

This Jetpack app update also includes various search and filtering improvements on iOS. You can now perform full-text searches and filter content by “author” or “tag.” This makes it easier to locate specific content within your collection.

Streamlined dashboard and personalizations

We’ve refined the dashboard interface, offering a more personalized experience. You can now customize shortcuts and cards on your dashboard, tailoring it to your specific needs and preferences, so you can easily access the features that matter most to you. 

Updated “Me” tab

By moving the “Me” section to the bottom tab, we’ve simplified the app’s navigation. This means you can now access your profile, account settings, and app settings from anywhere within the app, without interrupting your workflow. 

Optimized site media on iOS

We’ve re-engineered the screen for managing and selecting your site’s media on iOS, focusing on performance optimizations. The previews load significantly faster and use less memory, ensuring a smooth scrolling experience.

We’ve also added three new gestures to help you manage your media on the fly:

• Long press on an image to quickly preview a photo and access some of the common actions
• Quickly select multiple items by dragging your finger over the images
• When checking the media details, swipe from left to right to switch between items

There are many other minor improvements and fixes that add up to a significantly better overall experience of working with your media, and we’ll continue to build on this new foundation in the upcoming releases to deliver the best experience possible.

Download the latest update

Experience the new and improved Jetpack mobile app by downloading the latest update. 

Thank you for being part of the WordPress.com community! We’re thrilled to continue this journey of improvement with you.

The People of WordPress series shares inspiring stories of how people’s lives can change for the better through WordPress and its global community of contributors.

Artemy Kaydash discovered that working with WordPress has opened possibilities greater than he imagined. For him, the “active, responsive, and enthusiastic community” makes the software fresh and alive with many ways to experiment and practice adapting it for clients’ needs.

Back-end development with WordPress has proven to be a rewarding career choice for Artemy. He believes developers can inspire others to choose the same career path by sharing the opportunities and satisfaction of working with the content management system (CMS).

The adventure of learning WordPress

Learning new software can be daunting, but Artemy realized that learning with and from inspiring people makes a real difference: “I vividly remember my first WordPress experience. I was confused, had many questions, and was desperately trying to understand how to do the most simple things.”

Working initially in a small agency in Ukraine, Artemy had basic HTML/CSS skills and had just started learning PHP development. His senior colleagues helped him take his first steps in web development and were patient with his questions.

The agency director later gave him the responsibility of creating a WordPress website for a friend. He recalls being nervous, as he was not yet confident in his PHP skills. Colleagues reassured Artemy as he worked, and he went on to build a career in international web development.

Like many others, Artemy found that experimenting with WordPress intrigued him, and he wanted to learn more about it. Looking back, he said: “The first theme I built was awful. It was composed of my own creative solutions and code snippets I found in searches. It had lots of bugs, but as people say, ‘the first pancake is always a bit tricky.'”

Artemy is a great believer in reflective learning, going back and reviewing a piece of development. He said: “No matter how bad it was, it was my first experience, and I learned a lot about the basic concepts of WordPress. That’s why I believe that learning by doing is the best way to learn something new.”

He added: “My advice to others is don’t be afraid of doing something awful when you create something for the first time. It’s okay. We’ve all been through that initial phase.”

“It’s nice to have a mentor when you learn something new. Luckily, you don’t need a person sitting next to you anymore. All of us have got the best mentor possible: the Internet. If you don’t know how to do something, then search for how other people have done the same thing,” Artemy said.

“No wonder some say that one of the most required skills of every developer is the willingness to learn and to know how to search for information. This is one of the reasons WordPress is one of the best options for beginners. Now there is so much more information and help available to learn, more than there was when I first began.”

Artemy feels that the willingness of others to share their experience and problem-solve together is a big strength of the WordPress community and also the reason for its ongoing success: “When you stumble upon a problem, there’s a high probability that someone already asked the same question on one of the forums or websites. If you’re lucky enough, someone already wrote a post about your problem with a great explanation of how to solve it with examples and code snippets.”

WordPress is for beginners and long-term careers

WordPress is not a software with strict limits, and it can be adapted and used in many different ways by beginners and advanced developers.

I like to learn something that excites me and makes my brain work. With WordPress, I am able to find interesting and creative solutions.

There are so many new things to learn that Artemy decided to stay in web development, and he sees it as a perfect channel for his creativity and abstract thinking. It may seem very different from his initial education in literature, sociology, and philosophy. Still, he has found those studies sharpened his skills for understanding, communicating, and working with clients on creative solutions to challenges.

Artemy enjoys the client side of his work and interacting with different studios and agencies. His international work allows him to use WordPress and WooCommerce in many different environments, both large and small, which keeps the software exciting. He said: “I believe if you want to learn something you have to practice using it a lot. Open source is a big advantage in this.” Artemy found that the more he experiences various sites and clients, the more flexible and helpful he can be in helping them find the right solution.

Inspired to help others use WordPress

A willingness to share and grow skills together is what open source environments champion. This collaborative environment inspired Artemy to focus on using WordPress professionally and to share what he learned. “There is a lot of free code and snippets available for anyone to use. I have been grateful to all of the people who have written answers on sites like Stack Overflow, written blog posts, created free plugins, and other helpful materials. It made me want to help others when I was able to.”

In August 2021, Artemy began blogging about using WordPress: “I like to think that this way I am repaying my learning debt for all the content I have consumed. It makes me happy to see that people really read my posts, and it helps them solve their WordPress problems. So, today, when I face a problem and can’t find the solution, I think it might be a great idea for a new post!”

He also likes to keep up with how other people use WordPress by visiting Stack Overflow, WordPress Facebook groups, and other communities where people ask questions almost daily. He helps where he can in those channels or gains inspiration for new content. He believes Learn.WordPress.org and the Developer Blog are valuable resources for beginners and more advanced developers too. As those resources grow, they will increasingly become a place where others can share their development knowledge and use cases.

Every community is a two-way street

Artemy encourages everyone to become a part of the WordPress community. “There are a lot of opportunities for everyone,” he said. “You can help with the translation of your favorite plugins or themes. You can create your own plugin or become a contributor to an already existing open source plugin. You can write tutorials. You can write reviews helping other people to choose the best option for them. You can help people on support forums.”

Every contribution, big or small, makes WordPress better. It is a great experience to be part of it.

Share the stories

Help share these open source contributor stories and continue to grow the community. Meet more WordPressers in the People of WordPress series.

To discover more about how to use WordPress, and start your own story, visit Learn.WordPress.org.

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Thanks to Artemy Kaydash for sharing about his adventures in WordPress, and to Abha Thakor, Nalini Thakor, Meher Bala, Mark Smallman, Nicholas Garofalo, Chloe Bringmann, and Mary Baum for interviews, editorial, images, and reviews.

A great business name is essential for building a strong brand. It needs to immediately catch the attention of potential customers and become something that stays top-of-mind for the long term.

You could wait until you have a flash of inspiration and stumble upon an excellent brand name. But what if you want something to spark your inspiration right now? Perhaps a tool that could get your creative juices flowing and start you on the path toward success?

That’s where our Instant Business Name Generator comes in. We’ve recently revamped this free tool with the power of AI so you can uncover dozens of great ideas in seconds. 

Using the Business Name Generator

Start the process by visiting the Instant Business Name Generator and entering a keyword or phrase for your business idea:

Next, you’ll be presented with several options to choose from:

Want to see more options? Try the same keyword or phrase again or enter a different term to get a new set of ideas.

If you see a name that you like, click “Next” to purchase the domain name. You can choose from over 350 extensions to find the one that’s best for your new business.

Once you have a domain name, there’s no better place to host and build your website than WordPress.com. Choose any paid annual plan and you’ll get your domain name free for the first year. If you need help building your website, Built By WordPress.com, our own website design service, has you covered—and you’ll still get your domain name free.

3 tips for choosing your business name

While the Business Name Generator is helpful for effortlessly spinning up tons of ideas, you’ll still need to choose just one that’s going to represent your business. Here are a few tips to choose a name that sticks:

Simplicity is key

If your name has too many words, or is hard to understand, people might not remember what your business is called. Or they might be reluctant to recommend your business to others. Choose a name that isn’t likely to require repeating several times in conversation.

Make it memorable

Once you have a handful of ideas that you like, try sharing them with a trusted friend or two. Then, see if they can remember your ideas a day or two later. 

It’s not a perfect system, but as long as your friend is willing to help with your market research, it might help you determine which of your ideas has staying power. 

Own it everywhere

Once you have settled on your business name, buying the domain name is a clear next step. In addition, you should also make sure matching social media usernames are available across networks that your business might use. 

Be quick to create accounts and claim those handles, even if it might be a while before you’re ready to promote your business. It could save you some disappointment later on.

Try the Business Name Generator

If you’re planning on starting a business soon, then take the Business Name Generator for a spin. And if your big idea becomes a world-famous brand and people ask where you found the name? Well, we won’t even ask for any credit. We’ll just be glad we could help.

WordPress Executive Director, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, returns to a recent episode of the WordPress Briefing, which discussed two resources for openly licensed media in the WordPress project– Openverse and Photo Directory– and how they differ from one another!

Have a question you’d like answered? You can submit them to wpbriefing@WordPress.org, either written or as a voice recording.

Credits

Host: Josepha Haden Chomphosy
Editor: Dustin Hartzler
Logo: Javier Arce
Production: Brett McSherry
Song: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod

Show Notes

• Photo Directory Make Page
• Submit a Photo to the Photo Directory
• Openverse Make Page
• Openverse Call for Contributions: Block Editor Integration (now closed)
• Small List of Big Things
  • State of the Word – The countdown is on for this year’s State of the Word! If you missed the initial announcement a few weeks ago, you’ll want to mark your calendars for December 11, 2023. State of the Word will include a Q&A session. If you want to participate, you can send your question to ask-matt@wordcamp.org or ask during the event via the Q&A app Slido. A QR code for your submission will be provided during the event live stream.
  • WordCamp Asia has extended their call for sponsors, slated to take place in Taipei, Taiwan, March 7-9, 2024. The new deadline has been extended to November 30, 2023.
  • The Documentation Team created a new GitHub repo for end-user documentation and its translations to all locales. More info about this can be found here.

Transcripts

[00:00:00] Josepha: Hello everyone. And welcome to the WordPress Briefing. The podcast where you can catch quick explanations of the ideas behind the WordPress open source project, some insight into the community that supports it and get a small list of big things coming up in the next two weeks.

I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Here we go.

[00:00:28] (Intro music)

[00:00:40] Josepha: Today, we’re going to take a listen to last year’s episode about Openverse and the Photo Directory. A lot has changed in that project, well in, in both of those projects since then. For instance, the Photo Directory just passed a 10,000 photo milestone. And Openverse, in the past year, got their own URL and have been hard at work strengthening the reliability of their APIs.

[00:01:03] Josepha: But for some folks, it might still be a little unclear just what the difference is between these two projects. So let’s take a listen, and don’t forget to catch the updated small list of big things at the end of the episode. 

[00:01:13] (Music interlude)

[00:01:21] Josepha: About 18 months ago, the Openverse project became part of the WordPress open source project, and at roughly the same time, we also welcomed in the Photo Directory.

Since that time, we’ve seen growth of teams supporting both of these initiatives. But if you’re not involved in the day-to-day, it can be hard to know how those two things fit together or if they fit together at all.

[00:01:41] Josepha: Today, let’s take a brief tour of those two projects and why they came to be. In my timeline, work on the Photo Directory started before the work on Openverse, so that’s where we’ll start.

For as long as I can remember, the WordPress community has raised the need for WordPress-first ways to have and host GPL-compatible photos for use in themes, site builds, and marketing efforts as a whole. As recently as 2016, that was still coming up as a question at various flagship events and among the career photographers that contribute their time to WordPress.

[00:02:13] Josepha: So, in 2017 and 2018, as attention started to turn toward rebuilding the CMS using blocks, it dropped down the list of priority items. But it never really went away as a thing that people were hoping we could do for the project as a whole. So in 2019, it was becoming clear that having open source-first tools of all varieties for people whose businesses were built on our software would help broaden the availability of the open source freedoms we believe in.

This began the work on the Photo Directory with the intention of providing a GPL-friendly, community-driven repository of images. It has since launched, and we have photos in it now. We have a whole team around it. It’s wonderful. But that is how that all kind of came to be. 

[00:02:58] Josepha: Openverse, on the other hand, was launched as CC Search in 2019 with the laudable mandate to increase the discoverability and accessibility of open access media.

Late in 2020, while work on the Photo Directory was underway, Matt shared with me that the team was looking for a new project home. When I first met with them, they shared an overview of the product, which they shorthanded as an open source search engine that searches openly licensed images. We were working on a repo of openly licensed images, so clearly, this was all written in the stars. And so you might be asking yourself at this point, great, how does it work together?

I think for most of us, the timeline there kind of covers the question of what is the difference between these two things. 

But because I never know which of you will want to strike up a conversation about open source on an elevator, I’ve also got the elevator pitch version as well. 

[00:03:52] Josepha: Openverse is an open source search engine that searches, indexes, and aggregates copy left media from across the web using sources such as WordPress’s Photo Directory, Flickr’s CC Tagged Media, and Wikimedia, to name just a few. 

Another key difference between the Photo Directory and Openverse is that in order to contribute to the Photo Directory, now that it’s all built, that’s mostly done by submitting photos or reviewing photos. So, you don’t really need to be a developer to join in. 

Openverse not only is a developer-centric contribution opportunity, but it also uses a different tech stack than WordPress as a whole. So, it’s a good place for folks to go if they’re looking to broaden their horizons.

[00:04:37] Josepha: So that’s your elevator pitch of what is Openverse and how does it use the Photo Directory. 

You have a couple of ways that you can get involved with these two projects. For the Photo Directory, as I mentioned at the start, you can always contribute photos, and they could always use more photo contributions.

I’ll include a link to the submission guidelines in the show notes below, and as I mentioned, it is a no-code way to give back to the WordPress project. So, no code is required, no development environments, no testing skills. The Photo Directory team also could always use more contributors to help with the moderating of photo submissions.

And so I’ll link to their making WordPress page in the show notes as well so that you can get started there. 

[00:05:22] Josepha: And as I mentioned before, Openverse is an aggregator, so it doesn’t host any media itself, but it is always accepting suggestions for new GPL-compatible media providers. I’ll link the area where you can leave suggestions in the show notes as well.

And if you are more code-inclined, there’s an open issue for adding Openverse browsing to the block editor right now.  

So I’ll link that issue in the show notes in case you thought to yourself, gosh, that sounds like my most favorite thing to do. That is where you can go. 

[00:05:53] (Music interlude) 

[00:06:01] Josepha: And that brings us now to our November 2023 small list of big things.

[00:06:07] Josepha: The first thing that’s on the small list of big things this week is that the countdown is on for this year’s State of the Word. If you missed the initial announcement a few weeks ago, you’ll want to mark your calendars for December 11th, 2023. State of the Word will include a Q&A session, and if you want to participate, you can send your question to ask-matt@wordcamp.org. Or, ask during the event via the Q&A app Slido. A QR code for your submission will be provided during the event live stream, so if you’re choosing that option, don’t worry; there’s not anything to do right this second. 

[00:06:40] Josepha: The second thing on the list is that WordCamp Asia has extended their call for sponsors for the conference that is slated to take place in Taipei, Taiwan, March 7th through 9th, 2024. The new deadline has been extended to November 30th, 2023, and so if you have been on the fence about whether to sponsor that event or not, for one, please do sponsor it, and for two, you still have a little bit of time to get over there and show your support.

[00:07:05] Josepha: And then the last thing on the small list of big things is that the documentation team now has a new GitHub repo created for end-user documentation and its translations into all locales. For more information about this, come check out the show notes. I will have a link right there for you. And that, my friends, is your small list of big things.

[00:07:26] Josepha: Don’t forget to follow us on your favorite podcast app or subscribe directly on WordPress.org/news. You’ll get a friendly reminder whenever there’s a new episode. If you liked what you heard today, share it with a fellow WordPresser. Or, if you have questions about what you heard, you can share those with me at wpbriefing@WordPress.org. I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Thanks for tuning in today for the WordPress Briefing, and I’ll see you again in a couple of weeks. 

[00:07:51] (Music outro)