WP Tavern

On the podcast today we have James Dominy. James is a computer scientist with a masters degree in bioinformatics. He lives in Ireland, working at the WPEngine Limerick office. This is the second podcast recorded at WordCamp Europe 2023 in Athens. James gave a talk at the event about the influence of AI on the WordPress community, and how it’s going to disrupt so many of the roles which WordPressers currently occupy. We talk about the recent rise of ChatGPT and the fact that it’s made AI available to almost anyone. In less than twelve months many of us have gone from never touching AI technologies to using them on a daily basis to speed up some aspect of our work. The discussion moves on to the rate at which AI systems might evolve, and whether or not they’re truly intelligent, or just a suite of technologies which masquerade as intelligent. This gets into the subject of whether or not AI is in any meaningful way innately intelligent, or just good at making us think that it is, and whether or not the famous Turing test is a worthwhile measure of the abilities of an AI. We then move on from the conceptual understanding of AI to more concrete ways it can be implemented. What ways can WordPress users implement AI right now, and what innovations might we reasonably expect to be available in the future? It’s a fascinating conversation whether or not you’ve used AI tools in the past.

On the podcast today we have Angela Jin. She's the Head of Programs and Contributor Experience at Automattic, where she oversees the work of multiple teams dedicated to the WordPress open source project. Several weeks ago, Angela wrote a blog post entitled The Next Generation of WordCamps. It laid out how WordCamps have been run for many years, as well as trying to begin a conversation about how they might look in the future. After much consultation Angela thinks that it's time to see if varying the format of WordCamps and other WordPress events might be beneficial for the community. But what are these changes and how might they be rolled out? Angela talks though this and more on the podcast today. If you’re curious about how WordPress events might change in the future, this podcast is for you.

On the podcast today we have Robert Abela. Robert is the CEO and founder of MelaPress, formerly known as WP White Security. They make niche WordPress security and admin plugins. He has over 18 years experience in the IT and software industries, and has written numerous web security articles and white papers. We all know that your website is potentially under attack 24 hours a day, 365 days of this year, but why is that, and what can we do to mitigate that risk? Robert talks today about the threats posed to your website in terms of WordPress Core, plugins and themes. We also talk about how website security is an ongoing process, what worked yesterday might now work tomorrow and so your organisation needs to be mindful of this as an ongoing concern. The discussion moves on to the layers of tech upon which your website is built as well and the need to prune your legitimate users from time to time. If you’re curious about how you can secure your WordPress website as it grows, this podcast is for you.

On the podcast today we have Mike McAlister, and he’s here today to talk about his experiences creating a block-based theme. Mike is a veteran product developer and designer in the WordPress space. He’s focused on the future of WordPress with his new product brand, Ollie. We talk about what a block theme is and why Mike is confident that it's a good time to jump on board as a developer. We also chat about how the Ollie uses patterns and the design tools built into WordPress to showcase just how good block themes can be. If you’re wanting to develop block-based themes, or are just curious about how other developers are building them, this podcast is for you.

Today is a little bit of a departure for the podcast. It's an episode all about the last 20 years of WordPress. You're going to hear a round table discussion with four WordPressers talking about their thoughts on the last 20 years. It features Meher Bala, Robert Windisch, Simon Kraft and Tammie Lister, with David Bisset as the discussion moderator. They cover many topics including a memorable design or refresh in WordPress' history, the most notable enhancement to WordPress core (that wasn’t Gutenberg related), and a memorable community moment or cause. There's also lots of 'forgotten' history and features also come up in the discussion. So, regardless of how long you’ve been involved with WordPress, you’ll learn and maybe have your memories jogged!

On the podcast today we have Mario Santos and Luis Herranz. They both work for Automattic, but are sponsored to work full-time in WordPress. The Interactivity API is the main focus of the podcast today, and if you're working with blocks and dynamically displaying data, this is sure to be of interest to you. The conversation is framed around a blog post written by Mario entitled The Interactivity API, a Better Developer Experience in Building Interactive Blocks. In this, Mario shows examples of what website interactivity is. In short, it’s the ability for content to be amended on-the-fly without a page refresh. We get into the weeds a little and talk about the approach the team took when building the API. The project is still experimental, and they’re looking for people to test and report back on what they find to move the Interactivity API forwards.

Today is a little bit of a departure for the podcast. It's an episode all about the last 20 years of WordPress. You're going to hear a round table discussion with four WordPressers talking about their thoughts on the last 20 years. It features Sarah Gooding, Aurooba Ahmed, Masestro Stevens and Jess Frick, with David Bisset as the discussion moderator. They cover many topics including memorial WordPress release, a WordCamp or WordCamp experience, the most notable State of the Word announcement. It's great to hear so many varied opinions about what's been of importance in the evolution of WordPress.

On the podcast today we have Alex Standiford. He’s a web developer originally from Dover, Ohio, and has been tinkering with web technologies for years, but started his career as a web developer in 2015. Alex has built WordPress plugins, websites, and web applications, and is an active contributor to the WordPress community, making updates to documentation errors, and participating in the organisation of WordCamps. He's here today to talk about how he’s noticed a shift over time in his own content creation. He’s put less effort into his WordPress site and has posted most of his ideas on social platforms. This however is something that Alex has decided to stop doing. For a variety of reasons he wants to take back control of his own content and make his website the centrepiece of his endeavours. We talk about how platforms open platforms like Mastodon are making this possible; how he’s using plugins and his own coding skills to make it possible for cross posting of posts and comments between Mastodon and his WordPress site. It’s a really interesting conversation about the recent surge in popularity of these distributed social networks and how WordPress can become a first class citizen in your digital life.

On the podcast today we have Mark Westguard. Mark is an agency owner and the developer behind the WS Form plugin, and he’s on the podcast to chart his journey in the WordPress space and the different ways he’s explored to grow the reach of the plugin. First up, we talk about why Mark started to use WordPress, then we move onto the subject of turning a well-developed plugin into a viable business. We then explore the subject of turning a well-developed plugin into a viable business. It’s one thing to build a product, but if you’re going to make it commercial, much of the work will revolve around ensuring that the world knows about it. Marketing is a relentless enterprise and one that you should not ignore or underestimate. We also get into the subject of pricing, and what Mark felt was the right place to pitch his plugin. Is the WordPress ecosystem guilty of expecting a lot from plugins at prices which are realistic?

On the podcast today we have Ahmed Kabir Chaion. Ahmed has a genuine love of the WordPress community. He’s been an organiser at multiple WordPress events, including WordCamp Asia, the WordPress Accessibility Day, WordFest Live, WordCamp Santa Clarita, and the WordPress Translation Day. As if that were not enough, he’s also served as co-organiser of the Dhaka WordPress Meetup Chapter, is a former Design Team Rep and a current Polyglots Team Rep. So, Ahmed’s really engaged in the WordPress community, but how did this all happen? The podcast today focuses on Ahmed’s journey into WordPress. The podcast is all about how you can find a place in the WordPress community no matter what your strengths are. Maybe you’re into writing code, or SEO. Perhaps marketing or translations are more your thing. He tells us how he got started just by showing up repeatedly, slowly working out areas where he thought his contributions would be most valuable. It’s a lovely tale of a community member who is truly inspired to make the project better.