 Hello everyone, and welcome to the WordPress Briefing, the podcast where you can catch quick explanations of some of the ideas behind the WordPress open source project and the community around it, as well as get a small list of big things coming up in the next two weeks. I'm your host, Josepha Hayden-Champeaucy. Here we go. Before we get going, let's talk a little bit about the purpose of this podcast. There is a lot that goes into WordPress, and for anyone who isn't involved full time, it can be really hard to see. And even when you are really involved, sometimes you just aren't trying to figure out any of the philosophical things that make WordPress unique. So you can think of this as sort of WordPress appreciation for any level, and honestly all levels, of WordPress awareness, bite-sized insights into what makes it all work. So at the end of 2020, the project saw its first ever virtual state of the word. There were a lot of things in it that we look forward to seeing every year. We got a reminder of our roadmap. We checked in on progress on things to date, and there was also a review of the releases that were shipped over the year. But this state of the word also included a few beautiful gems that you might miss if you don't have all the context. Matt mentioned three trends in action during the state of the word, and I want to share some context for those, because I feel like without the context, you don't really get a good understanding of why they're so important for the WordPress project in general, but certainly important to share in that particular presentation that was given. Those three things were content that connects, e-commerce that sustains, and skills that elevate, and we'll just take them one at a time. So content that connects. This refers directly to the WordPress project's mission of democratizing publishing. Now, if you haven't heard of democratizing publishing, it's the idea that it should not be difficult for you to put your site online or to have an online presence. And especially, you should not be left out of any 21st century opportunities because you don't know how to code. Everyone has a story to tell, and every story has ears that need to hear it or eyes that need to read it, depending on your medium. But in a time where social media is dire and doom-scrolling is part of the daily routine, it's really nice to have a place where you can confidently own your own voice and perspective. And more importantly than that, when we build a community, when we bring people around ideas and concepts and our passions, we feel more connected to the world around us. And I think that that's always a good idea. The second one was e-commerce that sustains. This, to my mind, refers to the scads of success stories that we hear at WordPress events all across the globe. People come to those events to learn how to run a business online or how to build a site that supports their business, regardless of whether it's online or not. But also, they come to build a network that supports their growth and success. One of my favorite experiences at WordCamps is when you meet a first-time attendee and they are there because they are starting a new business and they just heard about this thing called WordPress and they want to learn how to use it better so that they can be a successful entrepreneur. And when I see those same attendees year after year after year at my local WordCamp, going from, I'm here just to learn how to do this and use this tool all the way to, I did this great thing using this tool, but this is the business that I have. This is the work that I do that is enabled by that WordPress site, enabled by my ability to have a presence online. That is such a compelling thing and that is why I get passionate about WordPress and certainly why I continue to help make sure that all of our contributors are able to show up and keep WordPress running. The third trend that Matt mentioned was skills that elevate. This one probably is actually my favorite. I know it sounded like the second one was my favorite, but this one probably is my actual favorite. It refers to all of those people who have done the hard work to learn how to use this software and to set up e-commerce sites and to build websites for other people. They have taken all of those skills that they learned while they were creating content for themselves or putting together e-commerce sites that sustained their businesses or other people's businesses and they turned that into their career. They can create sites for others. They can design excellent things using all of the tools that WordPress provides to them. They can develop custom solutions where in some cases no one can tell that WordPress runs it. I think that's so fascinating to see how people graduate from. I am here because I'm trying to enable my passions with this tool all the way out to. I would like to help enable other people's passions with this tool. I want to help enable other people's journey and success and changing of their life stories. It gives me chills to think about it every time. Those are the three trends in action that were mentioned in State of the Word. Again, I feel like without that context it's hard to know why it was so important for everyone to know it. But now that you have it, I hope that it is helpful for you and I hope that it gives you some interest in learning a bit more about what the WordPress project does. Now that we're in 2021, we're all spending some time trying to get an idea of what the new year holds for us. Getting a handle on goals, getting a handle on what we think we can all do and not do habits to make and break as we go. And so I've been thinking about some of the things that I'm particularly interested in for the WordPress project in 2021 and the things I'm most excited about. And I think that the things that I'm most excited about actually have to do with our necessary pivot to online learning and online events. 2020 will be etched in our memories forever as the year that really made us grow and change and grapple with how we bring people together and how we teach 21st century skills. And the work that's being done on learn.wordpress.org through the training team and the community team and docs that whole collaborative effort over there is so exciting to me. The ability for us to meet current and future WordPressers where they are and where they have to be right now and engage in a new way of learning so that they can still have all of the skills required to create their web presence without necessarily having to travel all the way to a word camp and put their health at risk or even in normal times when they have to travel all the way to an event and they pay for that with their actual money but also with the opportunity cost for all of our entrepreneurs and then the cost of just like not having that time to dedicate to building your business. I'm really excited about that training and learning and educational opportunity that we're making available to more and more people in our community and elsewhere as we work our way through 2021. So congratulations you've made it through the biggest part of this podcast. This podcast the wordpress briefing will always be pretty short pretty to the point but that first part is always going to have some really big questions some good solid concepts to dig into about what makes WordPress run. I hope that I always make it easy to understand but also if you have any questions I hope that you take the time to follow up because I definitely want to hear from you and I definitely want to make sure that you have a concept of how we're getting things done but for the last part here we're going to have a community highlight which will either be a contributor who has done some excellent work stewarding the WordPress project forward or a community submitted success story. Today we have a success story that was sent to me via Twitter from Dave Lotz. He says 15 years ago I blindly decided to become a freelance web designer without any tech knowledge. Right now I create awesome custom sites and shops and I'm on a level where I have the freedom to choose my customers, my hours, my own destiny and that is the real power of WordPress. Now it's time for our small list of big things. I have three things for you today all of which come right from a post that I'll share in the show notes that has our big picture goals for the project for 2021. The first one on there is full site editing. We have a whole meeting that is dedicated to keeping the work on the new block editor moving forward and we can always use your help there if you are not a developer or a designer but you still want to help there is an opportunity for testing the full site editor as it becomes more and more available in the plugin. I will share links to both of those things in the show notes. The second thing that you can keep an eye on if you're wanting to learn more about how we're doing things and why is learn.wordpress.org. I mentioned it earlier but it is a new initiative that is in its early stages but it aims to bring training about WordPress and the 21st century skills required to use WordPress to you no matter where you are and then the third thing on our small list of big things is some general contributor experience type work that we're doing this year. I am trying to help our contributors especially in this year when time and attention is at a premium I'm trying to help support the tools that reclaim some of that manual effort that our contributors put in that our volunteers across the world have made available to us to make sure that WordPress succeeds for the long run and so making sure that you all are able to continue to be happy and healthy and safe and contribute in the way that is most meaningful for you is high on my list all year every year but this year we're going to try to take care of that with some automation in a few of our contributor teams. So that my friends is your small list of big things. Thank you for tuning in today for the WordPress briefing. Again I'm your host Josefa Hayden Champosie and I'll see you again in a couple weeks.