 So again, good morning, everyone. My name is Geo Kevin Paque. And I'll be talking to you a little bit about the history of WordPress. Just a timely presentation, a timely talk since the 20th anniversary of WordPress hasn't occurred that long ago. So if you have your mobile devices ready, your laptops, if you have internet, I would like to invite you to join me in this presentation to make it a bit more interactive. Visit menti.com, enter the code 24176644. I'll leave that on the screen for a few more seconds before I proceed with the presentation so that later on, if I need feedback from you guys, we can see the feedback that you input on the screen. And also, you can see the instructions above as well. Menti.com 24176644, all right? So just to check if everyone is on here already. How excited are you for WorldCamp Ilo Ilo? Very excited. Good to see that the excitement bar is at a solid 9.5, 9.6. Great. We have around 30, 32 people on the slide. Awesome. So just a quick slide about me. I started developing or using WordPress because out of boredom. Around 2008, I had a Pentium 4 computer at home. I couldn't play online games, and I decided to create websites instead, mainly for myself at the time. So I launched Pinoyteens.net. I know it sounds a bit iffy, especially given my age now, but I used to be a teenager back then. And this site is something that I'm going to pass on to my daughter, eventually, very soon. I've been a member of different communities in Davao, and I've been talking about WordPress like ever since I was a high school student way back then as well. And I also attended the first WorldCamp that happened in the Philippines. So who here was present during the first WorldCamp in the Philippines? Anyone who was there, 2008? No one? All right. So when and where did the first WorldCamp happen? Anyone has any idea when it happened and where it happened? Yes. So the first WorldCamp that happened in the Philippines was actually a mini WorldCamp that took place in Davao. This happened two days before the actual WorldCamp. But of course, the first WorldCamp that eventually took place on September 6, 2008 was in Adilasal College of St. Benilde. So we used to be a very small, humble community back then. And it's very exciting for me to see that we have grown so much. We have had WorldCamps in Manila, in Cebu, in Iloilo. And since 2019, Davao has joined the roster as well as places where WorldCamp have happened here in the Philippines. So for whom of you guys, is this the first WorldCamp ever? Or have you been to WorldCamps in the past? We have a lot of first-timers. Hopefully the roster of speaker today will give you a good impression of how the community is like in the word prasin. And from where are you? I myself, I have traveled here from Cebu, but I'm just an adapted member of the WordPress Cebu community because I'm actually from Davao. So we have people from all over the Philippines, Manila, Bulacan, Bajolod, and of course also from Iloilo as well. So it's really nice to see such a huge community come together and talk and discuss and learn more about WordPress. Now for today's agenda, I'll be taking a look at some of the highlight or notable WordPress releases in the past. Of course, all of this is pretty much subjective because everyone has started at a different version of WordPress. For me, I think it was around 2.5 in 2007, 2008. And for some of you guys, it might have been at a much later point. And then I'll be talking about as well how you can be part in contributing to the community of WordPress. So for me, one thing that I've noticed is that WordPress has always been a reflection of the needs of the internet at any given time. Around 2008, 2010, people wanted a simple blogging platform. Businesses wanted an easy way to create an online presence. Others used WordPress as a communication tool for their businesses and companies. So over time, the needs of WordPress from being a simple blogging platform has grown into the huge software that it is nowadays. Now, when did you guys start using WordPress? Or have you even started using WordPress already? OK, right now, that's interesting. 2004, last year, 2022. So yeah, WordPress enthusiasts and expertise of different levels are gathered here today, which is really nice to see. And this is how I started when I was a teenager. So that was my setup when I started developing WordPress websites. And WordPress originated as a fork of a different software actually way back in 2004 for those who are not familiar with the history. And just like I said, WordPress evolved out of the needs or out of the wants of the people that were behind it. So it looked something like this, the original software that WordPress was based from. And eventually, bit by bit, with every new release of WordPress, more features got added, features that we possibly couldn't live without anymore. Could you imagine having a WordPress website without custom post types? Or there was a time when you would delete a post and it would be gone forever. There wouldn't be a trash bin for it. And there was a time that you even have to manually update your WordPress website as well. Those were, I think, before 2.6 days. So a lot of the quality of life benefits that we have nowadays stem from continuous development and updates of WordPress over the last two decades. From something that looked like this in 2.5, to something that looked a little bit more neat in 2.7, to something that looks somewhat like this nowadays. So the interface of WordPress has evolved over the years, along with the people, with the community that is behind it. Now, perhaps for those who have been around WordPress for longer, which one is the most notable WordPress release for you? Anyone? I wonder, why five? OK, three. So a lot of fives, probably because of Gutenberg. Now, before all of that happened, so this is how we started. This was the default theme back in the day of WordPress. And over time, it just kept on growing and growing into what it is nowadays. And for me, here are some of the most notable WordPress versions that we've had. So since 2.7, we could finally automatically update our WordPress websites. We didn't need to download a file from WordPress.org, upload it, so on and so forth. So that was pretty neat. 3.7 featured automatic updates for minor maintenance releases, which was also a great quality of life improvement for everyone. And I believe for some developers, it took a bit of work away from them as well. And of course, 5.0, Gutenberg, and 5.5 with automatic updates for plugins. And WordPress grew alongside a lot of other different technologies of the time. Some of them, which still exist nowadays. Some of them, which were stopped. But it just shows that beyond the two decades of WordPress, it still remains very relevant nowadays. Who here remembers Alexa? Not the personal assistant, but the website where you could see how well your website is ranking, whether you are among the top 100,000 websites visited, so on and so forth. So that was Alexa. And before all of the latest search engine optimization craze that we have right now, we had PageRunk. Who here is familiar with PageRunk? Anyone remembers this from back in the day? No? OK, some people in the back remember it. Great. So this was something that was a bit of a big deal for me. And I was a bit saddened that it got discontinued by Google. Just when my WordPress website turned PR4, this feature was rendered useless. And then we had blogs like WebBlock Tools Collection. I couldn't find a better image. But if you wanted to read news about WordPress, wanted to read updates about different plugins, about the community, we had WebBlock Tools Collections, which was a website back in the day. And then we have some of the technologies that are still present today, like our different theme builders or page builders, DV, WP Bakery, Beaver Builder, Elementor, so on and so forth. Contact Form 7 and, of course, Yoast SEO, which is usually one of the first plugins many of us install for our WordPress websites to make them rank better. And aside from this, of course, WordPress itself evolved as well in order to stay relevant. Some of the other major tools that WordPress required in order to stay relevant as well were, for example, WooCommerce. WooCommerce existed because of the need of people wanting to create their own shops. People had, businesses had enough, just creating an online presence. Businesses and individuals, entrepreneurs wanted to start selling content, wanted to start selling products online. So that's where WooCommerce stems from. Of course, I could go on talk about this in a separate presentation all about WooCommerce. And then we have LearnDash, for example. LearnDash is an extension of WordPress, a plugin, that you can use to create a learning environment for people to learn different courses. If you're familiar with Skillshare, you can set up something similar to Skillshare using LearnDash. And of course, Gutenberg. Initially, especially for those who have been long familiar with the classic editor, Gutenberg felt a bit alienating. Maybe because we got to use of the way it was before, or maybe because we got used of using third-party plugins like DV Elementor to do the things that Gutenberg is doing for us. But I think after giving it a bit of thought, it was a necessary move really to accommodate all of the different types of content that people put out on the internet nowadays. WordPress, yes, started out as a small, simple solution to create content, mostly text-based, but with the community that we have nowadays, the limited time span of people, TikTok, all of the different social media platforms. I think it was ample time that we provided a way for people to create content in a more flexible manner, and that's where Gutenberg comes in. And of course, for people that are very creative and techy, things like creating a headless WordPress website. Headless WordPress website is using WordPress as the backbone of your app or program, and then using something else on the front. So that's headless WordPress, for example. So with that said, over the years from a simple blogging platform, it has evolved into so much more, just like how our communities have evolved into so much more. Instead of being focused only to Manila and a small community in Davao, we have grown to different communities all over the Philippines and also all over the world as well. Now, how can you be part of this momentous growth of WordPress? Some ways that you can contribute is by visiting makethatwordpress.org. There are different ways to contribute. You don't even need to know how to code on finding ways to contribute. You can help in terms of design, bug testing, different kinds of ways. I would also recommend that you take active part at work camps. May that be as a volunteer. May that be as a speaker. Perhaps if you're from a different city other than Davao, Ilu, Ilu, Sibu, at Manila, have a work camp in your own city. I saw some people from Bacolod earlier. So that would be really exciting to visit new cities in the Philippines for new work camps. And then, of course, organize WordPress meetups in your own respective cities. So now with the COVID lockdown being lifted and this being the second work camp in the Philippines since the lockdown, I'm really excited to see more and more people interact again and be part in the community. So bring back the learnings that you have here at work camp Ilu Ilu. Take them back to your own communities, create meetups, monthly meetups, if you will, and nurture your community to grow in that way. And then, of course, teach other people that want to become WordPress developers or people that are enthusiastic about the software on how to use WordPress. Maybe help them get started, set up hosting for them, all those kinds of things. It takes just a little bit of help for someone who is very eager to become a huge contributor in the community. So when I started out as a WordPress developer of sorts, I didn't have my own domain. But I was given a free domain due to some friend of mine. And that's how I really got started into web development into WordPress. So providing these small bits of encouragement, if you will, would definitely help our community grow. And of course, promote and support your favorite plug-ins and themes. Even if they are popular already, maybe some of the people haven't used them yet. Maybe there are plug-ins that other people are not familiar with. So make sure that you promote them. Tell your friends about it. Tell your colleagues about it, and so on and so forth. And of course, accommodate and welcome new people in the community. Right now, since the lockdown has been lifted, more and more people are becoming interested in joining events like this again. I'm very happy to have been part of WordPress Sibu since May, for example. So welcome people into the community. Give them things to do. Help them grow in their respective interests or role in the WordPress community. And really, it's all about continuing development, continuing development, continuing creating websites, creating projects, apps with WordPress. And most importantly, of course, is to continue publishing using WordPress. Now, with that said, I feel like WordPress is a bit of a transition for a lot of people because looking at the schedule, there are a lot of talks that refer to preparing our children to use WordPress or preparing our next generation of tech leaders, for example. So I think the future for WordPress looks really bright. So with that said, cheers to another decade of WordPress.