WP Tavern

On the podcast today we have Jamie Marsland, and he's here to talk to me about his recent journey into YouTube content creation as well as the topic of how WordPress is positioned against the likes of Wix and Shopify. Jamie shares his strategies for effective video creation, from planning to execution, along with his thoughts on sponsored content and its place in the YouTube ecosystem. If you’re curious about the future of WordPress, content creation, or the dynamics of digital learning, this episode is for you.

On the podcast today we have Tammie Lister. If you’ve been in the WordPress space for a while, Tammie's name is likely a familiar one. She's an 18-year veteran of the project, a talented designer, developer, and a key contributor to the project. Her journey has made her wear a variety of hats in both agency life and product development. Today, Tammie shares insights that span from the practical to the philosophical within the open-source landscape. We get to hear Tammie's perspective on this crucial experimentation phase in WordPress theme development, the balance she seeks between minimalist design and functional complexity, and her active roles, including the default theme task force. Tammie's excitement for what's next is palpable. So, whether you're a developer, a designer, or a WordPress aficionado, this episode is for you.

On the podcast today we have Shawn Hooper. Shawn Hooper is a key figure in the Canadian WordPress community. He’s an advocate for national and local gatherings that bring WordPress enthusiasts together. Later this year, the first ever WordCamp Canada, or WCEH for short, will be held in Ottawa. The event is deep in the planning stages. The venue is secured, the speakers have been finalised, and it’s now up to the team of volunteers, of which Shawn is one, to make the event a success. We get into the challenges of creating an event of this scale. From conception until now, there’s a lot of moving parts. The venue, food, transport, volunteers, sponsors, speakers, the list could go on. It all needs to be planned, tasks assigned and executed. If attending WordPress events, and volunteering your time, is your thing, this episode is for you.

On the podcast today we have Miriam Schwab. Miriam co-founded Strattic to enable WordPress websites to be more secure and performant. After Elementor acquired Strattic, Miriam continued leading the unit before becoming Head of WordPress Relations. With over 15 years of experience, she's a respected member of the WordPress community and a renowned speaker. In today's episode we discuss Miriam’s life. It’s a departure for this podcast which usually focuses upon the code, the plugins and the community. The idea came out of a talk which Miriam presented at WordCamp Asia this year. In this talk Miriam outlined how she carved out a successful career in the world of WordPress whilst also being the mother of seven children, and it’s fascinating. If you’re interested in hearing how one person has managed the stresses and strains of an incredibly busy life, this episode is for you.

Jocepha Haden Chomphosy, Executive Director of WordPress, discusses navigating the project's evolution, challenges during the pandemic, advancements in the Gutenberg project, community engagement, diversity, and measuring success. She shares insights on project management, fostering volunteer engagement, embracing change, and future aspirations for WordPress. The podcast provides a deep dive into the evolution of WordPress from closed platforms to open communities, addressing challenges faced by the community, strategies for growth, and revitalizing community engagement events post-COVID.

Thomas J. Raef discusses the evolving tactics of hackers targeting websites, focusing on stolen session cookies as a major security threat. He highlights the importance of monitoring and preventing attacks through advanced cybersecurity measures, shedding light on the risks of info stealers and the significance of session cookies in WordPress security.

On the podcast today we have Ben Ritner. Ben is the founder of Kadence WP, a company that specialises in developing themes and plugins for WordPress, with a focus on enhancing the front end of websites. In this episode, Ben provides us with an insight into how the Kadence team managed the integration of AI into their products, shedding light on the impact it has had on their website building process. We discuss the challenges of migrating content between systems, as well as delving into the role of AI in content creation and design adaptation. Ben talks us through what guided their technical innovations to accommodate AI-generated content and images. Ben’s perspective is pretty unique, working for a company he started, right through to today where they have an install base of over 400,000 websites, all of which could potentially make use of AI, but not at the risk of breaking backwards compatibility with their own products. If you’re interested in the impact of AI in web development and are intrigued by its potential, this episode is for you.

Mike Auteri, expert in event management within the WordPress ecosystem, discusses GatherPress, a WordPress plugin for event organization. They cover features, benefits, replicating important event features, online events due to COVID-19, and potential to revolutionize WordPress event management.

Michelle Frechette, with a long history of community involvement, discusses diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in the WordPress community. She shares her experiences at WordPress events, the wider goals of inclusivity, and coping with those who disagree with her quest for change.

On the podcast today we have Anil Gupta who is the CEO and co-founder of Multidots, Multicollab, and DotStore. Of specific interest to this episode of the podcast is Multicollab, is a WordPress plugin that allows for Google Doc-style collaboration, including commenting, suggestions, and real-time editing. We discuss the prospects that during the current phase of Gutenberg development, multi collaboration should come to WordPress. As Anil explains, this is by no means an easy undertaking, given that each installation of WordPress is unique. Anil paints a picture of a bright future for WordPress, once this new feature set is completed, but it’s also interesting to see how many challenges the developers will need to overcome before it can be shipped in a future WordPress update. If you’re interested in finding out about the future of editing content in WordPress, this episode is for you.