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WordCamps – is this where they play Scrabble, or perhaps word bingo? Is it a spelling bee or literacy improvement event?
To experience a WordCamp, and the WordPress community which populates these global events, is to experience the essence of shared learning, informal knowledge exchange, and opportunities for both professional and personal development.
WordCampers may indeed enjoy Scrabble, but their real enthusiasm and driver is being part of an innovative, inclusive and fun community of people who use open source WordPress software to share the stories of clients, employers, campaigns or their own.
WordCamp attendees come from all walks of the web world, from content writers to developers, and infrastructure engineers to project managers. This mechanism for sharing experiences of a content management and platform system (and yes WordPress can be much more) is special and can be empowering. New apps, services, ways of looking at coding and its knock-on effect to product development, have all begun life at a WordCamp or a WordPress MeetUp. (WordPress MeetUps are more locally organised, regular meetings for the community within a smaller geographical area.)
WordCamps can help you to both find professional solutions and re-energise you
Collaborative partnerships, solution-finding, re-energising are all paths that have come out of the knowledge and enthusiasm-swapping that are synonymous with open source communities like WordPress.
The gatherings take place over two or three days throughout the year in towns and cities from Mumbai to Manchester and Tokyo to Texas. The WordCamp format is recognisable wherever an event is held, with a mix of speakers, discussions and practical activities plus opportunities for networking with key industry professionals from internationally recognised organisations and, of course, some social time built-in. Check out the world-wide list of dates and venues at the really helpful WordCamp Central web resource central.wordcamp.org/schedule.
Discover more & get involved
Some of you may be unfamiliar with WordPress, let alone WordCamps.
Come and start your journey.
2018 marks 15 years since the birth of WordPress as an open source blogging platform. More than 75 million websites across the world use WordPress.
“10,000 new sites created with WP daily!”
The first WordCamp was organised by Matt Mullenweg in 2006 and there are now hundreds of them in numerous cities internationally.
“Tens of thousands of new WordPress sites are created every day,” according to WordPress.com. It is used for blogs, new and magazine websites, companies digital presence, arts and sports, commerce, intranets and R&D development and system recording.
- Live WP activity statistics (WordPress.com)
The members of the WordPress community marketing group have been pulling together lots of useful information and resources to help you discover what WordPress can do for you. There are case studies of organisations which have used WordPress, including Unicef and Urban Southern. The case studies are half way down the page at the links below.
- Unicef case study (2018)
- Urban Southern case study (2018)
- Why consider WordPress to publish? (WordPress marketing, 2018)
Why should developers choose WordPress? (WordPress marketing, 2018)
Be part of a community
There is so much to discover, learn and enjoy about being part of the community. You can sit and quietly discover through reading WordPress community posts, watching WordPress.TV with videos from previous WordCamps and testimonials, chat to another web professional at a MeetUp or go to a Contributor Day.
There’s guaranteed to be a way that you can take part
and grow your involvement at your own pace.
Follow your local WordCamp and discover the range and new ideas being shared. There are WordCamps in so many countries, just pick a country you want to explore and begin your adventure.
- Find a local WordCamp
- What is a contributor day like at WordCamp London
- Recap of Contributor Day, WordCamp US 2017
- Contribute to WordPress core – this can be by submitting a bug you have found to suggesting an improvement. There’s also a chance to learn from others using the software including experienced developers.
- WordCamp channel on WordPress.TV
- Looking for a way to contribute (2018 blog Marketing)
- Find your way to contribute to the WordPress community – every contribution is valued. Get to know others and help make WordPress even better! Choose from accessibility, core, design, documentation, marketing, mobile, plug-ins, support, themes, translation, tv and many more.
What’s your web journey?
WordCamp Dublin 2017 attenders were filmed by the reporting team, telling of their WordPress journeys. The aim was to encourage others to develop their skills and confidence in working with digital, and to highlight the opportunities and benefits of working with others from different sectors and countries. These interviews are as we recorded them. No edited three-second sound-bites here, just the passion and demonstrable power of how people’s professional experiences are making a difference in areas of digital development.