On the podcast today we have Chris Lubkert and Rich Tabor, from Extendify. Extendify is a library of block patterns and full page layouts which you can use inside of the Block Editor. Chris and Rich, as you will hear, decided a few years ago that they were going to dedicate themselves to working with blocks. They each had their own projects, but Rich recently joined the team because his vision aligned well with Chris’. That vision is to provide designs which you can import directly into WordPress with just a few clicks. From there you can edit them in your own way. And that’s the thrust of the podcast today. What is Extendify? How does it work? What can you achieve with it? What do they plan to build in the future?

On the podcast today we have Amber Hinds. We talk about what online accessibility means, and how it ought to influence any website build. We consider the situations people who need an accessible website might find themselves in. What are they experiencing as they browse the web and what tools are they using? What tools can you use to help in this endeavour, and what tools you might want to avoid?

Blocks are the future of WordPress. They offer an easy way to create content and display it on your website in interesting ways. The only problem is that, although they are easy to use, blocks are hard to create. There's a fairly high level of technical concepts and processes which you need to master if you're going to start building your own blocks. Unless of course you can find a block builder plugin like the one that today's guest, Vinny McKee, has created. In the podcast we learn about why Vinny built the plugin, as well as how it works. What problems does it overcome, and are there any limitations to what you can build?

On the podcast today we have something new. Until now I’ve interviewed one person at a time, but today there’s three people on the call, Birgit Pauli-Haack, Marcus Kazmierczak and Zack Krida. So WordPress 5.9 is just around the corner. Initially scheduled for release in December 2021, it has now been pushed back until January 2022. There's a lot in this release, most notably Full Site Editing and we chat through the highlights. The we move on to talk about Openverse, which is a search engine for openly-licensed media. We get into how media is licensed and why this project is a good fit for WordPress, and we round off with some thoughts on how it will integrate with the Block Editor in the future.

About this episode.

On the podcast today we have Tara King.

Tara has recently begun working for Automattic in the developer relations role. Tara will lead a newly formed team who will get out and about; trying to understand the pain points which people are having with the new Block Editor and Full Site Editing. They will then report their findings back to the developer and contributor teams, and hopefully establish a feedback loop to make the editor better.

They are also creating blogs, podcasts, courses and many other types of content to help people get up to speed with the Block Editor.

It’s no secret that whilst there are many people who love the Block Editor, there are many who remain unconvinced. Unconvinced might not be a strong enough word, but you get the idea. I wanted to hear about the purpose of this new team and how it’s going to be working. Will it have a real impact upon the future of the Block Editor? What will they be offering? How can they be reached? Who is deciding what’s included and what’s left out? What motivations are behind all these decisions?

We also get into a chat about the fact that WordPress is changing; moving away from a legacy of easy-to-understand PHP code and moving towards a JavaScript and React based future. Is the pain of learning these new skills going to be worth it, and is there going to be any support to help people get there?

It’s a wide-ranging discussion at an important moment in WordPress’ history.

Time will tell if Tara’s team can win the hearts and minds of unconvinced developers.

Have a listen to the podcast and leave a comment below.

Useful links.

Tara's email address: tara.king [at] automattic [dot] com

Automattic: Developer Relations Job Description

About this episode.

On the podcast today we have Lee Shadle.

Lee is a WordPress developer at WP Draft, and by his own admission is obsessed with building block based themes, plugins and websites. He’s been using WordPress for many years and as soon as the Gutenberg project was announced, he decided he was going to explore it and learn how it worked.

He runs a small agency building sites with blocks as well as with 3rd party page builders.

I first saw Lee when he presented at WordCamp Europe earlier in 2021, and his passion for working with blocks and React was obvious. It’s pretty clear that, right from the start, he’s embraced the possibilities that blocks offer, both now and in the future.

At the time of recording this podcast, many are still unsure about what blocks are for, and what they will be able to do down the road, but Lee has thrown himself into figuring out what’s possible, and it might come as a surprise just how powerful they are.

We start our conversation by addressing whether Gutenberg was something that the WordPress project actually needed. Was it necessary to build a new tool which would require people to learn new skills and new techniques?

We then get into some concrete examples of how blocks will add new capabilities to websites. Some of the examples show that complex operations can be handled within single blocks. These possibilities were once the domain of plugins and shortcodes, and now they can be deployed and configured by anyone who edits content.

We talk about the obstacles which Lee encountered whilst learning how to build blocks. In his case, he worked on projects which he knew he would enjoy. We also touch upon some resources he used to assist in his learning.

There’s also a discussion about the commercial landscape for block developers and how blocks might become a new way of generating revenue. Although we’re not there yet, it might well be that in the future, WordPress users will be on the lookout to purchase blocks in the same way that they now buy plugins and themes. Perhaps there’s even scope for a market of inexpensive blocks which have limited functionality.

As you’ll hear, Lee is very optimistic about the future of WordPress, with blocks at it’s core.

Useful links.

Lee's Twitter account

Stimulus Benefits - Lee's calculator block

Aino

Block Visibility

Newsletter Glue

React for beginners

GenerateBlocks

Nick Diego

Mike Oliver

Brian Gardner

About this episode.

On the podcast today we have Ajit Bohra.

Ajit is a keen advocate of WordPress, having used it and committed to it, for many years. He’s a full stack developer working at Lubus which is based in Mumbai, India. His team works with WordPress as well as offering solutions built with Laravel and React.

He’s on the podcast today to offer up his opinions about the near future in WordPress and why he’s confident that the project is moving in the right direction.

To make matters easier to digest we break up the podcast into three distinct sections.

Starting off with Gutenberg we discuss where the Block Editor is at right now and what Ajit sees as the benefits of a Block based approach to content building. We go into some concrete examples of why Ajit thinks that the Block Editor is preferable to the Classic editor as well as discussing some of the projects that he’s been working on to enhance the editing experience for his team and the community. We also talk about the pace of development and whether or not it’s keeping up with the expectations of WordPress users.

We then move onto a detailed conversation about Full Site Editing which is going to play a pivotal role in WordPress’ utility going forwards. The power that it will offer non-technical users to build out their entire site is an exciting prospect, but right now it’s still a work in progress. Ajit talks about why Full Site Editing is needed to compete in the CMS market as well as how Block Patterns will make site building much easier in the future.

Finally we get into the subject of WordPress’ need to move towards a future in which React is playing a vital part in the software’s Core. Why does Ajit think that the project needed to move away from a PHP based platform; after all, it was easy to work with and people had become very familiar with how to build sites using their PHP skills. It’s a case of having to keep up, and as Ajit says, he thinks that you have to unlearn to learn. We briefly discuss the resources which Ajit used to up-skill, websites that he frequents and courses which he recommends should you wish to take the plunge.

In parts the audio is a little choppy, in fact this is a second pass at recording this episode, but I felt that the message contained within was well worth publishing despite that, and I hope that you do too.

Useful links.

Ajit's Twitter account

Lubus

BlaBlaBlocks

Beginner Javascript

ES6

Javascript 30

React for Beginners

The Net Ninja YouTube channel

The Beginner's Guide to React

Epic React

Is WordPress Development Really All That Hard To Get Into Today?

About this episode.

So on the podcast today we have Cory Miller.

Cory is likely well known to many of you, he’s been a big part of the WordPress community for many years. He founded, grew and sold iThemes and is now the owner of Post Status, which is a community dedicated to informing WordPress professionals and enthusiasts about the industry.

So the topic of the podcast today is the WordPress Mergers and Acquisitions Landscape, and it’s the perfect subject for Cory. He’s been on both sides of the equation having sold iThemes to Liquid Web in 2018 and then buying Post Status earlier in 2021.

When we talk about Mergers and Acquisitions in WordPress, it really seems to polarise opinions. Companies are being bought and sold on an almost weekly basis at present.

There are those who worry that we’re at a point where larger companies have bought, and continue to buy up, smaller businesses. They see this as a cause for concern; a concern that we’re in danger of straying into a future where a few big brands own ‘all-the-things’.

On the other hand there are people who see this as a sign of the maturation of the WordPress ecosystem. It’s a consequence of the success of the WordPress economy that smaller teams have a pathway to profitability, one in which the possibility of being acquired is an attractive option.

There’s a great deal to discuss here, some of it unexpected, and I’m sure that you’ll have your own opinions.

We try to tackle the subject by going through a list of the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ of WordPress Mergers and Acquisitions. We don’t attempt to cover every single angle, but we do try to look at it from both sides.

It’s great to get Cory’s take on the topic.

About this episode.

On the podcast today we have Robert Jacobi.

Robert is Director of WordPress at Cloudways. He’s been working with open source software for almost twenty years, and has been the president of Joomla, a member of Make WordPress Hosting and contributor to ICANN At-Large. He is well known for his public speaking about open source and so the discussion today is broad and thought provoking.

We talk about Robert’s ‘Gutenberg First’ approach in which he places the WordPress Block Editor at the heart of all that he does. He sees Gutenberg as a critical component for WordPress’ future; a future in which as yet unimagined technologies will be built on top of Gutenberg and leverage the ‘atomic’ way data is stored.

This leads to a discussion on how 3rd party developers will be able to use Gutenberg as an application platform, with unique pathways to create, store and display content.

The heritage of Gutenberg’s development is also discussed. Right from the start we knew that the intention of the project was ambitious; it’s aim to become a full site editor was explained at the outset. This has led to comparisons with other editing tools and Robert takes on why he thinks that the incremental steps that the Gutenberg project has taken are making it a vital part of WordPress.

We also look forward and get into the subject of how technology never stands still. The underpinnings of WordPress are shifting. New skills and tools will need to be learned, but that does not mean that existing ones are obsolete.

Shifting gears, we move into community events and how we’ve managed events during the last year. Robert is a huge proponent of in-person events, and is hoping for their return. He loves the accidental situations which arise when you’re in the same space as so many other like-minded people. Perhaps though, there’s a place for hybrid events; events in which there’s in-person and online happening at the same time?

Towards the end we chat about the plethora of mergers and acquisitions which are happening right now, as well as a discussion of Openverse, a search engine for openly licensed media, which was launched with little fanfare recently.

Useful links.

Openverse

Robert's website

About this episode.

On the podcast today we have Dan Maby.

Dan has been a user of WordPress for many years. As an agency owner he’s used it to build client websites, but, as is so often the case, he came for the software and got caught up in the community.

Starting out by attending some local WordPress meetups, he engaged with his fellow WordPressers and enjoying the events he was attending. Attendance turned into organising and over time Dan became the lead of four WordPress Meetups spread all over the UK.

Meetups led to an interest in WordCamps, where he again stepped up to take on leadership roles at WordCamp London.

In the podcast today we talk about the importance of the WordPress community, not just to him as an individual, but to the future of the project as a whole. After all, it’s software created by people, and the health of that community will have a direct impact upon the contributions they make.

We recorded this podcast at a time unlike any other. In person events have had to stop; the WordCamps and Meetups have all gone virtual. Perhaps there’s light at the end of that tunnel, but it’s a perfect time to look back and see how the community has adapted to these new circumstances.

We get into whether hybrid WordPress events should be the new norm, what lessons the community can learn from the past year, and what Dan and his colleagues have done to stay connected and part of a vibrant community. They've built a platform to enable events and plan on releasing it as a WordPress plugin soon.

We also discuss an event which Dan has been a key player in organising - WordFest Live, a 24-hour online event with a focus upon learning and positive mental health. 

It’s a lovely episode with a member of the community who has been giving back for many, many years.

Useful links.

WordFest Live

Big Orange Heart

WordPress Meetups

WordCamp Central