WP Tavern

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.

On the podcast today we have Tara King. Tara has recently begun working for Automattic in developer relations, and it’s an important role within the WordPress community. 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 editor and full site editing. They will then report this 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 content to help people get up to speed, and perhaps use, or better understand, the Block Editor. If you're interested in, or concerned about, Gutenberg, then have a listen to Tara on the podcast.

On the Jukebox 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. We talk about what he has been building with blocks and why he thinks that they represent a bright future for WordPress. For Lee, it's about the extra capabilities which they bring for end users. We discuss the difficulties developers face learning new skills, and how Lee overcame this. Have a listen to Lee Shadle on the podcast.

On the Jukebox podcast today we have Ajit Bohra. He's a full stack developer based in Mumbai, India. He's been working with, and committing to, WordPress for many years. We cover three main topics in this podcast. First a conversation about his thoughts on Gutenberg. Then we discuss Full Site Editing and how it will change WordPress for non-technical users. We finish off chatting about how React development is becoming increasing important for WordPress development.

On the Jukebox podcast today we have Cory Miller and he's here to talk about the WordPress Mergers and Acquisitions Landscape. Recently there's been a uptick in the number of companies being bought. But what do we make of all this? It is a good thing, showing that the WordPress economy is thriving, or should we be concerned that a few big players are buying so many things? Find out what we think on the podcast.

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 so today we have a broad discussion about his 'Gutenberg First' approach as well as how the project is evolving. We also chat about WordPress events and Openverse.

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. We talk about the importance of the community for Dan and the WordPress project as a whole, and how Dan has set up online events like WordFest to keep people connected. Listen now.

So today on the WP Tavern Jukebox podcast we're talking to Benjamin Intal from Stackable, which is suite of WordPress blocks. We talk about why he's betting his business on blocks and how the company have evolved their product line over the last three years. From a period in which the adoption of blocks was uncertain to now, in which blocks appear to be gaining more momentum. What problems did they encounter along the way and how they iterated their offering. Listen now.

In this, the second episode of the WP Tavern Jukebox podcast, we talk to Anne McCarthy. Anne is Developer Relations Wrangler for Automattic. Her work is focussed on the WordPress.org space, and she is leading the Full Site Editing Outreach Program. She explains what Full Site Editing in WordPress is all about. Why it's needed, what it hopes to achieve and how you can get involved to shape the direction of the project.

In this, the first episode of the WP Tavern Jukebox podcast, we talk to Josepha Haden Chomphosy. She is the Executive Director of the WordPress project, and discusses WordPress' past, present and future. We talk about how WordPress has changed over time and what needs to be considered in the future, to keep the community engaged.