A year in WordCamps

So, it’s the end of the year once again, and we’re all making our year’s balance.

For me, 2015 is the year I turned from an anonymous WordPress developer to an (equally) anonymous WordPress community member.

I’m writing this three weeks after the inaugural WordCamp US in Philadelphia. It’s been (roughly) just one year after my first WordCamp Europe in Sofia. I attended also to WordCamp Europe in Seville and WordCamp Zürich. And, in the middle of that I helped organizing  the WordPress Meetup Milan and the first Italian Contributor Day, back in November.

Now I’m starting to understand what WordPress really is.

I’ve been working with WordPress since 2009, but I’ve never been involved in the community. When you are just user of an open source software, you focus on maximizing  what you could get from the software. When you start being involved in its community, you start to switch focus, thinking about what you could give to the software.

So you start translating it in your language. You find a typo in the docs and you fix it. You start to take part to discussions. Maybe you’re a developer working with the software as your day job, and you start to contribute with patches, maybe just a single, stupid line. Or you’re a designer, and you help to improve the UI. In short, you show up. And the WordPress community adhere to the old saying:

decisions are made by those who show up

If something makes you feel uncomfortable, just show up and tell. I think that’s really a good way of doing things.

New year’s resolutions

So what will 2016 be like? Of course, I will be contributing more. As a developer I find really challenging and exciting working on an open source software with so many competent contributors. There’s so much to learn!

And what about WordCamps? Well, I have already purchased my ticket for WordCamp Europe in Vienna, so let’s see if I break my 2015’s attendance record!