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#114 – Tammie Lister on the Journey Through Design and Theming Apr 03, 2024

Show notes

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.

#113 – Shawn Hooper on Launching WordCamp Canada (WCEH) Mar 27, 2024

Show notes

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.

#112 – Miriam Schwab on Balancing WordPress Success and Family Life Mar 20, 2024

Show notes

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.

#111 – Josepha Haden Chomphosy on Navigating WordPress’ Evolution, Growth and Change Mar 13, 2024

Show notes

On the podcast today we have Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Josepha is the Executive Director of WordPress, a role she's held since 2019. She's been contributing since 2012 and has a special fondness for brand-new-to-WordPress learners. During the episode Josepha shares her insights on overcoming the challenges posed by the pandemic. She talks about the positive strides made with the Gutenberg project and the need for improved change management during its implementation. We discuss market share of the CMS, community events, and community burnout, as well as how Josepha thinks about measuring WordPress' success, and future goals of the project. If you’re interested in the WordPress project as a whole, and how it’s run and directed, this podcast is for you.

#110 – Thomas J. Raef on the Shift in How Hackers Attack, and How to Protect Your Site Feb 28, 2024

Show notes

On the podcast today we have Thomas J. Raef. Thomas is the founder of We Watch Your Website, a company that has been removing malware from websites since 2007. During that time he’s seen many changes in the methods hackers use to take over a website, and that’s the focus of the podcast today. With hackers becoming increasingly agile in their tactics, targeting everything from plugins to session cookies, Thomas brings to the table data he’s gathered from 2023 that puts the spotlight on the evolving digital threat landscape. We’re all used to hearing that plugins, themes, and sometimes WordPress Core, are the most likely culprits when something goes wrong. The story goes that out of date code, or a zero day is discovered and leveraged. Whilst Thomas does not doubt that this is true, he’s here to paint a somewhat different picture. A picture which puts the focus upon stolen session cookies as the most important factor in website attacks last year. If you've ever been concerned about the security of your WordPress site or intrigued by the intricacies of cybersecurity, this episode is for you.

#109 – Ben Ritner on How Kadence WP Managed the Pivot Towards AI Feb 07, 2024

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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.

#108 – Mike Auteri on Using GatherPress to Organise WordPress Events Jan 31, 2024

Show notes

On the podcast today we have Mike Auteri, and we're here to talk about GatherPress, a WordPress plugin for event management within the WordPress ecosystem. Mike delves into the features and benefits of GatherPress, including its focus on replicating important event features for the WordPress community, and responses to the shift to online events due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The potential for GatherPress to revolutionise event management within the WordPress community by tools leveraging WordPress certainly seems like something worth exploring. If you’re a WordPress event organiser, or have attended a meetup in the past and are curious about how this could be handled by a freely available plugin, this episode is for you.

#107 – Michelle Frechette on Advocating for Accessibility and Diversity in the WordPress Community Jan 24, 2024

Show notes

On the podcast today we have Michelle Frechette. She has a long history of community involvement, writing articles, hosting podcasts, managing events and much more. The topic under discussion today is diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. Michelle talks about her experiences at WordPress events, and how they were not always easy for her to attend and be a part of. It’s not all about events though. Michelle talks about the wider goals of making all aspects of the WordPress community more opening and inclusive. Being one of the voices promoting this message has not always been easy, and we hear about how Michelle copes with those who disagree with her quest to create change. If you're interested in thinking about inclusivity, and how embracing diverse perspectives can impact the WordPress community, this episode is for you.

#106 – Anil Gupta on the Challenges Posed by Multi Collaboration in WordPress Jan 17, 2024

Show notes

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.

#105 – Pascal Birchler on Revolutionizing Image and Video Processing Within WordPress Jan 10, 2024

Show notes

On the podcast today we explore the transformative capabilities of web browsers with guest Pascal Birchler. We discuss the power of WebAssembly, the future potential for moving desktop activities to the web, and Birchler's innovative work in image and video processing. The conversation highlights his queuing system for background image processing and a groundbreaking plugin enabling tasks such as converting animated GIFs to videos. He also shares insights into modern image formats and his project to improve WordPress performance through reduced file sizes and server resource usage. The episode concludes with a glimpse into potential future projects. Go listen...

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