people holding shoulders sitting on wall

It’s a familiar refrain: the WordPress project needs contributors. But getting involved can be difficult for individuals who aren’t corporately sponsored. A new nonprofit organization is hoping to address this ongoing challenge.

The WP Community Collective looks to offer community-funded fellowships to financially support contributions to WordPress. Founded by Sé Reed, Katie Adams Farrell, and Courtney Robertson, the WPCC seeks both individual donations and corporate partnerships.

In its official announcement, the organization vows to promote transparency, community representation, and governance. Its first initiative involves the creation of an Accessibility Fellowship.

The WPCC says it plans to create a formalized organizational structure within the next year.

Next up (listen to the podcast for more): Michelle Frechette with the Community Minute!

Community Minute Transcript

Hey, it’s Michelle Frechette with your Community Minute!

Let’s talk about State of the Word! State of the word will happen next week, December 15, from 1pm – 2:30 Eastern Time in New York City. This will be the second year that State of the Word is delivered in this way. Tickets to attend in person have all been claimed, but watch parties are forming, and you can stream online from wherever you are, and, of course, watch it in replay at any time.

In 2020, the event diverted from WCUS for the first time due to the cancellation of WCUS because of COVID lockdown restrictions. In that year it was entirely streamed with questions for Matt Mullenweg to answer, submitted via email.

Delivering the State of the Word separately from a flagship WordCamp actually allows several things to happen:

Matt and/or Josepha can do Q&A sessions at flagship WordCamps in a more casual way.

No particular WordCamp carries with it the honor or onus of including State of the Word.

If a WordCamp is ever canceled in the future, or the dates don’t work for the address, State of the Word carries on independently.

I will be attending, and will be happy to report back on what I see, who I meet, and what I learn at this year’s address.

Will you be watching?

Links You Shouldn’t Miss

The latest episode of WP Product Talk covers what happens when your business starts to scale. Matt Cromwell spoke with Jason and Kim Coleman about the process of budgeting and forecasting for WordPress products.

It’s time once again for the annual WordPress Survey. You are encouraged to share your thoughts and let the WordPress team know how you use the software. The survey will remain open throughout the rest of 2022.

ChatGPT, a chatbot powered by artificial intelligence, has surpassed 1 million users. The app claims the ability to answer follow-up questions and take instructions from humans. And, as WP Tavern reports, it also generated a WordPress plugin on demand. Web developer Johnathon Williams shared a recording of the process in action.

A proposed bill before the United States Congress has Facebook’s parent company Meta threatening to pull news-oriented content from its platform. The bill would allow news outlets to collectively bargain with social media companies for a larger percentage of ad revenue. A similar bill was passed last year in Australia.

Another WordPress-related acquisition is in the books. Development firm Strategy11 has acquired the WP Tasty and Nutrifox suite of plugins. The company also owns Formidable Forms, among other popular plugins.

Classifieds listings buy yours

  • Pressable makes it easy to manage sites with its award-winning control panel, but what if you’re managing sites across multiple accounts or hosts? Pressable is thrilled to announce its extension partnership with MainWP, which uses the Pressable API to provide a simple, yet powerful solution for this all-too-frequent challenge.

From the Grab Bag

Now it’s time to take a look at some other interesting topics shared by our contributors.

  • No-code tool Brizy announced that it has raised $2.4 million seed investment to create a multi-platform website builder.
  • WordPress developer Jos Velasco has proposed an option that would allow users to opt into security-related automatic theme and plugin updates.
  • Not sure if Black Friday sales are right for your WordPress company? A recent Twitter thread has emerged that features arguments both for and against them.
  • Google and parent company Alphabet are the target of a lawsuit filed by a group of 130,000 businesses in the United Kingdom. The claim alleges anti-competitive practices relating to its online advertising model.
  • Some social media users continue to migrate from Twitter to open platforms like Mastadon. Recently, tech philosopher Dr. Johnathan Flowers pointed out potential barriers for communities of color to make the move on the Tech Policy Press podcast.
  • Want to give back this holiday season? Then check out #WPGivesAHand and the WebDevStudios Charity Challenge for some initiatives involving the WordPress community.
  • Keeping with that generous spirit, website translation tool Weglot announced that they raised €52,000 for charity during their recent Giving Tuesday effort.

New Members This Week

If you’re not a member yet, go to thewpminute.com/support/ to join.

Thanks to all of the members who shared these links today: 

  • Justin Ferriman 
  • John Locke

Consider Supporting The WP Minute

If you want to support me, my team, and all of those that contribute – head on over to thewpminute.com/support.

Buy us a digital coffee for as little as $5 OR better yet! Join our community of WordPress newsies, get access to our Slack server, private podcast, or purchase a classifieds listing!

✨ Thanks to MasterWP and Underrepresented in Tech for supporting The WP Minute! Support them because they support us. ✨

That’s it for today’s episode, if you enjoyed please share it on your social media, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser. Don’t forget to share share share this episode with others and jump on the mailing list 👇

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✨ Thanks to MasterWP and Underrepresented in Tech for supporting The WP Minute! Support them because they support us. ✨

Consider Supporting The WP Minute

The WP Minute is an experiment in community journalism for WordPress. If you want to support me, my team, and all of those that contribute – head on over to thewpminute.com/support.

Buy us a digital coffee for as little as $5 OR better yet! Join our community of WordPress newsies, get access to our Slack server, private podcast, or purchase a classifieds listing!

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