On the podcast today we have Rian Rietveld, a specialist in the accessibility field. We discuss the European Accessibility Act (EAA) which mandates that public service websites and products must be accessible by June 28, 2025. Key topics include practical steps for ensuring accessibility, the importance of training and constant monitoring, and the economic benefits of accessible websites. Rian emphasises the moral obligation of inclusivity and the need for an accessibility statement. Exemptions ...
Jul 10, 2024•35 min
On the podcast today we have Aaron Jorbin. Aaron has led teams responsible for some of the largest and most prominent WordPress sites in the world including Rolling Stone, Variety, WIRED, The New Yorker, and The White House. He is also a WordPress Core Committer who focuses on improving developer happiness and making the internet usable by everyone. He’s been an integral part of the WordPress community since 2010, and today Aaron opens up about the crucial importance of major and minor WordPress...
Jul 03, 2024•41 min
On the podcast today we have Davinder Singh Kainth, a veteran in the WordPress community. We discuss navigating the WordPress ecosystem, highlighting opportunities in plugin and theme development, SEO, and hosting. Key topics include building trust, diversifying revenue, and the importance of community engagement, especially at WordCamp events.
Jun 26, 2024•35 min
On the podcast today we have Mina Tamang, who is an SEO expert at Codewing Solutions. Mina advocates for prioritising user needs over traditional SEO tactics that emphasise keyword ranking. She stresses the importance of integrating user-centric content with core SEO principles, technical optimisations, as well the utility of WordPress plugins. The discussion also addresses the growing role of AI in content creation, and the need to maintain human elements for relatability and accuracy. If you'r...
Jun 19, 2024•32 min
On the podcast today we have Jamie Marsland. Jamie runs a WordPress plugin business and has recently become a full-time content creator on YouTube. You might know Jamie from his popular WordPress speed builds on that channel, where contestants have just 30 minutes to build a website from scratch. In this episode, we dive into Jamie’s involvement with WordCamp Europe, where he will be bringing this speed build format to the live stage. Contestants will race against the clock to recreate a pre-bui...
Jun 05, 2024•22 min
On the podcast today we have Adam Zielinski. He works as a WordPress developer at Automattic and in this episode, we talk about Playground, a groundbreaking project that is redefined the way we interact with WordPress. Adam's visionary approach to creating a seamless WordPress experience within a web browser has revolutionised how easy it is to access WordPress. This project really does change the way that WordPress can be used, and there’s so many exciting prospects for how it might shape the f...
May 29, 2024•45 min
On the podcast today we have Alexander Gilmanov, and he's sharing his story of transitioning from freelancer to agency manager, now overseeing a team of 43. With a focus on WordPress ecosystem, Alexander discusses his leadership approach, avoiding negative motivation and instead fostering a culture of trust and positive reinforcement. He elaborates on the nuances of team management and the benefits of smaller, independent teams coordinated across departments like development, marketing, and supp...
May 22, 2024•42 min
On the podcast today we have Alexander Gilmanov. Alex comes to us today from Belgrade, Serbia. He’s a full-stack developer with a rich heritage of freelance and agency work. His company officially launched in 2014, and they’ve continued work with clients, as well as creating a range of WordPress plugins, and their own SaaS apps, mainly in the online booking space. If you’re a developer and are in the weeds of writing code, perhaps you’ve thought about a change of direction. We explore Alexander’...
May 15, 2024•42 min
On the podcast today we have Paolo Belcastro. Paolo works at Automattic, where he’s focused on Jetpack and .blog products. He’s been working remotely since 1994 and managing distributed teams since 1998. He’s on the podcast today to talk about AI, and he certainly brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in integrating AI with web development. With Paolo’s insights into the recent advancements in open source AI models and the collaborative efforts within the AI community to keep platforms acc...
May 08, 2024•55 min
On the podcast today we have Nahuai Badiola. Nahuai is a freelance WordPress developer, theme, and plugin creator. He also writes WordPress code tutorials and enjoys sharing everything he learns about web sustainability in his blog, podcast, and at WordPress events. Nahuai’s life took an unexpected turn one day when he attended a 10-minute lightning talk at a WordCamp. The content of that talk was web sustainability and it profoundly changed his perspective on how we should view our use of the i...
May 01, 2024•40 min
On the podcast today we have Maestro Stevens. Maestro is an international speaker and managing director of The Iconic Expressions. His areas of expertise include digital marketing, brand strategy, web development, and project leadership. In this episode Maestro lays out the case for how inclusivity is not just something that we need to be concerned about at things like events, but also in our WordPress website designs. If you're curious about the intersection of creativity, representation, and t...
Apr 24, 2024•27 min
On the podcast today we have Jonathan Desrosier. Jonathan has been a contributor to WordPress Core for many years, and a WordPress Core committer since 2018. Jonathan currently works as a Senior Software Engineer at Bluehost, where he is sponsored full-time to contribute to WordPress Core through the Five for the Future program. We talk about the challenges that come with contributing to such a large and multi-faceted project, from the intricate process of decision-making, involving many stakeho...
Apr 17, 2024•40 min
On the podcast today we have Jamie Marsland, and he's here to talk to me about his recent journey into YouTube content creation as well as the topic of how WordPress is positioned against the likes of Wix and Shopify. Jamie shares his strategies for effective video creation, from planning to execution, along with his thoughts on sponsored content and its place in the YouTube ecosystem. If you’re curious about the future of WordPress, content creation, or the dynamics of digital learning, this ep...
Apr 10, 2024•34 min
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 cru...
Apr 03, 2024•35 min
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 ...
Mar 27, 2024•34 min
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 commun...
Mar 20, 2024•35 min
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...
Mar 13, 2024•44 min
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 evolvi...
Feb 28, 2024•47 min
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...
Feb 07, 2024•51 min
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 WordPre...
Jan 31, 2024•40 min
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 o...
Jan 24, 2024•48 min
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 t...
Jan 17, 2024•43 min
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 projec...
Jan 10, 2024•35 min
On the podcast today we have Thomas Fanchin. Thomas is a WordPress enthusiast and is the partnership manager for Weglot, which is a solution for translating websites, not limited to WordPress. His role means that he’s immersed in the WordPress community. He’s passionate about connecting with, and learning from, others in the community. Thomas talks on the podcast about Weglot's involvement in WordPress initiatives and events. We get into how they decide what to sponsor and what they hope to get ...
Dec 20, 2023•36 min
On the podcast today we have Emma Young. Emma is the Head of Content for Hostinger and is on the podcast today to chat through her new found love of WordPress and the community which surrounds it. Emma's journey is quite inspirational. From having almost no experience with WordPress just a few years ago, she’s now immersed deeply in all that WordPress has to offer. Just over a year ago she'd been using WordPress a little, but that was it. Then she found employment in the space and has been to al...
Dec 13, 2023•37 min
On the podcast today, we have Artemy Kaydash. Artemy is a WordPress and WooCommerce freelance developer who focuses on backend development. Most of this episode centres around the impact of AI on the landscape of web development. We explore the implications of AI tools for web developers, firstly talking about the way that AI systems have rapidly become somewhat essential and the developer's toolkit. We discussed the pivotal role AI may have in the future and how it could become an indispensable...
Dec 05, 2023•38 min
Pooja was on the podcast a few weeks ago talking about diversity, but this time the focus is on creating learning materials for WordPress. We talk about how Pooja got involved and what opportunities are out there for people wishing to assist in the enterprise of making content for those wishing to learn more about WordPress.
Nov 29, 2023•33 min
On the podcast today we have Nick Diego. Nick is a sponsored full-time contributor at Automattic. His official position is a developer relations advocate, which allows him to focus on creating developer orientated content. Apart from his regular responsibilities, Nick is also involved in a separate project called the WordPress Showcase, and this is the focus of the podcast today. The WordPress showcase is a curated collection of websites built with WordPress. Its purpose is to inspire, and show ...
Nov 22, 2023•39 min
So on the podcast today, we have Matthias Pfefferle. Matthias started using WordPress in its early stages when it was still known as b2. He became passionate about blogging and the web 2.0 era. Over time he dedicated himself to making blogging relevant and developed various tools to compete with social networks, building communities professionally and working for a European hoster. Matthias ultimately joined Automattic to focus on WordPress and the ActivityPub plugin full-time. If you want to le...
Nov 15, 2023•51 min
On the podcast today we have Marieke van de Rakt. Marieke was one of the co-founders of Yoast, but left that roll in May 2023. She's here to talk about the growing divide between those who prioritise community-oriented contributions and those driven purely by commercial interests. She expresses her concerns about the potential consequences if this division continues to widen, including the potential growth of other content management systems. We discuss the potential negative outcomes if WordPre...
Nov 08, 2023•40 min
