In this interview, Birgit Pauli-Haack shares her journey from discovering WordPress as a solution for a nonprofit organization in 2009 to becoming a key contributor to the WordPress ecosystem. With contributions ranging from organizing meetups to being part of WordCamp US and the Gutenberg changelog podcast, Birgit’s story highlights her passion for open-source collaboration. She also provides valuable advice for new developers and insights on how to stay updated with the latest trends in WordPress development.
Can you share your first experience with WordPress, and what made you choose it?
My first significant experience with WordPress was in 2009 when I was the volunteer president of a local Freenet organization. We were using an outdated CMS and needed a better solution. After evaluating about 30 different content management systems, WordPress stood out as the best fit for our volunteer tech team and the nonprofits we served. It empowered our users, allowing communicators to update content without relying on tech support. The platform’s open-source nature, extensive documentation, and flexibility with plugins made it an ideal choice. This experience ignited my passion for WordPress, which I’ve embraced ever since.
How did you start contributing to open-source projects, and what was your first contribution to the WordPress community?
In the early 2000, I started contributing to open-source while I was still using Coldfusion as the application engine for our company’s website. My first contribution to WordPress was organizing local Meetups to discuss and teach WordPress. My first contribution to WordPress Core was fixing a documentation page in the block editor handbook.
What are some important projects or contributions you have made within the WordPress ecosystem?
In 2015, I took over the dormant WordPress Meetup in Southwest Florida and grew it to three monthly meetings with four co-organizers. In 2020, The meetup merged into Mega Meetup online meetings and went dormant again after co-organizers moved away from the area.
In 2018 and 2019, I was a co-organizer of WordCamp US on the sponsor team.
The longest project is probably the Gutenberg Times (since 2018) publishing and the Gutenberg changelog podcast (since 2019)
With Gutenberg making it into WordPress core, I have been on the contributor list 15 times since the release of WordPress 4.9. I have been on the release squad of 6.0 through 6.4 first as documentation co-lead then Editor Triage co-lead.
I was the release lead for five Gutenberg plugin releases.
I have been working on WordPress Developer Blog through the proposal and implementation and now work closely with the writers and reviews on an ongoing basis. I also help organize Hallway Hangouts in the outreach channel and Developer Hours.
How do you keep up with the latest trends in WordPress development, and what resources would you suggest for new developers who want to get involved?
I know that it’s difficult to keep up with what’s new for WordPress. There are multiple publications that try to curate all the information and serve as starting points to catch up:
- Keeping up with Gutenberg Index – list the update from various teams that work on Gutenberg. That index has been around since 2020, so it’s also some history record.
- Since February 2023, the What’s new for Developers roundup post is a great way to keep in touch with relevant information for plugin authors, theme builders and agency developers.
- For each major WordPress release, the documentation co-leads compile the Fieldguide (example WordPress 6.6). It comes out around the Release Candidate 1, about four weeks before the final release.
