In this interview, Carlo Daniele shares his first experience with WordPress, explaining how it became his preferred platform. He reflects on his journey into contributing to open-source projects, starting with Barcamps and his first WordCamp speech. Carlo discusses his contributions to WordPress through plugin development and community engagement. We also explore his thoughts on the current direction of WordPress, offering a critical view of the challenges faced by new developers.
Can you share your first experience with WordPress, and what made you choose it?
My first experience with WordPress dates back to 2007. At that time, I was looking for an alternative to Joomla, which seemed too cumbersome and complex for both users and developers. WordPress offered more features and functionality, including an integrated comments system, which made it a more suitable choice for blogging. In addition, the code was straightforward and the database architecture leaner. In short, the expansion possibilities of WordPress were incredible compared to Joomla!
How did you start contributing to open-source projects, and what was your first contribution to the WordPress community?
I started attending Barcamps when they were popular all over the world. This dates back to 2006 / 2007. At that time, I was very interested in the social effects of the new technologies gathered under the Web 2.0 umbrella. Blogging, citizen journalism, social bookmarking, photo/video sharing, etc. constituted a new universe with still unexplored potential. That philosophy still guides my online activity. My first experience in the WordPress community was at WordCamp Verona in 2018. My first speech at a WordCamp was in Turin in 2019, where I discussed the architecture of WordPress.
What are some important projects or contributions you have made within the WordPress ecosystem?
I developed several plugins that I published in the WordPress plugin directory. Unfortunately, those projects are no longer available. I also have contributed several speeches to WordCamps and meet-ups
What are your thoughts on the current state of WordPress development, and how do you see its future?
Hard to say. I have no clear idea of the path WordPress wants to follow. I wish WordPress would open up to technologies other than React. I think the learning curve for a developer wanting to enter the WordPress world is steep and can discourage rather than invite new developers to contribute to the growth of the CMS
What advice would you give to developers who are new to WordPress or open source?
Learn all you can and share everything freely. Open up and do not keep what you have learned for yourself. What you give to the community comes back to you multiplied by 10 as reputation, partnership opportunities, new ideas, and opportunities. Choose the technology you enjoy the most and devote all the energy you can to growing your project. Then share what you have learned and wait for the social dynamics you activate to bear fruit, also in human terms.
Which areas do you think need new energy and focus right now, and why? (Accessibility, plugins, themes, performance, etc.)
Community, in the sense of removing obstacles that limit community growth. I think open communities need to ask themselves how open they actually are: how closed are open communities? What are the retention factors that slow down or even restrain the growth of a community?
What can we do to ensure that WordPress continues to work well with new technologies and stays ahead of trends? (Programming methods, new tech areas, headless, etc.)
Be unfaithful to WordPress as it is. Look for new solutions and technologies, study them, try them out, and implement them in WordPress. There are innovative technologies that could suggest new and different evolutionary paths, perhaps even more promising than the technologies on which WordPress is based today.
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 write about everything on WordPress. I keep up to date with new versions by constantly reading official resources and release notes for new features. I follow top contributors on their social channels and some reference sites.
Here are some must-see resources:
- https://make.wordpress.org/
- https://x.com/WordPress
- https://gutenbergtimes.com/
- https://fullsiteediting.com/
In your opinion, what are the best ways to engage and attract new developers to the WordPress community, and how can we make the onboarding process more welcoming and inclusive?
Allow them to learn new things. Teach them how to use the CMS with real-life projects and practical examples. It is not enough to teach how to create a block or a theme. You have to teach them how to achieve a tangible result with the tools available. These are at both the user and developer level. Open up the community to new ideas. My feeling is that there is too much talk about things that everyone already knows and little or nothing about things that few people know.
How can you make the onboarding process more welcoming and inclusive? Before we can make the onboarding process more inclusive and welcoming, we need to attract new people to the community. I believe that one of the goals the community should set itself is to attract new young developers.
