Rome Core Days 2024

In this engaging interview, Olga Gleckler shares her journey into WordPress, starting as a developer creating custom admin interfaces before discovering the simplicity and flexibility of WordPress. She reflects on her first experiences with open-source contributions, starting at WordCamp Nordic in 2019, and highlights her involvement in the WordPress Marketing team and the impactful ‘Get Involved’ tab project for version 6.3. Olga emphasizes the importance of community support in pushing through challenges and discusses her vision for the future of WordPress, including a redesigned, more intuitive admin interface. She offers practical advice for new developers looking to contribute to WordPress, encouraging growth through incremental contributions and collaboration. Olga also suggests ways to make the onboarding process more welcoming and fun, with a focus on raising awareness of opportunities in the WordPress ecosystem.

⁠In this insightful interview, Andrea Fercia, a long-time contributor to WordPress, shares his journey into the platform and his contributions, particularly to improving accessibility. With a background in web accessibility since 2004, Andrea was drawn to WordPress in 2013 for its accessibility potential. He discusses his early contributions to WordPress, including overcoming “Imposter Syndrome” and making his first code submission. Andrea reflects on the current state of WordPress development, the challenges posed by the separation of Core and Gutenberg development, and his vision for a more unified future. With a focus on accessibility, Andrea offers advice to new developers on contributing effectively to open-source projects and emphasizes the importance of welcoming processes and documentation to attract new contributors.

In this interview, Matteo Enna, a developer with a strong technical background in computer science, shares his journey into the WordPress ecosystem. His first experience with WordPress dates back to 2012 during a web design course where he discovered PHP and WordPress. Matteo has been deeply involved in the open-source community, with contributions ranging from plugin development to supporting the WordPress Core Performance Team through the Five for the Future initiative. He discusses his passion for WordPress, offers advice to new developers, and emphasizes the importance of participation and collaboration across communities to ensure WordPress remains adaptable to new technologies and trends.

In this interview, André Maneiro reflects on his journey with WordPress, starting in 2006 when he joined a local community network to publish his thoughts using the platform. He shares his passion for open-source, detailing how it shaped his career and led to his first contributions to the WordPress community, such as translations and tutorials. Andre discusses some of his key projects, including contributions to theme.json, Global Styles, and his tool, docgen, which has been essential for generating API documentation for the Gutenberg project. He also offers advice for new developers on building a sustainable open-source career and emphasizes the importance of in-person events like Rome Core Days to foster community engagement and onboarding.

In this interview, Elena Brescacin shares her journey with WordPress, which began between 2003 and 2004 when she explored the platform as an accessible alternative for building websites as a blind creator. She discusses her initial contributions to open-source projects, such as translations and feedback on plugins, and highlights her ongoing work, including a personal blog about HIV stigma, PlusBrothers.net. Elena provides insightful commentary on the current state of WordPress, stressing the need for improvements in accessibility, privacy, and security.

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.

In this interview, we delve into Carolina’s journey with WordPress, starting from her first experience with the platform and her reasons for choosing it. Carolina Nymark shares how she began contributing to the open-source community, highlighting her early involvement in theme development and the WordPress Theme Review Team. We also explore her significant contributions, including leadership roles in theme development and the creation of educational resources like fullsiteediting.com.