WordCamp Europe 2020 Online kicked off yesterday with a record-breaking contributor day. More than 2,500 people signed up to participate. The pandemic may have forced the event to go virtual but an enthusiastic flock of contributors, both seasoned and brand new, joined from their homes to carry on supporting the open source project that connects them.
“The world is literally on fire, but today I am focusing on WordPress,” Francesca Marano said. “WCEU contributor day is on. I am literally crying in my living room: so many familiar faces, so many new faces. Missing people and also feeling this is a huge opportunity.”
Representatives from 16 Make.WordPress.org teams coordinated contributors for a productive day. Organizers tweeted out progress reports on a variety of initiatives:
- The CLI team had a very successful day: they merged 46 pull-requests, as well as restructuring the handbook on the WordPress content side.
- The Meta team updated the Cookie Policy page, created a new ticket about unexpected redirects, and worked on a WordCamp.org ticket.
- The Training team made several enhancements to the lesson plan “Setting Up E-Commerce” including a new slide presentation.
- The Polyglots team is making headway in Italian and French localization: 4 plugins translated and 2 new PTEs (Project Translation Editor Request).
- WPTV is having a great time and discussing improvements for outreach, documentation, and possible project status tools. They have also been sharing some great ideas for tutorials on the various video editing tools for future implementation.
- The Marketing team is working on a number of guides to help the community in topics like podcasting and live streaming.
- The Hosting Team has implemented a new contribution process and is working on a new Hosting Handbook.
- The Core team has committed 4 patches and propped 10 different individuals on those commits.
An astounding 8,600 people from 138 countries registered to participate in WCEU online. Opening remarks kicked off day 1 of talks with a poignant and timely reminder of how WordPress publishing can amplify voices that may not otherwise be heard.
The music attendees are hearing throughout the event was written by designer Angel de Franganillo.
“When WCEU asked me to make the tune, it was a bit challenging since I only play piano for fun and I’m not a professional,” de Franganillo said. “I usually work with graphics, so I just follow the process I’d use for a graphics project, but with an audio piece.
“After some research and talks with WCEU, my main goals were: Tech, Europe, and Community. So I sat down in front of my piano to play some chords that suited those concepts and made a loop with them. Later, I looked for some synths to dress the loop and finish the piece.”
Attendees are also sharing selfies using the #WCEUFamilyPhoto hashtag on social networks. Organizers are gathering these to create a giant WCEU “family photo” collage.
If you did not register in time for WordCamp Europe, you can still watch live by visiting the site and clicking on any of the tracks to join the broadcast on YouTube. Registered ticket holders have access to exclusive Zoom rooms dedicated to networking with speakers and other attendees, watching sponsors’ presentations, and visiting sponsors’ virtual booths.