WordPress hosted a “first-of-its-kind event” via Zoom this week where members of the 6.0 release squad and core contributors conducted a live walkthrough of the major features coming in the next release. The event was recorded and is now available on WordPress.tv and embedded below.
WordPress 6.0 is set to include approximately 400 updates and 500 bug fixes. Gutenberg lead architect Matías Ventura led the tour of the upcoming release, demonstrated how the style switcher works, and touched on additional templates coming in 6.0 (author, date, category, tag, taxonomy), as well as the Webfonts API. He also showed how many of the editor improvements work, including cross text multi-selection, quick insertion of links, appenders, consistent styling between buttons, and improvements to list view.
The event was very casual, not a polished marketing style showcase. Contributors were transparent about the loose ends that are still visible and gave viewers a feel for the direction of the project and what they have in mind for future iterations of these features.
More than 120 people joined the broadcast for an interactive Q&A that happened throughout the walkthrough. The event was so successful that WordPress marketing team contributor Dan Soschin said they are considering making these types of live product demonstrations more frequent.
“Based on the positive experience among the panelists and attendees, I believe it is feasible that another walkthrough could take place closer to the release date as well as become a regular part of the communications cycle for future releases,” Soschin said.
“In future iterations, alternative platforms may be explored, such as a live stream service so the event can be viewed on Youtube, for example. Future events could also be longer to allow for deeper discussions and explorations of certain features or be themed to just discuss certain areas of the project.”
If you’re tracking specific features in the 6.0 release, the Gutenberg team has a GitHub issue listing pending issues and blockers. There are currently no blockers in the way of the upcoming Beta 1, which is anticipated on April 12. There are a handful of must-have issues before RC, and nine “nice-to-have” items. Check out Soschin’s recap post for links to all these issues and a full chat excerpt and transcript from the event.
Zoom is more accessible for Q&A than YouTube, for which only signed-in Google-account folks can comment. Anyone watching a Zoom event can comment in the chat (and please use the “meeting” format, rather than the “webinar” format so that attendees can save the chat.) IDK if it is possible to live stream a Zoom meeting on YouTube, but it can be simultaneously live streamed on Facebook.