WordPress is an open source content management system created and maintained by hundreds of developers and contributors around the world. It has a large community that provides support through forums, documentation, conferences and meetup groups. The Columbus WordPress Meetup group aims to help both beginners and advanced users through monthly meetings, and also supports the annual WordCamp Columbus conference by providing speakers, sponsors and volunteers.

1. WORDPRESS
COMMUNITY
AN OVERVIEW OF WHO AND WHAT DRIVES THE WORDPRESS
COMMUNITY, AND WHERE YOU FIT IN
-Angie Meeker, @angiemeeker
ColumbusWPMeetup | Third Thursday every month
www.meetup.com/wp-columbus/ 1

2. www.wordpress.org
ABOUT WORDPRESS
WordPress is an Open Source project, which means
there are hundreds of people all over the world
working on it. (More than most commercial
platforms.) It also means you are free to use it for
anything from your cat’s home page to a Fortune
500 web site without paying anyone a license
fee and a number of other important freedoms.
SO IT’S BEEN AROUND FOREVER, RIGHT?
Not really. WordPress was born out of a desire for an elegant, well-architectured personal
publishing system built on PHP and MySQL and licensed under the GPLv2 (or later). It is the
official successor of b2/cafelog. b2 was launched in 2001, WordPress in 2003.
ColumbusWPMeetup | Third Thursday every month
www.meetup.com/wp-columbus/ 2

3. Names to Know
Matt Mullenwag Automattic WordCamp
Founder, WordPress For-Profit Company Not-For-Profit Conferences
The WordPress Foundation, A for-profit entity that offers WordCamps are casual,
a non-profit founded by services based around locally-organized
Matt, furthers development WordPress. WordPress.com, conferences centered
of WordPress and protects Akismet, Gravatar, around all things WordPress
the trademarks and brand. VaultPress are a few
examples.
ColumbusWPMeetup | Third Thursday every month
www.meetup.com/wp-columbus/ 3

4. So Who Makes WordPress?
WordPress is continuously made and remade by a core team of developers,
along with contributions of code from community members like you and I.
Lead
Contributing
Developers
Developers
Design
Documentation
Team
and Support
To meet the actual people on Developers
these teams, visit Emeriti
http://wordpress.org/about/
ColumbusWPMeetup | Third Thursday every month
www.meetup.com/wp-columbus/ 4

5. WHO ELSE?
The core code doesn’t function by itself, though. What makes WordPress
amazing are the themes and plugins which make it an extensible CMS.
70+
1500+ 19000+
language
translations of
free themes
free plugins WordPress
in the repo
in the repo
Someone has to review them Plugins submitted by the Localization teams
to ensure they’re GPL community are reviewed by work to ensure every person
compliant and up to Plugin Managers who wants WordPress can
WordPress standards. have it, no matter what
Theme Review language they speak.
ColumbusWPMeetup | Third Thursday every month
www.meetup.com/wp-columbus/ 5

6. All Of These Moving Parts…
Where can you go for help?
wordpress.org Wordpress.org
/forum /codex
HELP!
WordPress WordPress
Meetups Community
Online
ColumbusWPMeetup | Third Thursday every month
www.meetup.com/wp-columbus/ 6

7. Things to remember at WordPress.org
The forum IS moderated, but volunteers also contribute heavily. The Codex is
written both by people paid to write and volunteers. We’re in this together.
DO DON’T
Give a link to your site. Talk in ALL CAPS!
IT’S LIKE YELLING!
Be a good
Be specific and member of Say things like, You
descriptive. It’s ok. the are supposed to help!
WordPress
community Be afraid to ask
Say thank you.
for help.
ColumbusWPMeetup | Third Thursday every month
www.meetup.com/wp-columbus/ 7

8. Other Sites You Might Love
The people in the WordPress community are incredibly giving of their time
and talents. Here are a few sites you should check out.
ma.tt weblogtoolscollection.com
WPTavern.com WordPress.StackExchange.com
WPCandy.com nacin.com
WPBeginner.com pippinsplugins.com/
Lorelle.wordpress.com wpmututorials.com/
MyNameIsAngie.com wordpress.org/news/
CopyBlogger.com wordpress.tv/
planet.wordpress.org/
ColumbusWPMeetup | Third Thursday every month
www.meetup.com/wp-columbus/ 9

9. Where Does Our Meetup Fit?
Some meetups are specific to skill/interest (users, developers, theme
designers, etc) while others are general interest groups that touch on all topics
around publishing with and developing for WordPress.
For Beginners For Power Users For Developers
Every month, we will Attend on a regular Practice your skills by
offer a separate group basis to sharpen your helping others, sharing
for those who need a skills. Ask for specific what you know, or
walk through of basics. subjects; be prepared meeting up with other
We can’t cover to ask for help on devs to work on
everything in one specific projects. projects.
month though!
We are planning presentations by core contributors,
and WordPress community members from outside Central Ohio, too.
ColumbusWPMeetup | Third Thursday every month
www.meetup.com/wp-columbus/ 10

10. Our Meetup Grows Our WordCamp
WordCamp Columbus, July 14-15 at the Ohio State University Union
is driven by the members and participants of our Meetup
To Know What’s Needed
1 Gauging the experiences of our Meetup users
helps us to know what sessions to offer
Meetup
To Share Content
2 We’ll always bring in national WordPressers to
challenge us, but locals make up majority of speakers
To Fund the Event
3 Whether you’re a sponsor, helping to find a
sponsor, sharing the event, or volunteering
WordCamp
ColumbusMeetup | Third Thursday every month
www.meetup.com/wp-columbus/ 11

11. WordCamps are not-for-profit events
None of the speakers are paid. The organizers aren’t paid. The volunteers
aren’t paid. The more we collect in sponsorships, the more we can do for
attendees.
$16,000
Approximate cost of the 2012 WordCamp Columbus
$5000 = Sponsorships
We have $2100 already from national sponsors.
230 tickets x$45 =$10,350
This is an increase of 65 tickets from 2011.
ColumbusWPMeetup | Third Thursday every month
www.meetup.com/wp-columbus/ 12

12. HOW YOU CAN JOIN US
If you are interested, please tweet your interest to @wordcampcbus,
email columbus@wordcamp.org.
Sponsor or Help Us Find Sponsors
1 You can direct potential sponsors to our website
www.2012.columbus.wordcamp.org for info
Volunteer on one of these teams
2 Volunteers, sponsors, content, registration, technical, design,
website, marketing, genius bar, after party and documentation
Share, Share, Share
3 Tell other people about WordCamp Columbus. Many there last there
have well-running sites, businesses or jobs now as a result.
ColumbusWPMeetup | Third Thursday every month
www.meetup.com/wp-columbus/ 13

13. Get in Touch www.mynameisangie.com
www.angiemeekerdesigns.com
Angie
facebook.com/angiemeeker
Meeker
Skype: angiemeeker angie@angiemeekerdesigns.com
twitter.com/angiemeeker
614.353.0633
ColumbusWPMeetup | Third Thursday every month
www.meetup.com/wp-columbus/ 17

14. mp cbus
rdca
@wo
cbus
#wc
ColumbusWordPressMeetup
www. meetup.com/wp-columbus/.com
SEE YOU SOON...
ColumbusWPMeetup | Third Thursday every month
www.meetup.com/wp-columbus/ 18