WordPress 5.0 is coming soon and will usher in a new era of content editing in WordPress via the new block-based editor currently called Gutenberg. When it comes to a CMS like WordPress, change or evolution is necessary, and the editing experience, in particular, has not been seriously revamped in a very long time.
There has been a lot of excitement about Gutenberg; which has been met with some skepticism and even fear as well. The developer community, in particular, has been very vocal about some of the ramifications that Gutenberg will bring into typical WordPress development.
The Advanced WordPress Facebook group is happy to host a 4 part interview series focused on Gutenberg and its significance and what the future of WordPress development will be like after Gutenberg is merged into Core. We’ve asked 4 people are have been very involved in the development of Gutenberg — each from very different perspectives and parts of the world — to do an interview and AMA (“Ask Me Anything”) on Gutenberg throughout the month of February.
This series will be live-streamed directly into the Advanced WordPress Facebook group. Each session will open with a 20-minute interview, hosted by Matt Cromwell (Lead Administrator of the AWP Facebook Group); followed by a 20-30 minute AMA session.
The recordings will be uploaded to the AWP YouTube channel after the stream. Naturally, only live attendees will be able to participate in the AMA.
The Schedule
The series has concluded, but all interviews were recorded. Click here to view them all.
Joost de Valk — Founder of Yoast
Monday, February 5 at 11:00 am Pacific Time
The full interview can now be watched in these locations:
AWP Member Justin Labadie authored this reply to the interview with Joost de Valk
Joost is the founder and CEO of Yoast, a geek by background having built his first website in 1994 at 12 years old, he became a marketeer by trade. At Yoast he combined the two, leading to the very successful Yoast SEO plugin which is now available on several platforms.
We’ll be talking with Joost specifically about how he and his team is preparing their plugins (which are used on millions of websites) for Gutenberg. If you have a plugin and wonder how you’ll get ready for Gutenberg, this is a discussion you’ll want to attend for sure.
Ahmad Awais — Full-time Open Sourcer and WordPress Core Contributor
Monday, February 12 at 8:00 am Pacific Time
The full interview can now be watched in these locations:
AWP Member Rich Tabor authored this reply to the interview with Ahmad Awais
Ahmad is a Full Stack WordPress Developer, regular WordPress Core Contributor, Front-end Fanatic and an accidental writer. He loves to create optimized but advanced workflows to produce professional Open Source software.
Ahmad is the creator of two powerful Gutenberg resources which we’ll discuss in detail:
If you serve clients or plan to develop on WordPress in any way once Gutenberg is in Core; Ahmad’s resources and perspective will be valuable to lean on. Plan to attend this session to ask Ahmad all your developer questions.
Tammie Lister — UX Designer at Automattic
Monday, February 19 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time
Read AWP Member John Teague’s response here.
The full interview can now be watched here:
Tammie works at Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com. She has a varied background including psychology, design, front-end development and user experience. She is a contributor to WordPress, and passionate about Open Source.
Tammie, besides being the design lead for Gutenberg, has also been instrumental in moderating the many community issues created on the Gutenberg Github repo. When discussions got heated, Tammie helped focus conversation away from personal attacks and into goals and outcomes for the project. Her design expertise and community involvement make her an excellent person to talk with regarding all things Gutenberg now and to come.
Matt Mullenweg — Co-Founder of Automattic
Monday, February 26 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time
Read AWP Admin Stanislav Khromov’s response here.
The Interview can now be viewed in these places:
Matt generally needs no introduction to those who frequent the AWP group, but regardless:
Matt Mullenweg is the co-founder of the open-source blogging platform, WordPress, the most popular publishing platform on the web, and the founder & CEO of Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, WooCommerce, and Jetpack. Additionally, Matt runs Audrey Capital, an investment and research company.
Naturally, if we want to know anything about why Gutenberg is being created and what the vision for all things related to Gutenberg is after it’s in Core, Matt is the most important and central person to ask. We’re excited to have Matt on this AMA, so come prepared with your questions.
Join Today
The Advanced WP Facebook Group is a closed group; meaning you have to request membership. If you’d like to attend any of these sessions; request to join today. Once you’ve requested to join the Facebook group, you will be presented with three questions — answer them with clarity and you’ll be accepted.
Our group now has over 30,000 members and 28 admins from all over the world. We host high-quality discussions 24/7 on all things related to development in WordPress. Since 2012 this group has been formative and influential from many a WordPress dev. Join today to learn, enjoy, but most of all contribute to the discussions.
The AWP Gutenberg Interview Series
Matt is Partner and Head of Support and Outreach at GiveWP.com and Impress.org. He is the author of several popular free plugins, the Lead Organizer of the Advanced WordPress Facebook group (which boasts over 30K members), and blogs occasionally at his personal site mattcromwell.com about WordPress, Family life, and Religion and Politics.