Happy Halloween, WordPressers! Starting to feel that autumn chill yet? The days are shorter; sweaters and poofy jackets are more common; stuffy noses and tissue consumption is on the rise.
Yep, we’re on the cusp of November! 🙂
Here’s what we’ve been keeping tabs on this week at WPUniversity:
WordPress 3.7 “Basie” Now Available
The latest version of WordPress is now ready for mass consumption. “Basie”, named for American jazz pianist Count Basie, focuses on architectural improvements to WordPress. The big three: Background updates, which automatically apply maintenance and security hotfixes to your site; stronger password recommendations, to help keep your site secure; and better global support, for localized versions of WordPress around the globe.
By following a shorter “plugin-led” development process, the core team was able to get 3.7 pushed out only a couple of months after 3.6 (which was released back in August). This is a pattern they intend to follow with WordPress 3.8 in December.
Props to all of the WordCamp Toronto attendees who had their core updates rolled into this latest release. You’re now part of WordPress history!
Related links:
- WordPress 3.7 “Basie” (WordPress.org)
- WordPress 3.7 Released: WordPress Now Updates Itself (WP Tavern)
- What’s new in WordPress 3.7, “Basie” (Post Status)
Why didn’t the White House use WordPress?
This article has been getting passed around in the WordPress community (for obvious reasons). It’s a short article, mostly an interview with Automattician Peter Slutsky, that endorses the advantages of open source technology.
Slutsky can’t promise that WordPress would have pre-empted all the problems facing HealthCare.gov, but he does believe that using an open-source tool would likely have made the problems bedeviling the site apparent before its launch.
The heated conversation/arguing that bubbles up in the comments about WordPress is worth skimming purely for entertainment, considering the takeaway of the article was more about the benefits of OSS than WordPress specifically.
Related Links:
- Why didn’t the White House use WordPress? (Politico)
- Why didn’t the government use WordPress for HealthCare.gov? (Post Status)
- Reporters and Congress Are Terrible at Healthcare.gov Tech Support (The Atlantic Wire)
WordSesh 2 coming December 7th 2013
The second ever WordSesh, 24 hours of live streaming WordPress presentations, is coming soon. The first WordSesh was a crazy idea that was wildly successful. I love stuff like that. Scott Basgaard is the lead organizer, and he’s announced the second WordSesh is going to be December 7th.
The first WordSesh had over 2500 unique viewers from 80 different countries. The most popular talk was on bbPress and BuddyPress from John James Jacoby. (Finally, some love for bbPress!)
Related Links:
Organize a WordPress Meetup In Your Area
The WordPress Foundation has opened its doors to folks interested in organizing local meetups through their central Meetup.com account. This has been in discussion for a while now, and was first tested with a select group of participating meetups last year.
Related Links:
- Meetup Interest Form (WordPress.org)
- Add Your Meetup Group to the Central WordPress Account on Meetup.com (WP Tavern)
- Discussion on Make WordPress Events and Make WordPress Community (WordPress.org)
DradCast Episode 26: Dradcicles in Norway
October’s been a busy month for WordPress conferences. Aside from our local WordCamp, there was WordCamp Europe 2013 and PressNomics 2. This threw the DradCast podcast off schedule for a bit, but the team is back on track now with Episode 26. Highlights from this episode include guest host Noel Tock (partner at Human Made, makers of Happytables and WP Remote) taking no crap, and AppPresser (tools to let you create a device-native iOS or Android app with WordPress).
Kudos to Dre Armeda for giving us and Sidekick for WordPress a shout-out. Much obliged!
That’s it for this week. Have a safe Halloween and a great weekend!
