Sense of Community  ## Metadata - Author: [[Crossword]] - Full Title: Sense of Community - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/023e0d71-fae8-4845-9cfd-7e4cfdd3d0cd ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **WordCamp Brisbane's Community Shift** - Luke attended the WordCamp Brisbane event recently, which was smaller but well organized. - The event showed a transition in community leadership with new organizers stepping up. Transcript: Luke Well, I went to a WordCamp just this past weekend. On Sunday, I went to WordCamp Brisbane, and that was nice. That's my sort of hometown WordCamp. They have a WordCamp in Australia? Jonathan B What are you talking about? Very funny. Luke We've obviously talked extensively about Sydney, and historically, you'd think that Sydney would be the main WordCamp people come to in Australia, but usually it works out to be Brisbane. There's lots of people in WordPress living a little north. And it was great. It was a little quieter than previous Brisbane WordCamps, but we had an amazing venue, good catering, and the organizing team did such a great job. You know, we've had maybe for the first time or at least for the first time in, you know, recent memory yet, the previous organizers that were sort of like the main people in the community, The old guard, you know, a lot of people have dropped off or become a little burnt out or just a bit over it, you know, and new people have stepped in. Have you found the same thing in the U.S. Or is this Australia specific? Jonathan B You know, so with WordCamp U.S., we covered this a couple episodes back. There's been a changing of the guard with the folks that are involved there. And I think part of it is this, whatever the reasons are, people do move on, right? And it's an important moment in the history of an event of like, how does it evolve? So in your case with WordCamp Brisbane, how was the experience for you in contrast to previous if you have got new folks involved? Luke Yeah, I mean, it was great. Vlad and Jana have been running the WordPress Brisbane meetup for years now, really. And the community all showed up. There were a few faces that I missed seeing. But for the most part, it was that classic WordCamp experience of seeing old friends and reconnecting with the community. ([Time 0:00:41](https://share.snipd.com/snip/6ffcf63d-d7c4-43c6-b838-dc05d1078050)) - **Value of Continuity in WordPress** - Jonathan finds great value in continuity within the WordPress community over decades. - Long-term participants connect new developments with past experiences, enriching the project's evolution. Transcript: Jonathan B Well something just came to mind to me for me luke these we've been in this wordpress community a long time and come and go, right? And sometimes people go and then they come back and so on and so forth. And I had a conversation just recently with someone where I was doing, I was describing myself, like I've been 20 years in WordPress and it started to like hit me. I've like, what does that mean? Especially for what I'll just describe as a new generation of folks coming into this space, right? And one of the things that I've been thinking through is like there's a lot of value, especially in open source, I think, of continuity, of like having just seen things come and go, of Seeing cycles that come and go. And I just, it remains to be seen, like in this world right now, because we have all these new folks coming in, the folks are leaving, like the AI stuff, like I'm seeing what I heard someone Just recently describe as like a bit of like a new generation in WordPress. And at least for me, I'm in this spot of feeling like one of the, the quote unquote old guard. And yet also feeling like I'm kind of excited. Like I see so much value in continuity. And a lot of times I feel like I'm just pointing, connecting the dots and things. So what about this project? Or I hear something that reminds me of something I saw like a decade ago that just feels like it's becoming relevant again. And it's making me just think, I think there's so much value, Luke, in that continuity over time. And I wonder if anyone, for folks who are listening who have been in the space for a long time, it might be easy to discount how much value that they actually have, especially not because WordPress, yes, also what it represents is this broader like web context. Because if you've been in WordPress for a long time, you've probably been touching open source ecosystems broadly. ([Time 0:05:40](https://share.snipd.com/snip/113bd6c1-17b9-4156-ad00-bc643360f49c)) - **Network Through WordCamps** - Attend WordCamps to build lasting personal and professional relationships. - Contributing to open source enhances your job prospects and makes you part of a supportive network. Transcript: Luke Other great thing about WordCamps is the continuity of community. So, I mean, what's a typical career look like? You know, you get a job and you know going to move through a number of jobs throughout your career. And maybe you make some contacts at your first job. But then how do you make contacts outside of that? And inside of open source, you've got this, first of all, amazing job market that opens up through contributions. If you just get in there and start contributing, you get noticed and suddenly opportunities open up for you. Jonathan B Are you saying work for free? Luke No, no, I'm saying contribute. That's all. But outside of that, going to these sorts of events, not only do they expose you to more job opportunities in and of the moment, but you make these friendships and deep friendships. And maybe you only see these people a few times a year, but you make these deep, close personal friendships that last your entire career. And that's really valuable. These people are willing to promote you. ([Time 0:07:36](https://share.snipd.com/snip/2776612b-b51c-41b7-b7fc-bf0a8b0893eb))