Contribute!

I love community and human relations centered projects, and I like everything open-source which allows everyone to have their voices heard (“Democratize publishing”). I have these values in common with WordPress and its code of conduct.

Table of content

Why?

Read my blog post about “why”:

Why I contribute to the open-source WordPress project

Someone once told me I should dedicate time and money to give to useful non-profit organisations, I replied that I contribute to what non-profits can use for free for their outreach! (and own their data, unlike with SaaS solutions such as Wix).
Currently (2024), WordPress powers 43% of the internet and around 65% of all CMS uses.

How?

Here is how I like to contribute to the amazing WordPress project, a tool that anyone can use freely: I co-organise events, apply as a volunteer or speaker in events I do not co-organise, I microsponsor when I can, I take part in different projects (see below) and do as much as I can as a non-sponsored contributor.

I like to get involved in the WordPress community, as it’s a pleasant way (meet wonderful people and make friends from all over the world) to give back to WordPress what WordPress allows me to accomplish with this site patriciabt.com, Interaction.Site, CMSMondo and Web Presence Care (previously called Virtuaza).

Sponsor

I’m not sponsored for now (you can sponsor my contribution time). EDIT: I’m now sponsored by Themeisle and Jens de Beule for 22 hours per month of my contribution time (out of around 80 hours).
In the future, when my business projects will generate sufficient income, I might end external sponsorships and be sponsored by my own company when I will establish my LLC and dedicate working hours to WordPress contribution. Or reach a 50% sponsored, 50% self-sponsored.

Since September 2023, and after my participation in the Community Summit 2023 in the USA and acceptance as a co-organiser for WordCamp Europe 2024, I gave an increasing time of contribution to the WordPress project, to reach about 20 hours a week since this spring (a bit less during this summer) and would love to find sponsor(s) via the “Five for the Future” initiative. Read more here on the Sponsor page.

Events – Community Team

I’m mostly an organiser in different events, but when I’m not, I try to be a volunteer, a microsponsor or a speaker. See a full list of my participations in WordPress events on this page.

Meetup Events

I co-organise the WordPress Meetup events in Geneva since 2013. This group have been created in 2012 by Paolo Belcastro and Jenia Laszlo. When they left Geneva, 2-3 of us took the group in charge. We used to organise them monthly from September to June, and tried the quarterly bigger events in 2023, and talk about various topics for all kind of knowledge level. We like to be very inclusive and welcoming, and always follow the events by a dinner out. Please consider joining the organisers, We need new people to pass on the torch!

WordCamp Events and other

I have been part of the WordCamp organisation teams in Geneva in 2016, Bern in 2017, Lausanne 2018, Zurich 2019, Genève 2022 ( 2020 postponed to 2022, due to COVID), WordCamp Switzerland 2023 and the Switzerland Community Day (23 March 2024).

I have been a volunteer at WordCamp Europe in 2017, 2019, 2022, 2023, among others. I was a co-organiser for WordCamp Europe 2024 (13-15 June 2024 in Torino) in the Volunteer Team and I’m now in the Local team for WordCamp Europe 2025 (5-7 June 2025 in Basel). Please apply as an organiser in your local WordCamp or a flagship one, we need to share with new people!

Event supporter

I now contribute to the Community Team also by being an official Event Supporter = previously called “WordCamp mentor” since January 2023. An Event Supporter is an intermediary between the WordCamp’s lead-organisers and WPCS (WordPress Community Support, the entity behind all official WordPress events) to guide and support local lead-organisers. In 2023, I have been the Event Supporter for WordCamp Vienna, WordCamp Netherlands and WordCamp Biarritz. In 2024-2025, I’m doing the same for 3 upcoming WordCamp, 2 in France: WordCamp Bretagne and WordCamp Toulouse, and 1 in Germany: WordCamp Konstanz.

I got a very nice comment on Slack from one of the WordCamp Bretagne organisers, Benjamin Denis (SEOPress), thank you!

Patricia (best mentor ever) will be able to answer questions like these better than I can.

Benjamin Denis – SEOPress

Contributor Mentorship Program

February 2024: I was a mentor and facilitator on the second cohort of the Contributor Mentorship Program. I got two mentees. I will also join the third cohort of the program. EDIT in October 2024: I lead a project in the current third cohort to bring new contributors to BuddyPress and bbPress.

Five for the Future

I deeply believe that contributors should be sponsored and want to participate to the Five for the Future initiative coordination, at least by mentioning my opinions on what needs to be changed!

DEIB and Sustainability

Since Sept-October 2023: I also participate to the DEIB working group (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging) meetings, led by Birgit Olzem, and the Sustainability Team meetings, especially to bring back the ideas to the Swiss community and act as a bridge. More on this page.

GatherPress

December 2023: After my “rant” about meetup.com on the main WP contributor Slack (if you are on that slack, read my rant here), Mike Auteri, one of the leads of the GatherPress project, said we were all welcome to join! So did I! This is a great project to hopefully replace meetup.com for WP events one day. As a non-dev, I help with testing, translations, outreach and probably future documentation. On 22 January 2024, we published a proposal on the Make WordPress Community team site. On the same day, I wrote “The Rise of GatherPress” here on the blog.

WPpodcast

Since November 2023: Another project in which I am involved as French translator and the French voice is WPpodcast (French version),

• originally in Spanish by Javier Casares since July 2020,
• then in English since October 2023, also by Javier,
• in Catalan since November 2023 by Josep Morán,
• in French since November 2023 by myself,
• in German since April 2024 by Simon Kraft,
• in Esperanto since May 2024 by Enric Pineda I did some of the episodes but now stopped.
• in Hindi since July 2024 by Nakul Chandra
• in Portuguese since August 2024 by José Freitas

Arabic may probably be added soon! And maybe more as people are interested to join, we are looking for Japanese translators. We are the first multilingual WordPress Podcast!

And soon… interviews!

This is not official contribution per say as this is a private initiative, but as it is a weekly summary of what happened in the world of the contribution to WordPress and news from all the Make Teams, I wanted to list it here. I learn a lot participating into this program.

More …

I would love to give more (for example to the WP Documentation team, the Training team, or as a Photo directory moderator, etc), but have to work as well 🙂

You can find my profiles on WordPress.org, TheWP.world and WPSpeakers.com.