I just attended my 13th WordPress Users Group Meetup, my tenth (out of 11) in the past year. Tonight when I looked around the room, I saw another example of what I’ve come to believe about WordPress:
it’s not the software, it’s the people
Tonight’s meeting was a perfect cross-section of WordPress users. Here’s a sampling of the folks who came:
- a woman who has never used WordPress and wasn’t even sure what it was
- a Web developer who uses a variety of frameworks (including WP) depending on the job
- the guy who used to have my job and is now a direct competitor in our niche market
- an 8th grade English teacher who builds WordPress-based sites for ministries in her “spare” time (because teachers have so much “spare” time, right?)
- an Automattic employee who works with the WordPress mobile apps (which I’m writing this on, by the way)
- an attorney who doesn’t even use WordPress but wanted to check it out
What I didn’t see was just as important: no one-upsmanship, no disparagement, no “devs vs. designers” throwdown (although that one may be fun). It’s just a handful of folks who want to get together to share some pastries and knowledge.
Our little group is a reminder for me that while the scrumtrulescent, splendiferous software that makes up WordPress is built on open source code, it’s the openness of our community and the dedication of local volunteers that keeps it running.
And I’m happy to be a part of it.
Posted from WordPress for Android
