WordPress State of the Word 2012

9 years since start, 6 years since I first got on stage at the first WC\n

Matt intro slide MIKE DID THIS\n

So we had 1 WordCamp in 2006. And by last year, there were 52.\n\n

This year we&#x2019;re half way in and we&#x2019;re looking at 75 already down or planned for this year. We&#x2019;ve already had 10,000 attendees. But in spite of that history, Feels like first time things are starting to click. Not because of any big thing, but the accumulation of lots of small things >\n\n

basically 100 calories a day adds up to 10 pounds in a year; he calls it the mindless margin - but the point is that it's the little things: our excellence is determined by our habits (call out to Nir who speaks earlier), what we do every day, and the little things\n

Survey this year: face wall, influencers. Biggest changes this year. Improvements to dotorg one of the key points\n

== .org improvements ==\n\n

Screenshot of plugin headers: without - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-super-cache/\n\n

Screenshot of plugin headers: with - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/jetpack/\n

Screenshot of plugin headers: with - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/contact-form-7/\n

Screenshot of plugin headers: with - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/\n

Plugin Favorites \n

Forums: Small thing, big improvement. over 35,000 resolved support threads as second click. There have been more topics resolved in the past three months than in the last year, since we launched this feature in May.\n

unit tests: 6000 assertions total\n\n

SOPA protest\n\n

== going forward, next year ==\nmake.wp.org blogs; notifications, community summit\nnot done, need to be more amazon-like; better tools for managing blogs; most importantly - bring to international\n\n

Features of previous versions\n\n

Prediction: NUX/new user experience - guide people through their first time;\n

Result: We added the new Welcome screen to get you started with your new blog...\n

another nice breakdown of what&#x2019;s new for when you update to a new version, so you know what just changed... and then in support of that...\n

...little helpers that point out what&#x2019;s new when you&#x2019;re looking around an updated version of WordPress right from within the UI. So I reckon did well with looking after the newbs this year. But we&#x2019;re not done yet...\n

3.4 Twitter Embeds\n

I also predicted that we&#x2019;d update the media uploader for better media handling, and really liked the simplicity of the Google+ uploader...\n

And in 3.3 we added the all new drag and drop media uploader. \n\n

3.4 Customizer\n\n

Download stats for different versions\n44 million downloads, bringing us to a total of 145M\n\n

3.5\n\n

Twenty Twelve\n\n

Retina support\n\n

Prediction: NUX/new user experience - guide people through their first time;\n

Improving the Welcome page experience is also a focus for 3.5, and they&#x2019;re iterating on that right now over on the Make UI blog, which you should check out.\n\n\n

I also predicted that we&#x2019;d update the media uploader for better media handling, and really liked the simplicity of the Google+ uploader...\n

over on the Make UI blog (you really need to check it out), you can see a bunch of iterations of the new direction for media handling in WordPress...\n

\n

Three things (choose two): features, stable and secure, on time then highlight two of them (second two) but we still have a lot of ambitious things we want to do, if you want to help us do that, get involved...\n\n

Getting involved: screenshot of WordPress.org, highlight the new tab called get involved. Show dropdown. &#x201C;As you can see these lead to the aforementioned make sites.&#x201D; The idea of the core contributor handbook is that it walks you through step by step of how to get involved.\n\n

core contributor handbook\n

Over to contributing developers. Jon Cave.\n

Helen Hou-Sandi\n

Cristian Burc&#x103;\n

Sergey Biryukov\n

Dominik Schilling\n

Aaron D. Campbell\n

Over to recent rockstars. Half a screen each.\nMax Cutler and Kurt Payne\n

Over to recent rockstars. Half a screen each.\nAmy Hendrix & Marko Heijnen\n

George Stephanis & Stas Su&#x219;cov\n

Chelsea Otakan & John Blackbourn,\n

Last year&#x2019;s predictions: Matt standing on stage last year (img credit: GWENDOLYN ALLEY who runs artpredator.wordpress.com)\n

slide 39 from last year jetpack\n

modern slide: add red/blue aberration to previous slide\n\nJetpack just passed 2 million downloads (overlay) doubling in the past four months. It took 13 months to get to 1 million, 4 months to get to two million.\n

Slide 119 from last year\n

Prediction: The marriage of the reading and writing experience: better consumption\n\n

Newdash: Let&#x2019;s you do all of the essential stuff in the simplest way possible, like write posts... And, just as importantly...\n\n

It will even recommend stuff for you to read\n\n

The reader, with side by side screen wrapped mobile and browser windows. Over 300 million posts consumed since reader was launched, and it wasn&#x2019;t even launched last year.\n

And we looked earlier at iOS 3.1, which really brings that whole reading/writing experience closer together than anything I&#x2019;ve seen.\n

Segue to mobile apps ...but lots of cool new mobile stuff happened, and was a big priority in the last year.\n

There have been 21 updates to the mobile apps that have brought us past the 5 million download milestone, and there&#x2019;s more coming down the line\n

MOBILE EXAMPLES? (insert phone grab)\n\n

MOBILE EXAMPLES? (insert phone grab)\n

MOBILE EXAMPLES? (insert tablet grab)\n

Super excited to show iOS 3.1\n\n

Enough about us, let&#x2019;s talk about you. Cut to survey.: 2012 WordPress survey\n\nThis is the second year that we've run a survey for WordPress users -- \n

This year we had nearly 27 thousand responses from WordPress users and developers -- that's half as many again as we did last year&#x2019;... nice work!\n\n

2. The map\n\nOnce again... respondents came from all over: 158 countries -- that's not that far off from the 205 countries that are participating in the Olympics!\n\nInevitably the biggest concentration of respondents came from the United States. But what's pretty cool is that there were waaay more people from outside the US: roughly 2/3 of them.\n

2. The map\n\nOnce again... respondents came from all over: 158 countries -- that's not that far off from the 205 countries that are participating in the Olympics!\n\n\n

Inevitably the biggest concentration of respondents came from the United States. But what's pretty cool is that there were waaay more people from outside the US: roughly 2/3 of them.\n

Including some pretty cool places like \n

the Cayman Islands and \n\n

... the Seychelles... must be a tough life building WordPress sites there!\n\nHow many people traveled from abroad to come here today?\n\nBut what has been really cool to see is the number of people that are using WordPress in countries that we generally associate with bad things when you're watching Brian Williams on the evening news.\n

And this one I'm totally blown away by... we had a survey completed in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea... \n

better known in these parts as North Korea. It's either very cool, or some pretty amusing IP spoofing...\n\nSadly the North Korean didn't leave an email address, but we did ask a few other respondents to tell us a bit more about themselves...\n\n

Well I think that survey results are pretty hard to report in presentations...\n

6. CMS intro slide\n\nTempting as it is... we're not about to turn this into a gameshow. But let me tell you about a few of the things that did come out of the survey this year.\n\n\n

7. 2/3 of developers use WordPress only as a CMS\n\n...now 2/3 of all WordPress developers say they're using WordPress exclusively as a CMS, with another 26% saying that they build blogs and websites. We hear repeatedly that people think WordPress is only for blogging... I think we can pretty much put that idea to bed now. \n

10. WordPress client types\n\nSo even though WordPress developers have a big range of clients, it's probably no surprise to any of you that most of the sites they build are for small businesses and individuals. I think that one of our big challenges in the coming year is to really convince people that WordPress is for all kinds of websites -- however big the requirement... it's up to it. And maybe this will help you to think about it:\n

8. Who builds what?\n\nWe also learned more about the kinds of sites that are being built with WordPress: this year we asked people with WordPress businesses to tell us a bit about their clients. WordPress is so versatile that it's being used for developers specializing in sites for Individuals, Small Businesses, Enterprise, Non profit... Government... Education. That's pretty cool. We asked a few of the people that responded to tell us a bit more about their businesses...\n

Jeremy Ferguson \nWeb Co-ordinator, Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project\n\nJeremy Ferguson works for the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project as the web co-ordinator. Their site growing-minds.org uses post types and lots of customization to present Farm to School lesson plans, a book catalog, recipes, photo galleries, and other program content\n\n

Albert Yaw Opoku --\nHapaweb Solutions, Ghana\n\nAlbert and his team have delivered over 50 websites for clients in government and education-- 48 of them built with WordPress. They decided to focus on WordPress becauseit proved to be the best for non-technical clients. \n\n\n

C&#xE1;tia Kitahara\nHacklab -- Sao Paolo, Brazil\n\nCatia Kithara is a web designer from Brazil. She's built a company Hacklab that has released more than 50 websites running on WordPress in the last couple of years -- producing sites for all sizes of businesses and government.\n\n\n

JOSH KENZER\nOnline Marketing Manager, Scottsdale Convention & Visitors Bureau, AZ, USA\n\nThe Scottsdale Convention and Visitors Bureau started using Wordpress in 2008 for news, events and other updates for potential visitors to Scottsdale, Arizona. They're about to relaunch a new version of their website that will be built entirely on WordPress. \n\n

Eric Juden (pron: Jew-den) Maryville University\n\nAt Maryville University they use WordPress Multisite to power their main site and also the staff and student blogs. They hosted WordCamp St. Louis 2011 at Maryville University (I was there!) Eric has also been helping a local high school switch to WordPress.\n\n\n

Jason Kemp Freelance, Auckland, New Zealand\n\nJason has developed 250 websites using WordPress for projects in New Zealand, Australia and one in Senegal, West Africa.\n\nMany sites are for not for profits in the education and public service sectors. He says that a developing trend for me and my team is more co-creation sites where the clients contribute more.\n\nI think Jason's here somewhere... #wcsf is his 9th WordCamp since 2008 -- is that right? Wow!\n\n

12. Small biz / Large biz / Non-profit \n\nOne interesting thing we found was that between the types of clients you&#x2019;re working for, there&#x2019;s a fair spread... the average small business site will set you back $2,500. Non-profits get a discount... they come in at around $2,000. But I said just now that I'd love to see WordPress used on some bigger company sites -- and maybe this will offer some incentive -- the average ticket for those is $4,200.\n

12. Small biz / Large biz / Non-profit \n\nAnd the rates are different... the average small business site will set you back $2,500. Non-profits get a discount... they come in at around $2,000. But I said just now that I'd love to see WordPress used on some bigger company sites -- and maybe this will offer some incentive -- the average ticket for those is $4,200.\n

13. Earning a living (pending image)\n\nSomething we're tracking year to year is understanding how many people are building businesses -- and earning a living -- using WordPress. This year that number is up to 4,300 that say they're earning a living from working with WordPress. And over 14,000 said that they earn some or all of their income from their work with WordPress (over half of our respondents).\n

13. Earning a living (pending image)\n\nSomething we're tracking year to year is understanding how many people are building businesses -- and earning a living -- using WordPress. This year that number is up to 4,300 that say they're earning a living from working with WordPress. And over 14,000 said that they earn some or all of their income from their work with WordPress.\n

And I&#x2019;m not just talking it up when I say that you&#x2019;ve really been pushing WordPress in all sorts of directions this last year. You&#x2019;re constantly redefining what WordPress can be used for.\n\n

We&#x2019;re seeing stuff from every walk of life, from art...\n

Where you&#x2019;re making sites for your art galleries: *http://subliminalprojects.com (cool LA gallery space, pretty site)\n

Or on the other hand sites that are really just... pure works of art in and of themselves: http://themanyfacesof.com/ (beautifully illustrated, I think this is a Paravel project)\n

You&#x2019;re bringing music to life on the web... And not in a small way:\n\n

Making really impressive sites for big rockers like Springsteen... http://brucespringsteen.net \n

and the Stones... http://www.rollingstones.com\n

And when your clients need sites for huge events or festivals, you&#x2019;re dealing with it with WordPress, too...\n\n

Political rallies like the http://www.demconvention.com/\n

Or for your local TED conference like http://tedxcanberra.org which uses custom post types and taxonomies for Presenters and Talks in a really beautiful example of WordPress as a CMS\n

Like this gorgeous site for Bonnaroo: http://www.bonnaroo.com/ (nice visual, paralaxy illustrative design, multiple recommendations)\n

Move somewhere else== examples from the year == (Insert site grab)\n* SCOTUS blog gets the healthcare ruling correct\n

Non-profits and other causes are pushing WordPress to make beautiful, engaging experiences that really draw you in... Like:\n\n

http://www.charitywater.org/blog/ (\n

Samasource\n

*http://www.ifmr.co.in \n

And http://freespeechdebate.com/en/ by Code for the People, see above: "We&#x2019;re also pretty proud of the work we did with Oxford University on http://freespeechdebate.com &#x2013; a discussion site around freedom of expression issues, simultaneously in 13 languages, including some of the tricky ones. And sometimes several on the page at once."\n\n

And you&#x2019;re making magazines that look amazing with WordPress, too...\n\n

You&#x2019;re really taking the magazine theme up to another level, with stuff like http://www.slipstreamsports.com\n

Lebron James site\n

and another sporting magazine: http://www.oneblademag.com/the-wire/article/revolution-skate-john-bolino-droppin-knowledge/ (nice magazine style)\n

And when you get to those places, the last thing you want to see is some ugly flash restaurant site with a PDF menu download. You&#x2019;re redefining the way restaurant owners can engage potential diners...\n\n

Whether that&#x2019;s making a really beautiful introduction to your restaurant http://eatalabamaseafood.com (if you want to highlight the whole restaraunt site with WP thing, this is very pretty)\n

Or selling fancy foods from a beautiful e-commerce site: http://www.pavillonledoyen.com (Fancy French confectionary) "How about this robust ecommerce site I developed? It&#x2019;s powered by WP and Woocommerce. http://www.pavillonledoyen.com. Soon I&#x2019;ll install also WPML to make it English and French." Sharon Schanzer, Ridgroup.com\n\nWordPress covers you. The range of what you&#x2019;re doing&#x2019;s just mind blowing.\n

The fashion industry&#x2019;s in on the act, too, like this beautiful introduction to a fashion house&#x2019;s collection http://3ffashions.com I mean, these are exactly the type of sites you still see being made with horrible, kludgy flash, so it&#x2019;s great to see that you can build a really rich experience just using WordPress\n\n

And it&#x2019;s not just that you&#x2019;re bending and shaping WordPress across all kinds of different verticals. I mean, you&#x2019;re really playing with what a WordPress site can be.\n

We&#x2019;re seeing this evolution of WordPress as something you use to make a blog -> then it grew into being able to do anything a full-fledged CMS can do-> and now we&#x2019;re seeing it evolve again into an app engine\n

We&#x2019;re seeing some really cool use of WordPress with maps, for instance, like *http://www.huskerbar.com \n\n

*http://www.washington.edu/maps/ (more maps)\n\n

*http://programacao.baixocentro.org (Catia Kitahara sez: " this website uses a theme/plugin named Maps of View (http://mapasdevista.hacklab.com.br/), which locates posts on a google maps, an openstreet maps or even any image. This website is the schedule of a Culture Festival at S&#xE3;o Paulo city. Each event is a post located on Google Map. You can turn the categories on/off to view only the events on an especific category.")\n

And related to that, you&#x2019;re making entire, complex multisite networks for travellers and tourists. Brad Williams sez: "One of the coolest WP sites we&#x2019;ve built is http://baja.com. It&#x2019;s a Multisite network, with each Baja region being it&#x2019;s own site. Each site features 10 CPTs, which are all aggregated to the main site for the network wide search for hotels, vacation rentals, restaurants, etc.\n\nAnyone I have ever showed this site to couldn&#x2019;t believe it was built in WordPress. It really demonstrates the power of WordPress as a CMS."\n

Then there&#x2019;s some really innovative stuff being done with media properties, like AMCtv.com, where you&#x2019;ve got awesome shows like Mad Men...\n

...and Breaking Bad serving up all kinds of cool stuff around the show, all via WordPress, like the &#x201C;second screen&#x201D; experience on Breaking Bad, powered by WordPress and Polldaddy polls to create an awesome interactive experience for people watching the shows\n

And WordPress powers a lot of big media properties. Another one I saw this year was the http://liquidtelevision.com site from MTV is all WordPress\n

16.7% of the web\n

Result: Responsive admin didn&#x2019;t really happen... yet (but is still being worked on)...\n

Media\n\n

become more timely in releases - 3.5 on december 5th\n\n

more usability work -- make ui\n\n

community summit -- but balance with better online communication\n\n

more iterations on existing things rather than focusing on existing features\n\n\n

get more hosts on auto-upgrades -- updates updates updates!\n\n

simplifying but not simplistic\n\n

increasing engagement -- more of the people who try wordpress, stick with wordpress\n\n

international refocus, including more international contributors\n\n\n

Priority: Real-time editing\n\n

Matt outro slide (twitter/blog etc)\n

Q&A\n