In September, we crisscrossed the United States for three big events – WordCamp US, ONA24 and Digiday Publishing Summit. 

At WordCamp US, Rahul and Maitreyie presented our work with Grist, highlighting how publishers can harness WordPress for immersive storytelling, content syndication and analytics. Catch a replay here.

Co-traveling with us, was our star of the season — SnapWP, our user-friendly headless solution for WordPress.

We believe that decoupled setups bring several benefits: security, speed, composable frontend, separation of concerns between front-end & back-end, to name a few. However, existing solutions end up being bespoke with prohibitory cost of implementation, ongoing maintenance & bespoke development workflows + codebases. 

SnapWP uses WordPress as the source of truth for content, interaction, and design. In other words, seamlessly integrating with existing block themes without writing a single line of code. 

The initial response to our demo has been overwhelmingly positive, and we’re actively working towards its official release. If you too would like to get a demo, please write to us.

Recent conversations around contributions in the WordPress ecosystem have been polarizing. However, we definitely agree that businesses benefiting from an open-source economy have a moral imperative to contribute back.

We are glad to report that the latest report by the WordPress.org project features rtCamp as the second-largest company by contributors to WordPress 6.6, right behind Automattic. Our sights are now set to break into the top 5 on the “Contributions by Company” chart. 

Back home in India, our Frappe team participated in Frappeverse 2024 as Silver Sponsors. It was great fun to connect with the ERPNext community and explore innovations in the Frappe ecosystem – the software powering rtCamp’s internal processes.

WordPress news snippets

• WordPress is experimenting with Contribution Health Dashboards to measure the health of its open-source community contributions. The dashboards aim to provide insights into activity trends and highlight key contribution areas.
• Anne McCarthy shared a proposal enhancing collaboration between WordPress’ Performance Team and hosting providers through a private Slack channel. The goal is to improve site performance by fostering closer partnerships, sharing insights, and aligning optimization efforts.
• WordPress VIP is releasing its new VIP Authentication system featuring Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and improved user experience. User accounts need to upgrade their GitHub and WordPress.com logins to use it.
• Patchstack launched its VDP platform to aid open-source WordPress projects in complying with the impending Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) in the European Union. Patchstack VDP offers a central dashboard to manage security reports. 
• Pascal Birchler shared an update to his popular Periodic Table of WordPress Plugins, highlighting intriguing changes in plugin install statistics.
• WordPress now mandates the Plugin Check tool and Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) for new plugin submissions. These measures aim to improve security and reduce plugin review times by automating error checks and enforcing stronger authentication practices.

From around the web

• In an insightful post, Andreessen Horowitz partners Justin Kahl, David George, and Alex Immerman explore the challenges and opportunities in selling software in the age of generative AI. They highlight the need to leverage personalized AI tools, focusing on value propositions, and adapting to evolving buyer expectations.
• GitHub Copilot is now available in GitHub.com for Individual and Business plans, enhancing AI-driven coding assistance. It can also be used to generate code summaries and explain code.
• A survey by Zoom revealed generational differences in workplace collaboration, showing a preference for instant messaging over in-person meetings. The findings validate the value placed on efficiency during real-time communication.
• Meta introduced Llama 3.2, an open-source model capable of processing both images and text. This new model could enable developers to create advanced AI applications like augmented reality apps and visual search engines.
• Canva expanded its developer platform with new features, including premium app access for Pro subscribers, translation capabilities, improved discovery, and enhanced APIs. This move aims to attract more developers to create add-ons for Canva.

Upcoming events

• The call for Wapuu design for WordCamp Asia 2025 is now open to be submitted by November 4, 2024. The event will be held on February 20-22, 2025 in Manila, Philippines. 
• InstaWP launched AnyoneCanWP, the first online WordPress hackathon. Registrations are open, with submissions due by October 26, 2024. Winners will receive cash prizes and InstaWP credits.

Blogs by rtCampers

• Don’t Build, Just Extend It by @Souptik
• Interface Standards by @Abhijit

Water cooler

Popular on our #watercooler Slack channel.

• Why don’t more people use Linux?
• Monaspace
• Void

Links

• We’re hiring!
• SnapWP🫰- Our solution for headless WordPress
• Publications & media solutions