Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy announced that WordPress is in the process of planning another women & nonbinary release squad for WordPress 6.4. This echoes the famous 5.6 release, “Simone,” which was the first such release. Release teams are contributors who follow a version release from beginning to end by flagging bugs, identifying blockers to progress, and much more. You can read more on release teams here. This is a great showcase of how diverse and inclusive the WordPress community can be.
There was an important Note added by Chomposy:
I short-hand the release to “women and nonbinary” for easy referencing in our day-to-day collaboration, but the release squad will be open to anyone who identifies as a woman, nonbinary, or gender-expansive. All contributions are welcome as always, regardless of how you identify or what groups you feel part of. 🙂
Josepha Haden Chomphosy
Goals of this release
The goal of having a group of people that aren’t typically seen in technology is to increase the number of underrepresented people who have experience in the WordPress project. WordPress and the tech world in general are not the most diverse spaces. Many people from underrepresented backgrounds don’t get to see themselves at a higher level and it leads to a lot of discouragement at times. WordPress is taking the lead in solving this. This lets the world know that the community is not just a single group but many different people of many different backgrounds all over the world.
Why is this important?
We have written before about the different inequalities in the tech community. Even about the way some in the community may take this news. It is no surprise to me that an event such as this can bring a lot of joy, as well as a lot of criticism. My advice is to look at what the community is trying to do by highlighting the members who are usually overlooked. Not only will this bring more collaboration between different backgrounds, but will inspire so many others of diverse backgrounds to get involved in the WordPress community. It is a win all around.
The Plan
WordPress hopes that by getting more underrepresented people into 6.3’s release, the following 6.4 release will have even more contributors. The process for preparing and planning the 6.4 release includes:
- Collecting nominations for the 6.4 team, ensuring compatibility with the timing of the 6.3 and 6.4 releases. Although participation in the 6.3 release is optional, it has proven beneficial in the past.
- Confirming volunteers’ suitability for release squad roles.
- Identifying additional volunteers for any remaining release squad roles.
- Securing mentors for each release squad group.
If you are interested in learning more about the release or volunteering, it is asked that you leave a comment at the end of the original article. Let’s make get ready to make history again!
