In this episode, John James Jacoby and I are joined by Cody Landefield, Senior web strategist and founder of Mode Effect. Landefield describes some of the challenges that shop owners face and provides insight into a couple of WooCommerce projects Mode Effect has recently built. We discussed the future of WooCommerce and the odds of it turning into a SaaS …
New WordPress Contributors Meeting Provides Opportunities to Ask Questions and Learn the Ropes
Contributing to WordPress or other open source projects can be intimidating for first-time contributors. Sometimes, all you need is a helping hand to overcome fear, intimidation, or other barriers. In 2013, with the help of Konstantin Obenland, a WordPress core developer, I overcame my fear and contributed my first patch to WordPress. This is one of the principles behind a new …
React Users Petition Facebook to Re-license React.js after Apache Software Foundation Bans BSD+Patents License in Dependencies
The Apache Software Foundation issued a notice over the weekend, indicating that it has added Facebook’s BSD+Patents license to its Category X list of disallowed licenses for Apache PMC members. This is the license that Facebook uses for most of its open source projects. A representative from Facebook’s RocksDB team commented on the Apache Foundation’s post to advise that the …
Gutenberg 0.5.0 Adds New Verse Block for Poetry and a New Display for Recent Blocks
Another round of Gutenberg updates was released today. Last weekend brought version 0.4.0, which didn’t have too many noteworthy visible changes on the frontend but introduced an API for handling pasted content. Gutenberg developers are aiming to have specific handling for converting pasted content from applications like Word, Markdown, and Google Docs to native WordPress blocks. Version 0.4.0 also added …
CoKinetic Systems Pursues $100 Million GPL License Violation Case Against Panasonic Avionics
photo credit: Paper Plane – (license) Open source software has made its way into nearly every industry, but a recent open source security and risk analysis shows widespread license compliance risks, with 75% of the audited applications including GPL license conflicts. Although most violations are unintentional, there are some cases where companies do not comply with the license in order …
WPWeekly Episode 281 – In Memory of Jesse Petersen
In this episode, John James Jacoby and I are joined by Ben Meredith. Over the past few years, Ben has established a friendly and professional relationship with Jesse Petersen, who passed away due to complications from Cystic Fibrosis. Ben shares his unique perspective on who Petersen was as a person and describes the challenges of taking over his business. We …
Automattic Releases Net Neutrality WordPress Plugin Ahead of July 12 Protest
Automattic announced its intent to protest the FCC’s attack on net neutrality today by making a way for the millions of WordPress.com users to join in. The company’s logo has been listed on the Save Net Neutrality event website for some time but it had yet to announce how it would be participating. WordPress.com users are encouraged to send a …
Interview with WordCamp US 2017 Organizers Dustin Meza and Laura Byrne-Cristiano
While at WordCamp Europe I had the opportunity to interview Dustin Meza, lead organizer of WordCamp US 2017, and Laura Byrne-Cristiano, who is part of the marketing team for the event. The two are members of a 20-person team of organizers who will welcome an estimated 2,500 attendees to Nashville in December. Although the maximum capacity of the Music City …
Let’s Encrypt Passes 100 Million Certificates Issued, Will Offer Wildcard Certificates in January 2018
photo credit: Chris Anderson Let’s Encrypt, the free and open certificate authority that launched in 2016, has issued more than 100 million certificates as of June 2017 and is currently securing 47 million domains. Earlier this year, the web passed a major milestone of getting more than 50% of traffic encrypted. Let’s Encrypt has been a major contributor to that …
WangGuard Plugin Author Shuts Down Splog Hunting Service Due to Trauma and Death Threats
After seven years of developing and supporting the WangGuard/SplogHunter service, José Conti has shut down the server permanently due to the stress and trauma associated with maintaining it. Conti is a WordPress plugin developer and consultant, and a member of the WordPress España translation team. His WangGuard plugin identifies and blocks sploggers, unwanted users, and untrusted users on WordPress, Multisite, …