Milan Ivanovic is a developer at ManageWP. He resides in Belgrade, Serbia and was an organizer for WordCamp Europe 2016.
When we had our Skype video call, Milan was working remotely as he was on a WordTrip (traveling between WordCamp Split and WordCamp Gdynia).
He is a member of the Polyglots Team as a translation editor and contributor.
I do have to apologize for my appearance. It was 6:00 AM and I had not been in the shower yet.
I am very grateful to have been able to interview Josepha Haden this past Friday. This actually happened quickly and we were able to schedule a chat in just two days.
Joespha is an Automattician who is able to contribute to several area of the WordPress Community. She blogs at Stars And The Moon where she writes about a variety of subjects including food and Pepper.
She comes from a long line of writers and was challenged at a young age to be a life long learner.
At WordCamp US 2015, Josepha gave a presentation titled Communities and The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense which was based on a book written by her grandmother, Susan Haden Elgin. There are some very interesting concepts about communication skills and patterns which make a difference on how other people perceive you.
As with the other interviews I have recorded, I learned something new while talking with Josepha. Besides that, she is one of those people who always has a smile on her face and a kind word.
Cemal Tashan is an Electronic Engineer, a photographer, a pilot and a WordPress enthusiast. He has spoken many times about designing websites for senior citizens. He has written three books about photography.
Cemal recently visited his native Turkey and states that there is a very active WordPress Community
He is active in the Orange County WordPress Meetup group and volunteered at the recent WordCamp Orange County.
Ahmad Awais is a Core Contributor, a Plugin Developer and also on the Polyglots Team.
He is one of the organizers of the Lahore Pakistan Meetup. The group was featured on WPTavern last December. Over 500 people attended the meetup.
After the release of WordPress 4.6, Ahmad wrote:
WordPress 4.6 has been released. It is the 4th major version release where I was able to contribute code to the WordPress core. Giving back to the WordPress community; especially in the form of core contributions — has been an incredibly empowering and inherently humble experience for me
He is one of the moderators on the Facebook Advanced WordPress Group. The group recently held a Giveaway after surpassing 20,000 members. The WordPress Community responded by donating several thousands dollars worth of prizes. Ahmad and Maedah Batool spent over one hundred hours managing the giveaway. A complete list of prizes and sponsors can be seen here
I was lucky enough to interview Tammie Lister recently. She lives in southern England and is a Tuxateer at Automattic. Tammie is a member of the Theme Review Team as well as the Core and Design Teams. She was one of the organizers of WordCamp Brighton 2016.
“WordPress is created by more than core committers and more than one company.” A Tweet by Tammie early this year.
Tammie has several videos available on WordPress TV.
As has been the case since these interviews started, I came away with more knowledge about WordPress world and the people who contribute. In addition, Tammie taught me some British Slang!
Ace!
I feel very fortunate to have been able to spend a few minutes interviewing Petya. I first contacted her in early May and we were finally able to get our schedules worked out a few days ago.
Petra is a native of Bulgaria and is currently employed by Human Made. She is a contributor to the Core, Community & Polyglots Teams and was one of the organizers for WordCamp Europe 2016.
She took a very active role in the Global WordPress Translation Day which was held on April 24th, 2016 and continued for 24 hours. A recap of the event can be found on the Polyglot P2 page here: Recap and Results. Also, videos of the event are available on WordPress TV.
On a side note, I am normally a very positive person. I try very hard to have a good attitude at work and at home. After Petya and I ended our Skype call, I found myself more upbeat than usual, a spring in my step and a song in my heart. Her excitement is very infectious!
Make sure to watch the video all the way through. I had a little surprise for Petya near the end!
Are there other tech events similar to WordCamps?
You betcha! And this is a little different than my past post.
If you have been involved in WordPress for any length of time you have probably heard of Joomla Events and DrupalCon.
I had the pleasure of helping my good friend John Sterrett organize two events related to the SQL Server field in 2010 and 2011. These events are called SQL Saturdays and are low cost events which feature multiple tracks for beginners, intermediate and advanced users of SQL Server.
John is a Microsoft MVP and is a consultant who specializes in SQL Server performance tuning, high availability, disaster recovery, database design, development and database administration. He is a well rounded consultant who has worked on government projects, startup projects, ISV projects and projects for global corporations.
So, sit back and enjoy something a little bit different.
This week I have interviews with two people who are big proponents of the WordPress Community. WordCamps, Meetups, hallway tracks, community and WordPress TV are discussed.
Matt is the Head of Support and Community Outreach at WordImpress, who built the Give Donation Plugin. He also is plugin and theme developer.
Matt is married with four children and also dabbles in U.S. history, politics, religion and music.
Jeff is a Documentation Mercenary at Gravityforms. He contributes to the WordPress and BuddyPress projects and is the creator of the notifybot plugin.
Next week: We learn about another group that hold events similar to WordCamps.
I want to thank all of the people who have agreed to do the video interviews. Sometimes trying to get a day and a time scheduled is an issue but everything works out in the end.
As I do more interviews I find myself getting more comfortable while recording. Many thanks to the people who have made comments and suggestions for improvements. I am also learning more about editing the interviews and hope to make the videos more enjoyable to watch.
“Strive to improve!”
Ken has been involved in WordPress for 3 years and attended his first WordCamp in 2015. Ken, along with members of the Lehigh Valley WordPress Meetup, decided to organize WordCamp Lehigh Valley.
Topher is a WordPress Developer who has a passion for life success stories. He started HeroPress (the first story appearing in March 2015) with the idea of people telling how being involved in the WordPress Community changed their lives.
The following interviews are the final two that I was able to record at WordCamp Northeast Ohio. I’m not sure what WordCamp I will attend next but I have several Skype interviews lined up. My idea for the video interviews is NOT to have featured news but to have a varied selection of guest from several different areas of the WordPress Community
Adam is a member of the SiteLock Team. He likes to say that “My job title is WordPress Evangelist and it’s one that explains not only my core values and my personality, but also my role in contributing to the WordPress project as a whole.”
Shelby is the owner of Corner Market Media where she likes to help people solve their web design and marketing issues. She is a member of the WordCamp Columbus Team.
Next video post: THINK GLOBAL!
An 
Opus
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