Category: Kokkiemattic

Wally goes to Kampala

Last week I got to visit Uganda for the first time.

WordPress (in case you didn’t know) is open source software made by a community of thousands of people from across the world. And the members of this community like to come together from time to time at events called WordCamps to connect, network, and learn from one another.

Last week, the Uganda WordPress community hosted the Uganda Website Projects Competition 2024 , a so-called NextGen WordCamp–that is a WordCamp with a twist, not just bringing together people around WordPress, but around a specific topic or use of WordPress–in the capital city, Kampala. This competition is all about equipping young people to use WordPress to solve problems in their communities.

As one of the biggest contributors to the WordPress software, and members of the WordPress community ourselves, Automattic regularly sponsors WordCamps, and this competition was no different. But not only do we sponsor the events. We also try to actually attend, so we can connect with members of the community, learn from them, hear what they need, and chat about our products for WordPress.

I volunteered to help staff this event, and at the last moment the organisers asked if I might be willing to give a talk to the students and other attendees on the day.

Not one to back down from a challenge I said yes. What followed was a hectic week trying to put together a half-hour talk, for a bunch of students ranging from primary school to college-age, from an entirely different cultural background than me, that would hopefully inspire them in some way. I was almost done with the talk when I decided it can be improved by including a puppet (anything is better with a puppet…just compare A Christmas Carol to A Muppet Christmas Carol, for example…and my job title is Puppetmattician, after all).

So Wally went with me to Uganda.

Here’s a live-stream recording of the talk, if you’d like to watch it. I had to trim it a bit for time due to a change in the event schedule, so I’ll post the full version underneath, for posterity and all that.

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Time for a break

Working at Automattic comes with many perks, but none quite so amazing as a three month paid sabbatical to disconnect from work and do whatever you want to do, without having to worry about paying the bills.

Want to finally write that novel you never have time for? Ever thought of hiking the Appalachian Trail or riding all 9289km of the Trans-Siberian Railway in one go? What about that blacksmithing apprenticeship you’ve always wanted to try? Or perhaps you’ve been thinking of going back to school, finish that degree you had to leave incomplete, because life? The possibilities are endless.

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The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (or how I became a Bitcoin user

Ever since I’ve started working in customer support I’ve been taking much more notice of the type of support I receive from businesses (and of how I interact with support staff, but that’s a story of another day). Recently I had three very different support experiences over two consecutive days, and I thought I’d share them with you.

Let’s start with…

The Ugly

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Up, up and away!

As this post appears on my site I am rising up into the air to start a new adventure.

Thirty hours from now I will land in the USA to meet some of the people with whom I’ve been working these past few months.

Exciting? You bet it is.

I’ve been abroad a couple of times, and I’ve visited a few neighbouring African countries, but this will be my first trans-Atlantic trip.

I can’t say I’m all that excited about the flying itself – 30 hours with a stranger sitting in my lap is not my idea of a fun time – but I’m excited about meeting my team. We communicate with each other daily via text, and once a week we have a video chat, but that’s not the same as spending time with someone in person. And now I get to see them all for a whole week!

I’ll post about my experiences soon. But in the meantime…