WordPress News Roundup July 2012: WordPress Launches an Official Group for Event Organizers

July 2012 was a calm month after June’s WordPress 3.4 release. There were no core releases, and the official WordPress blog published just one post. That post mattered, though: on July 13 the project created an official contributor group for the people who organise WordCamps, meetups and other local events, giving community organisers the same kind of recognition as code and support contributors.

Elsewhere, theme developers launched an effort to standardise theme hooks, Jetpack passed two million downloads, and Matt Mullenweg began preparing his State of the Word address for WordCamp San Francisco in early August.

Mergers, Acquisitions, and Investments

No acquisitions or funding rounds were announced in the WordPress ecosystem in July 2012. The hosting market was still absorbing June’s sale of HostGator to Endurance International Group.

WordPress Core Updates

There was no core release in July. WordPress 3.4.1, released at the end of June, was the current version, and planning for WordPress 3.5 was under way. The next release was expected to include the Twenty Twelve default theme that had been held back from 3.4.

Other WordPress News

• Event organisers unite (July 13): The project announced a new contributor group for organisers of WordCamps, meetups, hackathons and free classes, with its home at make.wordpress.org/events. The group would recognise organisers’ work, gather feedback on policies for official events, and connect organisers through mentoring and shared projects.
• The Theme Hook Alliance: Developer Doug Stewart launched the Theme Hook Alliance on GitHub, a community effort to agree on a standard set of action hooks that themes could adopt, making life easier for child theme and plugin developers.
• Jetpack hits two million: The Next Web reported that Jetpack had passed two million downloads, a little over 16 months after its launch.
• Open source in hosting: Mullenweg pointed to an O’Reilly report by Mike Hendrickson, Roger Magoulas and Tim O’Reilly finding that WordPress was as widely used as MySQL and PHP in small business hosting, and well ahead of Joomla and Drupal.
• State of the Word preparations: On July 30 Mullenweg asked readers to suggest the most impressive WordPress sites they had seen, for possible inclusion in his WordCamp San Francisco talk.

Security Alerts and Plugin Vulnerabilities

No core security release or major plugin vulnerability was announced in July 2012. Site owners who had not yet installed WordPress 3.4.1, which fixed a potential information disclosure issue and a multisite bug, were encouraged to do so.

Industry Trends and Insights

July’s events showed the WordPress project paying more attention to its community structure. Creating an official home for event organisers acknowledged that WordCamps and meetups were a big reason for WordPress’s growth, and the Theme Hook Alliance showed theme developers trying to solve compatibility problems together rather than one theme at a time.

• Internet activism continues: After January’s SOPA protests, the Internet Defense League launched in July as a network of sites ready to act against future threats to the open web. Mullenweg voiced his support.
• WordPress and piracy: A European court ordered the shutdown of RePress, a WordPress-based proxy that gave access to The Pirate Bay, showing how the platform’s flexibility could draw it into legal fights.
• Plugin reviews: WP Tavern noted the launch of a new site dedicated to reviewing WordPress plugins, part of a growing effort to help users judge quality in a directory of more than 19,000 plugins.
• Market position: The O’Reilly findings supported the view that WordPress was pulling ahead of other open source CMS platforms among small businesses.

Theme of the Month: PageLines Framework

PageLines Framework offered a drag-and-drop approach to building WordPress layouts with ready-made sections. Like other visual frameworks of the time, it aimed to give non-developers control over page design, an idea that was clearly in demand given the excitement around the new 3.4 customizer.

Plugin of the Month: Jetpack

Jetpack passed two million downloads in July, roughly 16 months after launch, and had added Jetpack Comments in June. It was becoming the main way self-hosted WordPress users tapped into WordPress.com services, from stats and sharing to contact forms.

Host of the Month: Liquid Web

Liquid Web, a Michigan-based provider of managed servers, was known for its support and was a common choice for growing WordPress sites that needed dedicated resources. As the shared hosting market consolidated, independent managed hosts like Liquid Web offered an alternative.

Founder of the Month: Cory Miller

Cory Miller, founder of iThemes, had built one of the longest-running commercial WordPress businesses, with products such as the Builder framework and BackupBuddy. He was also an outspoken voice on running a WordPress business openly and sustainably, themes that fitted a month focused on the community.

Looking Ahead to August 2012

WordCamp San Francisco on August 4, followed by a developer hack day on August 5, would bring the State of the Word and fresh figures on WordPress’s growth. BuddyPress 1.6, which had reached release candidate on July 20, was also expected soon.