WordPress has a bad rap in outside circles. While other communities are seeing WordPress as more than blog software, many still think that since WordPress supports PHP 5.2, it doesn’t also support PHP 5.6 or HHVM. They don’t know about the all the interesting problems that WordPress solves so that users and developers can get there jobs done easier. And this is the WordPress communities fault.
We as a community spend to much time living inside our bubble. This is slowly changing. People like Helen Hou-Sandí are speaking at cssconf, Jenny Wong at PHPUK, Zack Tollman at PHP[world], and Joe Dolson at CSUN (amongst many others) are getting the word out about WordPress, but we can do better, and we must do better, and we will do better.
To help WordPress developers escape the bubble, I’m creating a mailing list where we can share CFP announcements, review each others abstracts, and support each others desires to break out of the WordPress bubble. The aim is a high signal list (membership will be moderated) where knowledgeable WordPress developers can work together to improve our image. Let’s break down this bubble.
EDIT: Jenny Wong is going to be giving a talk at WordCamp Europe on this, including some great tools to help you break out of the bubble. If you won’t be at WCEU, you can check out the livestream.