Happy new year! In keeping with what now feels like a tradition (2016, 2015), here’s a report on how I’ve spent time on free software during the last year.
In 2017, about 17.5% of my working time was spent on free software projects. Roughly 9% of the total time was spent on WordPress core, about 7% was devoted to BuddyPress, and another 1.5% to the maintenance of other plugins. As in previous years, this doesn’t capture time spent working on specific issues for specific clients that ended up being rolled into a piece of free software, such as some recent improvements in BuddyPress Docs that were sponsored directly by a client.
These numbers represent a decrease from 2016. There are a few reasons for this. One is that a number of client projects required bigger time commitments through the course of the year (more on that below). Another is general fatigue: I needed a break after a very intense 2015 and 2016.
Some notable accomplishments:
- I helped to shepherd through some solid internal improvements in WordPress. Looking back over the changelog, some of the caching improvements to the taxonomy system (championed by Jonny Harris are particularly interesting.
- I worked with the WordPress security team as BuddyPress security reports began coming in through WP’s HackerOne program. This structure has given some shape to our security release process, and I’ve helped to lead a few security releases for BP that have been, I think, successful.
- I spoke at a few WordCamps. In April, I gave a (too?!?) technical talk at WordCamp Chicago about “interrupting WordPress”. And in June, I had the great thrill and honor to present at WordCamp Europe on what I called “the pernicious myth of the code poet”.
A good deal of my client work in 2017 will eventually make it into the free software sphere, much of it in 2018. Most notably, I’ve been working with the CUNY Graduate Center and the NYC College of Technology on an NEH-funded grant that will bring functionality from City Tech’s excellent OpenLab to the Commons In A Box package. Look for more about this in Summer 2018, when a public beta is planned.
Here’s to a successful 2018!
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