Profiles

Bio

Long time open source contributor, community member, founder, and creator primarily focused on enabling and sustaining indie projects, groups, organizations, and contributors.

WordPress Origin Story

First dabbled in WordPress (and other open source solutions) in 2006 while looking for more efficient ways to build sites for clients and friends in the LA music/arts scene (ended up focusing on Drupal). Became reacquainted with the project and connected to community members via my involvement in the Open Collective community since 2016. Didn’t actually build a WordPress site until 2020 when an old colleague from LA reached out looking for innovative ways to ‘virtually’ present his annual jazz festival during the pandemic. That gave me an opportunity to teach myself ‘modern day’ WordPress using Newspack as a base for their site. In doing so, I remembered that building sites and contributing to projects is a great way to gain experience and make connections (like I did in Drupal all those years ago). After realizing there are several teams and projects focusing around contributions, mentoring, and sustainability, I’ve decided to fill out my profile and wade into the community a bit more.

Contributions

Gus Austin contributes 10 hours per week to the following teams: Community and Sustainability.

  • Member Since: May 23rd, 2019
  • Location: Portland, OR USA
  • Website: openproducer.org
  • GitHub: gusaus
  • Employer: OpenProducer
  • Find me on:
  • Closed issue #4 on the WordPress/sustainability repository:
    Define and document process and structure for collaboration and knowledge share

  • Closed issue #3 on the WordPress/sustainability repository:
    Create and prioritize roadmap

  • Wrote a comment on the post Sustainability Chat Agenda, March 29, 2024, on the site Sustainability:
    We will continue the projects we are currently working on as a priority I think…

  • Closed issue #17 on the WordPress/sustainability repository:
    Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) for all Make Teams

  • Wrote a comment on the post Sustainability Chat Summary, February 23, 2024, on the site Sustainability:
    As mentioned in the meeting and related discussions, I think we should focus on improvements…

  • Wrote a comment on the post Proposal: Updates to Five for the Future from the Community Summit, on the site WordPress.org Project:
    In addition to the crediting system (mentioned in this comment), Drupal has a Marketplace listing…

  • Received props from @bsanevans in Slack:
    Thank you @gusa for frequently bringing items to the Training Team’s meeting, raising awareness of…

  • Wrote a comment on the post Proposal: Updates to Five for the Future from the Community Summit, on the site WordPress.org Project:
    Create team health dashboards for all Make/Teams, which help contributors identify impactful projects and areas…

  • Wrote a comment on the post Sustainability Chat Agenda, February 2, 2024, on the site Sustainability:
    First off we don't need to reference the Roadmap Canvas in public facing posts and…

  • Wrote a comment on the post Training Team 2024 Goals Setting, on the site Make WordPress Training:
    Thanks so much for referencing here. I should clarify to say that while Sustainability Team…

  • Wrote a comment on the post Proposal: Updates to Five for the Future from the Community Summit, on the site WordPress.org Project:
    Sustainability team made an initial pass on improvements using the Community Summit Discussion notes as…

  • Wrote a comment on the post Sustainability Chat Agenda, January 12, 2024, on the site Sustainability:
    As mentioned in Slack, I'm hoping we can focus a bit more time/energy on our…

  • Created issue #24 in the WordPress/sustainability repository:
    Adopt and integrate Open Collective

  • Created issue #22 in the WordPress/sustainability repository:
    Leverage and Extend the FundOSS Democratic/Quadratic fundraising format

  • Created issue #21 in the WordPress/sustainability repository:
    Extend the do_action hackathon format

  • Wrote a comment on the post Sustainability Chat Agenda, November 24, 2023, on the site Sustainability:
    Now that the team is well represented, I think we should be able to tighten…

  • Created issue #20 in the WordPress/sustainability repository:
    Define and document process for running Sustainability Team meetings

  • Created issue #19 in the WordPress/sustainability repository:
    Leverage and contribute to the Open Website Alliance

  • Created issue #18 in the WordPress/sustainability repository:
    Refresh and revitalize the contributor and leadership pipelines

  • Created issue #17 in the WordPress/sustainability repository:
    Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) for all Make Teams

  • Created issue #16 in the WordPress/sustainability repository:
    Refine and extend Five for the Future

  • Created issue #15 in the WordPress/sustainability repository:
    Explore and enable options for funding community projects, teams, working groups, and...

  • Created issue #14 in the WordPress/sustainability repository:
    Help connect and streamline collaboration between Make Teams and community contributors

  • Created issue #13 in the WordPress/sustainability repository:
    Define and document a process for creating, evaluating, and prioritizing roadmap items

  • Created issue #12 in the WordPress/sustainability repository:
    Enable/organize/contribute to NextGen and other Events related to Sustainability goals and focus...

  • Created issue #11 in the WordPress/sustainability repository:
    Sustainable Travel Support for WCEU24

  • Created issue #10 in the WordPress/sustainability repository:
    Contribute to the Dashboard Initiative

  • Created issue #6 in the WordPress/sustainability repository:
    Create Welcome Box

  • Wrote a comment on the post Community Summit Discussion Notes: Communication and Collaboration – Finding Your Way Around WordPress, on the site WordPress Community Summit:
    Action Items / Next Steps * Members from different Make teams need to work together…

  • Wrote a comment on the post Call for WordPress Sustainability Team Representatives, on the site Sustainability:
    Realizing we’ll be in good shape if the original four are interested, it might be…

  • Wrote a comment on the post Sustainability Chat Agenda, September 29, 2023, on the site Sustainability:
    I set up a draft on our Roadmap (GitHub project). Please don't hesitate to add…

  • Wrote a comment on the post Sustainability Chat Agenda, September 29, 2023, on the site Sustainability:
    Thanks @noradriana for including my suggestions in the agenda! Realizing our GitHub repo was much…

  • Wrote a comment on the post Call for WordPress Sustainability Team Representatives, on the site Sustainability:
    In addition to @noradriana @nahuai @littlebigthing and @yellowlime (who have been driving this from the…

  • Created issue #5 in the WordPress/sustainability repository:
    Improve Sustainability Team handbook

  • Created issue #4 in the WordPress/sustainability repository:
    Define and document process and structure for collaboration and knowledge share

  • Created issue #3 in the WordPress/sustainability repository:
    Create and prioritize roadmap

  • Created issue #2 in the WordPress/sustainability repository:
    Determine team roles, responsibilities, commitments, and resource needs

  • Wrote a comment on the post Request for Feedback: Make/Team Dashboards, on the site WordPress.org Project:
    Will this project overlap/compliment with goals/outcomes of the Refining Five for the Future community summit…

  • Wrote a comment on the post Request for Feedback: Make/Team Dashboards, on the site WordPress.org Project:
    After realizing several of the outcomes and examples overlap with the Drupal contribution crediting system,…

  • Wrote a comment on the post Sustainability Chat Agenda, September 22, 2023, on the site Sustainability:
    With the disclaimer that we should eventually set these up as projects and tasks on…

  • Wrote a comment on the post Sustainability Chat Agenda, September 22, 2023, on the site Sustainability:
    Also wanted to reference our Roadmap Canvas (also should be transferred to https://github.com/orgs/WordPress/projects/134) as there…

  • Wrote a comment on the post Call for WordPress Sustainability Team Representatives, on the site Sustainability:
    it’s not that easy finding people to handle it I'm not doubting that but think…

  • Wrote a comment on the post Community Summit Discussion Notes: Refreshing the contributor pipeline, on the site WordPress Community Summit:
    As mentioned above, our onboarding program is something that we think, process-wise, can be adapted…

  • Wrote a comment on the post Call for WordPress Sustainability Team Representatives, on the site Sustainability:
    I would also like to nominate the folks responsible for enabling this team! Is everybody…

  • Wrote a comment on the post Community Summit Discussion Notes: Refreshing the contributor pipeline, on the site WordPress Community Summit:
    Additionally, as a stretch goal, the contributor working group has a vision to have mentors…

  • Wrote a comment on the post Call for WordPress Sustainability Team Representatives, on the site Sustainability:
    To me it makes sense to have a team rep for each focus area –…

  • Wrote a comment on the post Call for WordPress Sustainability Team Representatives, on the site Sustainability:
    I totally agree the Team Reps can't delegate and disengage. They need to be responsible…

  • Wrote a comment on the post Community Summit Discussion Notes: Refining Five for the Future For a Robust WordPress Community, on the site WordPress Community Summit:
    In addition to providing a model for Open Collective adoption/integration (in the near future), the…

  • Wrote a comment on the post Community Summit Discussion Notes: Iterating on the Team Rep role, on the site WordPress Community Summit:
    Just realized I was commenting on the wrong post (it belongs here). Relevant here because…

  • Wrote a comment on the post Call for WordPress Sustainability Team Representatives, on the site Sustainability:
    To me it makes sense to have a team rep for each focus area –…