Saurabh Shukla, a WordPress Developer at rtCamp Solutions Pvt Ltd. He is one of the co-authors of four open source plugins on wordpress.org with total downloads of about 30,000. Apart from the open source plugins, he’s been working on WordPress sites, plugins and themes for the last couple of years.
Having a deep interest in optimisation, testing and UI/UX design. He’s also a FOSS evangelist, looking to popularise free and open source software across the length and breadth of the Indian society.
Here’s a brief questionare we had with him :
What are your thoughts about WordPress community in India?
The WordPress community in India is not a community, yet, in a stricter sense. There are a lot of people working with WordPress, but there is little knowledge exchange or interaction, yet. This being the fourth WordCamp in India, I believe, we are taking baby steps towards a proper community.
Brief about the topic on which you’re going to speak at WordCamp Baroda, 2013
At WordCamp Baroda, I’ll be speaking about a new server software called Nginx that is used by wordpress.org and wordpress.com, apart from some other major wordpress hosts. I’ll be comparing it with the grand-daddy of open source servers, Apache and discuss the relative merits and demerits
This won’t be just a theoretical talk, as I’ll briefly outline the practicalities of moving from Apache to Nginx.
Why have you decided to be a part of WordCamp Baroda 2013?
I have high hopes from the WordPress community in India and from WordPress itself. Of all the open source CMSes in sight, the entry barriers are much lesser and easier in WordPress. I believe that WordPress can be the torch-bearer of India’s shift to open source solutions (along with Android). We have been producing bad websites for years now. when most of the world has abandoned ‘table-designing’, we produce tables by the dozen, every minute. This includes government websites. The standard will change and I believe the WordPress community can be a catalyst. I want to be at every initiative that can contribute to this dream of mine.
What are you most looking forward to during WordCamp Baroda 2013?
WordPress. Unlike a previous WordCamp that was hijacked by sponsors, social media and marketing champions, this WordCamp has shown deep inclination to be WordPress centric. So, I’m looking forward to useful and lively discussions revolving around WordPress. Also looking to meet and interact with interesting people.
Who in WordPress community inspires you the most? Why?
The beginners, the novices, the noobs! You should see some of them creating the most wonderful things. However, due to the lack of knowledge, exposure and bad quality standards of a lot of organisations working on WordPress, their code gets shoddy and our reputation suffers, internationally. They still strive, and given the right conditions, produce amazing plugins and themes.
A one line advice you’d like to give to everyone related to WordPress
Never, ever stop asking questions.
