Twenty Fourteen will be an important year for WordPress in Vietnam. Strong efforts around localization and internationalization have recently begun at Automattic and WordPress.com, and the polyglot community around WordPress.org has for many years already been very strong. The global reach of WordPress goes far beyond English and the West.
When I began the Hanoi WordPress Meetup Group in 2012 my goal was simple and selfish: to find friends in Vietnam who also love WordPress. We started off small, with eight people coming to the first event (half who were from Japan and passing through Hanoi for a visit). A few years later and we’re now consistently drawing anywhere from 25 to 40 members to the meetups.
The number of people alone isn’t that important, but the fact that it indicates growing connectivity among WordPress users and developers within Hanoi, and by extension Vietnam, matters a lot. There’s also a thriving group of WordPressers in Saigon who have helped to grow enthusiasm around the project within the southern part of the country.
The primary goal this year will be to hold the first ever WordCamp in Vietnam, which will happen later this year in Hanoi. Tuấn Anh (my meetup co-organizer) and I have already reached out to the WordPress Foundation about WordCamp and our focus moving forward will be making sure that we do everything necessary to have the best WordCamp possible that’s geographically authentic and at the same time mindful of the spirit of the global WordPress community.
In the meantime, keep up with us at the following locations:
- The WordPress Hanoi Meetup Group
- The WordPress Hanoi Facebook Group
- Translating WordPress into Vietnamese
- WordPress.org in Vietnamese
Is there any photo, Philip?
Yep! You can see photos on the meetup group page.