automattic

Automattic GM 2017

After 10 days away, I’m home. I’m excited to be with my people here and get back to my routine, but I’m also a little melancholy knowing that I won’t see my coworkers for an entire year, if ever again. (I’ve never been good at goodbyes or finalities.)

I admit that that sounds dark, but it actually makes me very appreciative for the time I do get to spend with them, which is why I do everything I can to make the most of our week together.

Here’s a random, disjointed glimpse of my GM, minus most of the work stuff. Because, well — it’s work. It’s kind of weird to take photos of people in the middle of a meeting or class… though there’s a few of those too. 😀

Gorgeous sights. Face swaps. Surprise doggos. Improvised lobby dance parties. Late-night eats. Catching up 1:1. Prom. Immature jokes. Honest conversations. Peace signs. Homeroom. Twinning. Champagne. Domains. Nodules. Surprise connections.

As someone remarked this week, “You’re really good at burning the candle at both ends.”

I was kind of obsessed with the raindrops on the leaves — made the plant look like it was sparkling. 😍
Missed the first home game of the season for this hike, but it was worth it. Also, ran into this guy. Go bears!
Homeroom meeting
Team day
Team day
All a girl needs: wine, red bull, eggs, and cheese sticks.
Twinsies
Gathering for the all-company photo.
Prime example of a bad domain choice.
Nighttime walk to try to see the northern lights. No luck, but the stars were plenty gorgeous.
Bowls of whisky.
Birthday cheers!
Will teaching us how to properly do peace signs.
#besthomeroom
Twinning.
The biggest name tag, for a role playing game in the domains class.
Stole my phone and took a selfie, but I’m def not mad at it. ❤️
Finger hearts! I mostly see weird pinchy fingers.
Ladies dinner table!
Plate of whipped cream.
Keeping tabs on the game during Townhall. We won, 27-16!
When we learned that Lori had 1,200 files on her desktop.
Ceri & Ingrid face swap.
Remake of https://jennyzhu.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/img_7686.jpg
80’s tuxes
How to make sure they don’t clear your glass while you’re away!
McDonald’s
It’s also embarrassing that I still have a dress from 15 years ago…
One of my favorite poets posted this the night I got home — was reading this as I fell asleep.

 

 

Cheers to my team, and I hope to see you all soon.

 

Automattic GM 2016

Flash talks, townhalls, workshops, presentations, projects. It was a blur, but as always, it was wonderful to catch up with some of my lovely coworkers. (I wish I could say all of my lovely coworkers, but there simply wasn’t enough time!)

Here’s a disjointed glimpse of my week in Whistler in photos/videos:

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Automattic GM 2015

 

It was a wonderful week reconnecting with old friends and getting to know new ones. It seems like a lot of time to spend together, but I wish we had more than just one week out of the year.

Late nights. Early mornings. Dance parties. Oversharing. Contact improv. Jane Doze. Chillin. Swing dancing. Messes. Flash talks. Lists. Bacon. Escalade. Cocktail suicide. Questionable automattchers. DJing. Ghosting. Selfies. Credit card. Mentor/mentee shots. On fleek. Speed shopping.

My week in photos and videos:

 

ICANN Considers Relaxing Domain Registration Privacy; Automattic Objects

Can’t stop, won’t stop.

Transparency Report

We’ve said it time and time again: user privacy is important to us. We’re vigilant about protecting it on WordPress.com, and we’re always on the lookout, ready to weigh in on policy proposals that might curtail the privacy that we and our users value so highly.

Today, our focus turns to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization responsible for coordinating the internet’s naming system, such as domain names. ICANN is currently considering a proposal that would prohibit many domain owners from using privacy and proxy registration services.

What exactly does this mean? If you’ve ever registered a domain (and millions of you on WordPress.com have), you may have noticed an option to make your personal information, such as your name, address, and phone number, private. This is great for those who want to publish anonymously or those who simply value more privacy. However, ICANN is considering precluding anyone who uses a domain for “commercial” purposes from private…

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A perfect EFF score! We’re proud to have your back.

WordPress.com News

Concerns about online privacy and illicit government snooping are at the top of users’ minds, now more than ever. We appreciate that you trust us to safeguard your sensitive information on WordPress.com, and Automattic has a long-standing commitment to defending your rights and holding firm against legal bullying and over-reaching government requests. We work to have the most stringent, user-friendly policies possible within the law, and to be as transparent as we can about information requests we receive and how we respond to them.

Our friends at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an organization dedicated to defending your digital rights, recognized our efforts in their latest annual Who Has Your Back report, which evaluates the user privacy practices of prominent online service providers. We’re proud to receive a perfect score of five stars on the report, one of only nine (out of 24) companies to earn that honor. You can learn more about EFF’s evaluation criteria

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The Fog of Sadness

How I’m feeling right about now.

LoriLoo

I know the fog of sadness will come. The knowing doesn’t make it any easier when it arrives.

It’s happened every year for the past five years. Sometimes it sets in the afternoon I arrive home, like today. Sometimes it sets in after I wake up from the post trip nap (last year’s “nap” was 18 hours long, due to sheer exhaustion from too much fun).

This year our annual all company meetup was held in Park City, Utah, and more than 250 people attended. This is a highlight of the year, because it’s often the only time that I’ll see many of my co-workers. We’re a distributed company, and everyone’s primary workspace is their home office. Oh, did I mention we have folks in thirty-five countries around the world? We’re really spread out. It’s a whirlwind of a week – learning at internally led code academy classes; project teams…

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Join Us in the Fight For Net Neutrality

WordPress.com News

“Net Neutrality” is the simple but powerful principle that cable and broadband providers must treat all internet traffic equally. Whether you’re loading a blog post on WordPress.com, streaming House of Cards on Netflix, or browsing handcrafted tea cozies on Etsy, your internet provider can’t degrade your connection speed, block sites, or charge a toll based on the content that you’re viewing.

Net neutrality has defined the internet since its inception, and it’s hard to argue with the results: the internet is the most powerful engine of economic growth and free expression in history. Most importantly, the open internet is characterized by companies, products, and ideas that survive or fail depending on their own merit — not on whether they have preferred deals in place with a broadband service provider. Unfortunately, the principle of net neutrality, and the open internet that we know and love, is under attack.

Net Neutrality under…

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WordPress.com Terms of Service Meetup – Glasgow

clickysteve

This week I had the honour of playing semi-host to (a selection of) the combined forces of the WordPress Jetpack, legal, and Terms of Service teams.

There was Irn-Bru, bucky, pommes frites, castles, Garage, fish suppers, macaroon, gin, bottles of vodka, curry, big balls, easter eggs, single malt, World Cup failures, dancing lawyers, burgers, ayes, bathroom mood lighting, ampm soaps, tapas, and spam.

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The WordPress.com Transparency Report

Our first transparency report has been published! #nerdingout

WordPress.com News

Automattic’s mission is to democratize publishing, and a fully informed citizenry is the foundation of any functioning democracy. Keeping our users and the public fully informed about our policies on responding to government requests has always been important to us — and now, more than ever, candor in this area is vitally important.

In keeping with these principles, we’re pleased to release our first transparency report. This initial report summarizes the number of government information requests, takedown demands, and national security requests that we received during the second half of 2013. In addition to giving our users full transparency about the volume of these requests, we also hope that publicly reporting our data will help hold all parties (including us) accountable.

A few highlights of our report:

Information Requests. For the second half of 2013, approximately 0.0001% of the 48 million sites that we host were subject to a…

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