Press This: Data Liberation

Welcome to Press This, the WordPress community podcast from WMR. Each episode features guests from around the community and discussions of the largest issues facing WordPress developers. The following is a transcription of the original recording. Powered by RedCircle Doc Pop: You’re listening to Press This, a WordPress community podcast on WMR. Each week we spotlight members of the WordPress community. I’m your host, Doc Pop. I support the WordPress community through my role at WP Engine and my contributions on TorqueMag.io . You can subscribe to Press This on RedCircle , iTunes , Spotify , or your favorite podcasting app. You can also download the episodes directly from WMR.fm . Now, I have to tell you, I am extremely excited about today’s topic: Data portability. I’ve been blogging since about 2004. Back then, if you wanted to migrate your content from MSN Spaces to Blogger, you pretty much had to manually copy/paste every post, every title, and every accompanying image and just go through and do that. Now, luckily, I only had like a dozen posts at the time, so it didn’t take that long. But in 2006, when I migrated my site from Blogger to WordPress, I was blown away by how easy things had gotten. Blogger had this export function, and LaughingSquid, the WordPress host I was using at the time, had an Import From Blogger function. It was super easy and seamless to move, and I honestly took it for granted. I just thought, “This is how it’s going to be now. I’m just going to be able to move things from one place to another.” And, obviously, the things didn’t work out that way. As the years progressed, it started getting harder and harder to export your content and move it elsewhere. For example, you wouldn’t even dream of migrating your posts from Facebook to Elon Musk’s X and vice versa. But you also might have some trouble going from one CMS to another these days. Enter the Data Liberation project, announced by Matt Mullenweg at the State of the Word in 2023. This open-source initiative aims to break down the barriers of content migration, making it easier and much more seamless to move your precious content from one platform to another. So joining us today to shed light on the challenges and aspirations of the Data Liberation project is Jordan Gillman, a Happiness Engineer at Automattic and the shepherd of this groundbreaking endeavor. Jordan, how are you doing today? Jordan Gillman: I’m doing well. Doc, how are you doing? Doc Pop: I’m doing so well. Right before the show, I asked you this, and I just want to kind of get this-I want to brag about it: This is your first interview about the Data Liberation project, right? Jordan Gillman: It is. I’ve done one written interview, but this is definitely my first podcast, hopefully of many, about the Data Liberation project, which I’m very excited about. Doc Pop: And I’m excited too. This...

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