When you think about CERN, your first thought probably isn’t websites. Particle accelerators? Probably. Recreating conditions from moments after the Big Bang? Maybe. Thousands of scientists working together to answer some of the biggest questions about our universe? Definitely.
But behind that work is another challenge.
How do you help a global community of thousands of people share knowledge, communicate ideas and publish information, without creating a digital environment that becomes impossible to manage?
That was the story behind one of our favourite talks at WordCamp Europe 2026: Two Worlds Collide: WordPress at CERN.
The session was delivered by Joachim Valdemar Yde, Web Manager at CERN, and Francisco Borges Aurindo Barros, who leads CERN’s WordPress infrastructure.
Together, they shared the story of how CERN approached a challenge that many organisations will recognise, just on a slightly different scale. How do you bring together hundreds of websites, thousands of content creators and decades of digital history into something that is secure, sustainable and easier to manage?
And surprisingly, a lot of the challenges sounded very familiar.
When flexibility becomes complexity
For decades, CERN’s web ecosystem grew in a very human way. Someone had an idea, a project needed a website, a team wanted to share their work, so they created something.
And over time, hundreds of individual decisions turned into a much bigger challenge. Different websites, setups, approaches and responsibilities.
Every individual site had been created for a good reason, but maintaining the whole ecosystem had become increasingly complicated. And honestly, this is something we see all the time.
Not at CERN scale (there are fewer particle accelerators involved in our projects), but the same patterns appear across charities, membership organisations and public sector teams.
A website is created, a new tool gets added, a workaround solves an urgent problem, a spreadsheet fills a gap. And slowly, without anyone making a bad decision, the digital landscape becomes harder to maintain.
Good governance creates freedom
One of the most interesting parts of CERN’s approach wasn’t actually the technology, it was governance. Before choosing tools, they asked bigger questions:
What websites do we have? How are people using them? Who is responsible for them? What do our users actually need?
Only after that process did they look at the best technical solution. Following a six-month audit and review, CERN chose WordPress as the CMS that best met the needs of their community.
Not because everyone needed unlimited control, actually, almost the opposite. They recognised that most people didn’t want to be website administrators, they wanted to create.
Let people do what they do best
One of my favourite points from the talk was the shift in mindset. Their users didn’t need to manage plugins, code and technical updates, they needed to share knowledge. So CERN changed the model.
Scientists, researchers and teams could focus on creating content, while the technical infrastructure behind the scenes protected security, consistency and long-term sustainability.
And that really stuck with me, because great digital systems shouldn’t make everyone become technical experts. A fundraiser shouldn’t need to understand database structures, a communications officer shouldn’t need to worry about security updates, a project manager shouldn’t need five different spreadsheets because the system doesn’t support how they actually work.
Technology should quietly support people so they can focus on the thing they are actually there to do.
Structure is not the enemy of creativity
Sometimes there’s a fear that introducing systems, processes or governance means limiting people, but CERN showed the opposite. The goal wasn’t to stop people creating websites. The goal was that anyone should be able to create one without needing specialist technical knowledge.
That is a really important distinction, good structure doesn’t remove creativity, it protects it.
It means people can move quickly without accidentally creating security risks, maintenance problems or future costs.
Why this matters for mission-led organisations
Most charities and public sector organisations don’t have thousands of websites, but they do have similar pressures: small teams, limited budgets, changing staff, multiple audiences, complex information. A need to make every digital decision count.
The lesson from CERN isn’t “everyone should build exactly what CERN built”, it’s that sustainable technology comes from understanding people first.
Who needs access? What are they trying to achieve? Where are they losing time? What responsibilities should sit with users, and what should the system handle for them?
The best digital tools don’t add complexity, they remove it.
Technology should create confidence
For me, the most exciting part of this story wasn’t the scale, although, yes, seeing WordPress supporting one of the biggest scientific communities in the world is pretty cool.
It was the philosophy behind it, build systems that last, give people the tools they need, remove unnecessary barriers, and create enough structure that people feel confident.
Because whether you are sharing discoveries about the universe or helping your community access vital services, the goal is ultimately the same: making sure the right people can share the right information when it matters.
The story of WordPress at CERN is a fascinating look at what happens when technology, people and purpose come together. Watch the full WordCamp Europe 2026 talk, “Two Worlds Collide: WordPress at CERN”, here:
About Joachim, Francisco and CERN
Joachim Valdemar Yde and Francisco Borges Aurindo Barros are part of the team behind CERN’s move to WordPress. In their WordCamp Europe 2026 keynote, “Two Worlds Collide: WordPress at CERN”, they shared the story behind migrating CERN’s vast web ecosystem onto a more sustainable, secure and user-friendly platform.
Joachim is Web Manager at CERN, helping shape how one of the world’s largest scientific communities manages and shares information online. Francisco leads CERN’s WordPress infrastructure, focusing on the technical systems, automation and tools that make it possible for thousands of users to create and maintain websites at scale.
CERN (the European Laboratory for Particle Physics) is home to a global community of researchers working to understand the fundamental building blocks of our universe. It is also where the World Wide Web began, making its adoption of WordPress as its future content management system a particularly significant moment for the open web.
What made their talk so interesting wasn’t just the size of the migration, but the thinking behind it: creating digital systems that give people the freedom to publish, collaborate and share ideas, while building the governance, security and sustainability needed to support them long term.
