Interview: Matt Mullenweg, lead developer and head of bug creation at Wordpress
Interview with Matt Mullenweg – Lead Developer and Head of Bug Creation – http://www.wordpress.org
[Mike] Matt, thanks for taking the time to provide the Voisd Webmaster Blog readers with and insight into your background and the workings of Wordpress. As the number one most important Matt in the world (according to Google) and the sixteenth most important person on the web (according to PC World) you are also the founding developer of Wordpress, the blogging software that runs hundreds of thousands of websites around the world. Aged at just 22 you own what could well be considered as the majority software share of the blogging community – where did you find the inspiration for this project and did you ever think that Wordpress would ever reach the popularity it has done in such a very short space of time? Did you ever dream that aged just 22 you could have made such an impact on the internet world?
[Matt] My first and foremost goal when starting was to create software that I wanted to use, that it aligned with a fair amount of other people at the right time is a lucky accident. We still have a long way to go.
[Mike] Since its launch Wordpress has spawned various designers and plug-in developers essentially creating a Wordpress community. How essential has the role of external designers and plug-in developers been in recent years and do you think Wordpress would have reached its current popularity status without these external designers and developers?
[Matt] WordPress is like tofu. Plugins and themes are absolutely responsible for a lot of the popularity of WP. This has become increasingly obvious to us lately, so we’re trying to treat WordPress more as a platform than just an application.
[Mike] This brings me on to Wordpress books. We recently interviewed Lisa Sabin-Wilson of the EWebscapes Blog Design Studio who has recently taken on the challenge of writing the ‘Wordpress for Dummies’ book for Wiley Publishing. Wordpress has essentially become the blogging software of choice with tens of thousands of users. Do you think it’s a good idea for users to read and understand the design concepts behind Wordpress and hence have the knowledge to customise and develop the design style of Wordpress to suit their needs? Was the decision to make Wordpress XHTML compliant a foresight aimed at future designers and Wordpress users or purely a generalised standard that you feel every website (Wordpress or not) should conform to?
[Matt] The decision to make WordPress standards-compliant and use CSS layouts was pretty controversial at the time. It was pretty obvious to the developers around WP (and Cafelog before it) that standards-based HTML + CSS was the future, though, so internally there wasn’t really any arguing about it.
I think you can use WordPress without knowing or caring about any of that, like many people do on WordPress.com, but hopefully WordPress helps people “level up” their knowledge if they’re curious.
[Mike] So which came first, Wordpress.org or Wordpress.com? And what was the reasoning behind Wordpress.com – was it simply because you wanted to allow everyone (whatever their background or internet expertise) the opportunity to blog? Or was part of the aim of Wordpress to not only code and build an outstanding piece of blogging software but also to get people talking about it and using it without restriction?
[Matt] WordPress.org preceded the .com by several years. The idea behind WordPress.com was to create a version that was as widely accessible as something like Blogger and Funnel the development back into the .org side. They both share a goal of giving everyone in the world the ability to publish on an open source platform.
[Mike] Wordpress is actually a project by Automattic which you started in late 2005 and although Wordpress is quite obviously its flagship product, Automattic also provides a number of other software solutions. Can you tell us a bit more about Automattic and what plans you have for Automattic in the future? Are there any other none Wordpress projects you are looking to develop in the future?
[Matt] WordPress.org is completely separate from Automattic, the only commonality is that I’m a central figure to both. The goal of Automattic was to create a company whose economic and social incentives were completely aligned, so we could have a place that gave open source hackers the best possible job and get them paid while still giving back to the community.
[Mike] I’m pretty sure that Wordpress is one of your favourite bookmarks (in fact it might even be your browser home page) however what other sites do you visit on a regular basis that you feel you couldn’t or wouldn’t want to live without? Have you got any favourite online haunts?
[Matt] Sure:
http://www.30boxes.com/
http://www.google.com/reader/view/
http://www.handdrawngames.com/DesktopTD/game.asp
http://www.svextra.com/blogs/gmsv/
[Mike] Webmasters and website owners are constantly being reminded that content is key, both in terms of retaining visitors but also in regards to SEO. What tips and techniques can you recommend for starting and maintaining a successful Wordpress blog? Do you feel having your own hosting and unique domain (as apposed to using the free resource and installation provided on the Wordpress.com website) is a good idea or does having a free Wordpress blog have its advantages?
[Matt] I don’t think being on .com or .org has any advantages. Plugins and widgets are usually for the blog author, not the reader, and content is still the number one reason why people do or don’t visit a blog.
[Mike] Wordpress has definitely cornered the blogging market and blogging has become increasingly popular however in recent months video sites such as uTube have cornered a new area of the potential blogging market. Now people can video their thoughts and ideas and essentially make the blogging experience more interactive. Do you feel that such sites will affect the written blogging world or is there always going to be a place in the blogging market for Wordpress?
[Matt] I think that people still use their blogs to aggregate the content they’re putting on places like Youtube, Twitter, Flickr, and other specialized sites that focus on one aspect of blogging.
[Mike] Many thanks for your time Matt and the best of luck with the continuing success of Wordpress.
