Matt Mullenweg on the future of WordPress

I attended the WordCamp conference over the weekend.

Matt Muellenweg is the co-founder of Automattic and WordPress. He started WordPress when he was 19 (he’s 25 now). He is a rockstar developer/entrepreneur/millionaire who has had a massive impact on the world of blogging. He is also a really great guy. I think I hate him.

WordPress 2.9

WordPress 2.9 will focus on the media library, which is an area where WordPress has been really weak. They are also adding a Trash/Recycle Bin feature (currently if you delete something it is gone and it is not possible to get it back).

WordPress 3.0

WordPress 3.0 will merge MU and WordPress into one product.

Backpress

Backpress is the concept of extracting out features to distinct modules that could be used in other web apps. Matt sees this is an interesting, potentially quite big part, of the future of WordPress.

Matt also sees Twitter and Facebook as complimentary to WordPress – I agree. He points out that social networks own and control your content, versus WordPress where it is open source and you can host anywhere.

Buddy Press

BuddyPress is a plug-in that will allow you to build your own Facebook-style site on WordPress.

Favourite question:

Q: “how do you do testing”
A: “we used to not do anything” Matt

Testing sucks because of plug-ins. With all the possible combinations it is not possible to test comprehensively.

Matt wants to make the experience more like Firefox, which handles upgrades with plug-ins seamlessly.

One of the most compelling things about WordPress is that it is ultimately supported by a strong organisation that has leadership with vision. You get the feeling that this will translate to WordPress being around for a very long time.