WordPress MU

Interesting Interview With WP's Matt Apr 16

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/16/interview-with-automattics-matt-mullenweg-blogging-is-not-slowing-down/

Talks about BudyPress, Twitter relevance etc. He says Twitter will not affect Automattic that much. I think Microblogging is going to slowly eat into Blogging, just like few people expected blogging to become mainstream and so huge. I think the human mind world over is evolving into attention spans of 1 minute or less :)) Or its me aging :(

I agree, though I never was a consistent blogger, I find myself using Twitter and Tumblr more and more.

I think blogging platforms will move towards a more general CMS usage and for those willing and capable of posting longer and more indepth "articles". Those currently using a blog to simply put their diary online, in my opinion, will move to micro-blogging, especially as more software is developed to allow them to post their "thoughts" and pictures online whilst they are out and about.

Looking at all the Plugins and Themes for WP, yes, the transformation to CMS usage is happening.
I think with further evolution and stabilization of auto upgrades of plugins and WP core, and probably addition of stuff like SVN-type rollback ability, WP will become a good tool for novices too. Too bad for the FrontPage kind of businesses :)
I still wonder what business purpose does it serve for WP to give out MU for free...Altruism? With vulture funds being pumped into Automattic? :) This in a humorous vein, please don't flame...
For those from N.A: Diary==Journal
If WP insists on a strict interpretation of GPL like the Joomla folks do, things might get difficult for independent developers, and might slow down making WP easier for total noobs to use in different environments and settings.
(I felt Joomla was taking things too far when they insisted on bridging be GPL compatible in every-whichever-way.)

pumpkinpatch - MU has to be Free, as it's GPLed and some (a lot?) of the source code isn't owned by Automattic. It will always be free, and yes, Automattic (and I) do insist on a strict interpretation of the GPL.
I'm not familiar with Joomla and the GPL, but the GPL is a good thing. MU wouldn't be in your hands without it.

I'm not trying to get into a GPL discussion but I am curious about this bit:

"some (a lot?) of the source code isn't owned by Automattic."

Automattic owns some of the WP/WPMU source?

Thanks,
Andrew

Sure it does. Any code I contribute while employed by Automattic is owned by Automattic. They own the copyright on that bit of code. If you submit a patch then you own that bit of code.

The GPL doesn't mean an author loses ownership of code, it just defines how it can be distributed (among other things).

Mozilla changed their licensing terms a while back and had to get the blessing of each and every one of their code contributors to do so.

Wow, you dug up an old one!

Thanks for clearing that up though. Makes sense now that it's explained.

Thanks,
Andrew

Sorry for the late response. You can thank a spammer who spammed this thread and it caught my attention :)

No worries. We're all busy :)

Thanks,
Andrew