A Short history of WordPress.org and WordPress.com and why so many people contribute to this Open Source community. It is more than a software platform, it is a life changing movement.

1. Comfort Zone
Decision to Take Action!
Where Extraordinary
Happens

2. And You may Find Yourself. . .

4. Two Stories

6. Matt Mullenweg
Born in 1984
Parents: Chuck and Kathe
!
started on computers age 3
first website at 12
plays saxophone
does photography

7. Matt at 18

8. b2 cafelog
!
By November 2002,
Matt had 20,000 unique visitors
and over 10,000 hits a month
on Photmatt.net blog.

9. Last Entry by
michel v
Nov. 2002
Last Entry by
michel v
Nov. 2002
Last Entry by
michel v
Nov. 2002
Last Entry by
michel v
Nov. 2002
Last Entry by
michel v
Nov. 2002
b2 cafelog

10. Forking the Code
Open Source
GPLCopy Left
General Public License

11. January 24, 2003
Matt, !
“Someday Right?”

12. January 25, 2003
Mike Little,
“I’m In”

13. Christine Selleck
“How about WordPress”
May of 2003

14. WordPress 1.0 Four months later May 26, 2003
!
!

15. Last Entry by
michel v
Nov. 2002
Last Entry by
michel v
Nov. 2002
Last Entry by
michel v
Nov. 2002
Michel V Resurfaced
b2 cafelog
Supported WordPress Fork
“WordPress community is easy to work with”

16. Culture of Transparency

17. Six Months Later October 2004 15,000 WP users
Matt Leaves School moves to San Francisco

18. A Year Later
October 2005
Matt Leaves CNET!
!
Over 50,000
WordPress Users!
!
!
Starts Automattic!
Big Decision

19. Started in Nov. 2005 over 100,000 blogs in 3 weeks.
First product made over 1 M first year

20. • Provides Hosting for Sites
• Easy to set up
• Uses WordPress.org code
• Less access to themes and plugins
• Charges for upgrades to service
Company with Employees
Volunteers Contribute
-Code
-Codex
-Meetups
-WordCamps
• Access to all themes
• Access to all plugins
• Self-hosting & domains
• Backup & Maintain
• Lot of people provide
people with design,
development, themes,
plugins and services.
Owned by

21. Toni Schneider and Matt Mullenweg

22. Story Two

24. Seemed like a really good idea.

25. PhD Clinical Community Psychology

26. 1980 Hospital Part-time Psychologist

27. Product Manager for Mental Health Programs

28. Private Practice and Kids

29. Just Make it a Commercial Product

31. Funded with SBIR Research Grants

32. You’ll eventually want to find a real CEO!

33. 10 Employees
Find New Office Space

36. 18 Employees, Needed to
Find That Real CEO!
20 Employees
Where is that real CEO???

37. 18 Employees, Needed to
Find That Real CEO!
Sold my shares in Company in 2000

38. So I Continued Building

45. I saw signs of trouble in housing market 2006.

46. I Googled My Business Name

48. Hated my old website had to have a CMS.

52. Marketing and Publishing had Changed.

54. My First Website Client

55. My First Paying Website Client

56. Started New Tricks 2009

57. Started New Tricks 2009

59. WordCamp NOLA April 2009

60. 2009 50 Members
Jack Kinnard

61. Volunteered to Help with MeetUp

62. 2014 1498 Members

63. Russell Fair and Judi Knight Jen Mylo from Automattic

66. WordPress has given me a Career and a Community

67. WordPress has included my Family
My 26 year old son
is a WordPress developer and speaker
who works with me at New Tricks.

68. !
My 28 year old daughter is a brand manager with her own website.

69. !
My husbands side job is a triathlon coach and personal trainer.

71. I
will
never
stop
learning.
I
won’t
just
work
on
things
that
are
assigned
to
me.
I
know
there’s
no
such
thing
as
a
status
quo.
I
will
build
our
business
sustainably
through
passionate
and
loyal
customers.
I
will
never
pass
up
an
opportunity
to
help
out
a
colleague,
and
I’ll
remember
the
days
before
I
knew
everything.
I
am
more
motivated
by
impact
than
money,
and
I
know
that
Open
Source
is
one
of
the
most
powerful
ideas
of
our
generation.
I
will
communicate
as
much
as
possible,
because
it’s
the
oxygen
of
a
distributed
company.
I
am
in
a
marathon,
not
a
sprint,
and
no
matter
how
far
away
the
goal
is,
the
only
way
to
get
there
is
by
putting
one
foot
in
front
of
another
every
day.
Given
time,
there
is
no
problem
that’s
insurmountable.
Automattic’s Employment Manifesto

73. You may ask yourself, “Where does that highway go?”
And you may ask yourself “Am I right? Am I wrong?”
And you may tell yourself, “MY GOD! What have I done?”

74. You said yes when it could have been no.