“You’re still glowin’, you’re still crowin’, you’re still goin’ strong!”— What Resulted From Matt’s Devotion to Open Source

I didn’t know who Matt was when I clicked on a link embedded to his first and last name. The link was included in a free plugin called Hello, Dolly in an also free WordPress template I had downloaded. I thought the premise of the plugin was delightful: “This is not just a plugin, it symbolizes the hope and enthusiasm of an entire generation summed up in two words sung most famously by Louis Armstrong: Hello, Dolly. When activated you will randomly see a lyric from Hello, Dolly in the upper right of your admin screen on every page.”

I wondered who would make such a fun app and just give it away, so I clicked on the name Matt Mullenweg. I was taken to Matt’s blog and read the most recent blog post that featured a podcast where Matt was interviewed about how he built…(ta da) WordPress!

Before I saw that WordPress was under his umbrella, this line from the synopsis of the podcast grabbed my attention as I happened to be writing a blogpost about open source: “Matt Mullenweg turned his early passion for blogging into a flourishing business and an unshakeable idea: that users should be able to share and tweak the code that powers their websites, and that most of those tools should be free to use (emphasis mine).“

I immediately pushed PLAY on the podcast and was mesmerized by Matt’s discussion with Guy Raz about his journey through open source. I think this podcast is a MUST LISTEN for anyone, especially those interested in open source, open education, open scholarship, open anything!

Give it a listen. You’ll then know why—because of open source—Matt’s still glowin’, still crowin’, still goin’ strong! (Hint: His company Automattic has nearly 2000 employees and a valuation of $7 billion; and WordPress powers more than 40% of the websites on the internet.)

#openscholarship #opensource