Matt Mullenweg, founder of the WordPress blogging application, recently announced on his own blog that his Automattic company has hired Andy Peating. Andy Peating is the creator of BuddyPress which is a WordPress Multi-User based social network platform.
It’s clear that the future is social. Connections are key. WordPress MU is a platform which has shown itself to be able to operate at Internet-scale and with BuddyPress we can make it friendlier. Someday, perhaps, the world will have a truly Free and Open Source alternative to the walled gardens and open-only-in-API platforms that currently dominate our social landscape.
This is significant news in a number of aspects and indicates the direction many of today's content management systems are taking or need to take (more discussion from me on this at a later date). A number of bloggers haven't missed the significance of this move by Automattic either. This TechCrunch post talks about the possibilities I'm also thinking about when mixing open source with social software:
It is easy to dismiss this as completely unnecessary given the abundance of social networks already out there, as well as application development platforms like OpenSocial. But an open-source social network does present some intriguing possibilities. New apps and
features could be added simply by creating new plugins. And there would be no lock-in to any proprietary code or development environment.
How difficult will it be for Andy Peating to help transform Wordpress into social software? Caroline McCarthy, has this to say on her blog:
The latest Automattic hire likely won't have to go through too much company training, as he's been a longtime devotee to the company's products. "I've been all-consumed in WordPress for the past two years now, (and) I think almost every single site I've built since working as
a freelancer has used WordPress in some way," Peatling wrote in a blog post Tuesday. "To get the opportunity to concentrate fully on WordPress every day, and also the chance to help mold WordPress in new ways, is a fantastic one not to be missed."