A few months ago, Anne Zelenka wrote about how WordPress could serve as the underpinning of a social network, an idea first postulated by Chris Messina. Of course when Automattic, the startup behind WordPress.com’s hosted service, raised a whopping $29.5 million in VC funding recently, I speculated that they might be adding social networking features to there service.
Now it is almost certain — Automattic just hired Andy Peatling, the guy who created BuddyPress, a WordPress-based social network. On his blog, Matt Mullenweg, founder of Automattic and creator of WordPress, writes:
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.
Disclosure: GigaOM and Automattic have a common investor, True Ventures.
14 trackbacks so far
2:05 PM PT
[...] via news.agenturblog.de und GigaOM [...]
3:11 PM PT
[...] also: GigaOM, Techcrunch. « VC Mike and Automattic 11 Comments [...]
3:27 AM PT
[...] platform developed on the WordPress MU (that stands for “multi-user”) codebase. GigaOm has some observations on this, [...]
4:25 AM PT
BuddyPress
Matt hat angekündigt, dass Automattic Andy Peatling an Board geholt hat. Andy ist der Entwickler des Projekts BuddyPress, das er aus zeitlichen Gründen vor einiger Zeit eingestellt hat. BuddyPress erweitert WordPress MU in eine “Social …
4:37 AM PT
[...] “BuddyPress TakeOver” got a lot of coverage recently - even from the top guys - GigaOM, Techcrunch, [...]
4:56 AM PT
[...] was just reading a very interesting post over at GigaOM which discussed the possibility of Automattic (WordPress creators) creating an application to turn [...]
8:09 AM PT
[...] will probably have these social networking tools built into it in the future (as speculated by Om Malik), turning everyone’s blog into a potential social [...]
10:46 AM PT
[...] who developed a WordPress MU-based social network and then released the code as BuddyPress has just joined Automattic, where they seem to have big plans for it. I’d been predicting something like this since [...]
9:50 PM PT
[...] Another, , and Om said that we told you Automattic saw it that way. [...]
2:19 AM PT
[...] GigaOm [...]
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[...] GigaOm [...]
10:49 PM PT
[...] to create a social network, Chickspeak, built on the WordPress Multiuser platform, speculation ran rampant through the blogosphere of a WordPress move into the social networking space. Oh, and if that [...]
9:04 AM PT
[...] [via GigaOm] [...]
12:58 PM PT
[...] The good news is smart people already get this. Matt Mullenweg, one of the developers of WordPress, has already said “It’s clear that the future is social.” [...]
10 comments so far
6:34 PM PT
I really hope WordPress does. Would be an excellent move.
7:47 PM PT
The message at BuddyPress.com:
Coming Soon
“BuddyPress will transform a vanilla installation of WordPress MU into a social network platform.”
8:04 PM PT
Not so long ago DiSO got all good press. It will be interesting to observe the developing dynamics between the insiders. To wit, read the comment posted by David Recordon in Techcrunch. But it is important to note that there are others are also putting forward solutions with the same objectives even though the powers be may not see it fit to notice.
11:16 PM PT
WordPress takes a long way to go, but it would finally get its success.
2:04 AM PT
This will be great. I run wordpress on my site, and I love it. I only have a rudimentary grasp of XML, PHP, and XHTML… but you don’t really need one when people are pumping out these free themes. Plus, the functionality of wordpress is unparalleled in regards to what the installation can be modified to support. If a wordpress-backed social network takes off and gains any of the momentum that the larger social networking sites gets, maybe there will be some sort of merging between the elitist bloggers and the casual personal-type bloggers. Because there is genius in both types of blogs.
7:45 AM PT
WordPress is a good CMS I think changes are not necessary.
12:15 PM PT
Are you planning to put this in on GigaOm?
1:43 PM PT
I really hope WordPress does. Would be an excellent move.
8:32 PM PT
This would be great, however it would have to stand out from the hundreds of social networks sites.
7:23 AM PT
I agree with Keith Shepard …. that would be a really great move!
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