Matt Mullenweg’s State of the Word 2011: We Shape WordPress As We Use It

“Write once, write everywhere. The future is in responsive design,” says Matt Mullenweg (pictured) during the Q & A in his “Town Hall Meeting” following his State of the Word 2011.

Matt Mullenweg’s State of the Word is always a highlight of WordCamp. The room is packed, more folks are watching downstairs and it’s being live streamed to 1000 people around the world. Here are my notes from his presentation at WordCampSF 2011. (And here are my notes from his State of the Word 2009!)

This year, Matt’s sporting a “caveman” look–complete with beard and Barry Gibbs hair which fortunately he’s comfortable joking about.

He ran through various iterations of the basic page where you write your posts–from plain to color to more and more features to the “zen” mode of writing a post.

We shape WordPress as we use WordPress, says Matt Mullenweg.

People using WordPress are doing cool stuff all over the world. Why? What’s the best thing about using WordPress?

1. Ease of use, say respondents to a survey. 20% of users said in the response was exactly that “ease of use.

2. Community. The WordPress community and forums provide “tons of additional functionality and answers.”

Number one complaint? Plugins not working and having to upgrade, etc. There are 15,000 plugins available.

So what to do about problems with ? If a theme or a plugin hasn’t been updated for two years, it will be hidden.

“We shape our buildings and our buildings shape us.”

Predictions from last year:

1. More mobile apps–now available across six mobile platforms.

2. More human feeling. (Have you noticed the jiggle if you sign in incorrectly? Check it out–it’s cute!)

3. Core plugins–canonical. But this hasn’t really happened.

4. More than 8.5% of the web would be on WordPress. Earlier, it was said it’s over 10%.

Note: you’re the product on facebook. The advertisers are the costumer.

Matt’s showing off some really fabulous sites; one of his favorite is Jay-Z’s site.

What’s down the road for WordPress?

Open unified field.

Better reading and writing experience including a better new user experience with a guided orientation to learn how to get going.

Where are we as a community–right now?

Lots of folks customize their WordPress sites but only 4% change the admin.

How much do people charge per hour to build a WordPress site? From $5-$2000 per hour! But the average is $58 and the median is $50.

Growth: yes. Lots. Now 14.7% websites. Out of every 100 new domains created, 22% is running WordPress.

You think you’re at WordCamp but you’re at a family meeting. We’re growing something, says Matt. Two thirds of traffic now comes from outside the United States.

Oh and Matt? Now that you have the beard for it, this winter when you announce that it’s snow time on our blogs, will you do it wearing a Santa suit?

Ed Morita of Baker’s Hours tattoo celebrates WordPress. Speaking of celebrations, Matt Mullenweg started WordPress at 19; WordPress celebrates its 6th Birthday tonight. Which makes Matt 25 years old. Amazing. He was born in 1984. WordPress was conceived and delivered via a blog post and a comment. Matt wrote a post about what he’d like to see in a blogging platform using features from the various ones available at the time. Someone commented, say … Read More

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