Matt Mullenweg came to Ireland earlier this week to meet Donncha O’Caoimh - Donncha is the lead developer for WordPress.com - this was their first time meeting in person! I caught up with them in Donncha’s house and asked them some questions on WordPress, on blogging and on monetising WordPress.com - it was a great chat. I used my digital dictaphone to record this interview and while the sound isn’t bad - you can hear it being moved around as different people are talking - bottom line, I think I need an external mic!
Here are the questions I asked and the times in the interview at which I asked them:
Who is Matt Mullenweg and what is WordPress? - 0:14
What is your role in WordPress? - 0:58
Donncha, how did you get into WordPress and what is your role in the organisation? - 2:15
Is the mysql CEO starting a blog a blog anytime soon? - 5:25
Blogging hasn’t taken off at a commercial level in Ireland - why should Irish companies blog? - 5:50
What advantages do you see a blog conferring on a company? - 7:06
Another possible use of blogs is for feedback in the product development cycle… - 9:47
How many people are working on WordPress.com? - 11:18
Are there plans to allow people to use WordPress.com on their own domain? - 13:42
Any idea when that’s coming down the line and roughly how much it will cost - 15:16
Is there life in Blogger yet or have Google lost touch with the blogging community? - 16:43
Another annoying thing about Blogger is that it is not web standards compliant… - 19:17
What is your feeling on CAPTCHAs and what’s your preferred method of stopping comment spam? - 20:38
Donncha, what is Akismet? - 22:25
What plugins do you guys use in WordPress? - 25:15
What are the compelling features of WordPress 2 over WordPress 1.5 which would get people to upgrade? - 26:47
What is the upgrade procedure like upgrading from 1.5 to 2? - 29:42
Is there a new default theme in WordPress 2? - 31:44
How well will WordPress 2 handle WordPress 1.5 plugins? - 32:44
When will WordPress 2 be available? - 33:36
How is WordPress being monetised? - 35:09
Is WordPress on board with structured blogging - where do you see it going? - 36:42
Donncha - do you have any thoughts on structured blogging? - 37:45
What is your favourite gadget? - 40:40
Donncha, your favourite gadget? - 43:41
Anything else coming down the line we should be aware of? - 44:20
What kind of numbers do you have on WordPress.com? - 45:05
Is that ahead of target? - 45:29
Download the interview here (10.8mb mp3).
Tom, another suggestion I would be to maybe increase the volume level if you can, I had all my levels up as high as I could and it was still a little quiet. Good interview though!
Hello Scoble visitors!
Thanks Dave,
I’ll keep that in mind.
Damien - huh?
You got linked on Scoble’s Blog Tom!
Dave, thanks for that, I spotted the link last night and left a “Thanks for the link” on Scoble’s blog.
Agree with Tom. Tty turning up the volume and spend some extra cash on a topend Mic. Neverless a good interview and enjoyed it