In October 2024, it emerged that WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg has extensive power over the entire WordPress ecosystem, which 43% of all websites on the internet run on. When he exercised this power by seizing control of code that runs on tens of thousands of websites, the WordPress community realised that it was not in control of the software it was using, despite this software being Open Source. And many people were very upset!
This topic has received a lot of media coverage, as well as two thoughtful analyses from our own Chad Whitacre.
But I wanted to answer a very specific question. Can Open Source norms protect us from this kind of deceptive centralised power? Or do we need a different set of norms to ensure that we can collectively govern our software?
I gave my answer in a 10-minute talk at AltCtrlOrg, a side conference to WordCamp, in my lovely former home of Basel, Switzerland. You can watch my talk below.
Almost immediately after my talk, a group of WordPress community leaders including Joost de Valk got together to announce and launch FAIR — a package manager that provides direct answers to almost every one of my points. I'm optimistic that FAIR will pave the way for collective governance in the WordPress community, and I believe that the WordPress leadership team is also receptive to these ideas.
The Open Source Pledge is so important in these kinds of situations. Community initiatives, combining innovative technology and forward-thinking governance, sometimes pop up — but without funding, it's difficult for them to survive.
Companies that depend on ecosystems such as WordPress should help these ecosystems flourish, by financially supporting the most promising initiatives. I hope FAIR will be successful and inspire a movement of collective governance and distributed funding.
(My slides are also available.)