Cool Geek of the Week - Matt Mullenweg
Remember, we asked you to send us questions for Matt Mullenweg? We were flooded with questions from our readers for the WordPress founder, and so swamped was Matt in launching new WordPress applications besides loads of other stuff, that we thought he certainly deserves some more time to finish the questionnaire. But the wait is finally over and we are here with Matt’s answers so, enjoy!
1. Paul: The internet as a whole – is it able to satisfy an average user’s appetite for discovery?
Matt: The biggest problem now isn't discovery which search engines have solved, or amount of content which CMSes like WordPress have solved, but filtering. Google in the future will be like a completely different search engine for every person using it, and its relevancy will be weighted by what we do online and more importantly what our friends and contacts do.
2. Desh: Print magazine has already started to fade away with even the big players going out of the market like PCMag, PopSci including so many other newspapers. Do you think the advertisers will deviate more towards online?
Matt: Absolutely, but I think newspapers will be hit harder than magazines. Newspapers provide content that isn't very differentiated by what you can get easily online, and are slower. Magazines, on the other hand, have the ability to provide information and imagery in a manner that is hard to duplicate online, and the format and size of magazines is actually quite pleasant while newspapers are unwieldy.
3. Clark: The web browser market it still untapped. What you expect and would like to predict in this playing field?
Matt: I think it's livelier than ever. We now have three excellent open source browsers: Firefox, Safari and Chrome. And they're kicking each others' butts in major ways that I think will help them all evolve.
The most exciting thing in the browser world right now is HTML5 and its incremental adoption by browser makers, especially Webkit-based ones.
4. Walker: With the launch of new versions of WP, and hopefully there will be more coming in the future, how do you manage backward compatibility with software efficiency?
Matt: We usually have at least a thousand people testing every new version before it's released to the world. Still things get missed though, so I'd like to formally start testing say the top 20 plug-ins from the directory and make sure they work as promised when we introduce new versions.
5. Naveen: Is Facebook the new Google? Or will Twitter score over Facebook? What’s your opinion on Facebook’s redesign in Twitter style?
Matt: I think Facebook is a very meaningful company — the data they have and are generating in truckloads every day is the core of what filtering the web is going to be based on, as I talked about above.
6. Jenny: Do you oversee any other communication tools in the rapidly evolving social networking space apart from Facebook and Twitter or both of these will continue to evolve and monopolize the social evolution?
Matt: I wouldn't be surprised if we see more companies doing email like Google did with Gmail. Email can be a powerful nexus for people's interactions online and it's very sticky. I'm also excited about things like Google's Wave, though I'm not sure I understand it fully yet.
7. Adil: Matt, with the additions of Gravatar and IntenseDebate to the Automattic, it seems like you’re focusing on the community that a blog forms as much as the blog itself. Do you think micro-publishing services, like Twitter, will continue to change the way we think of community, or will there always be a place for niche, blog-focused communities?
Matt: I think blogs are more important than ever because while Twitter is a great way to connect, communicate and promote things at the end of the day you still need some place for people to go. That place should be on a domain you own and with software you control.
8. Bob: What can we expect from Matt in the near future besides WordPress advancements, of course?
Matt: More photos!
9. Nandini: Your views on Bornrich and Instablogs Network?
Matt: I've subscribed to Bornrich since you sent me this email — you guys post a ton but you're the only blog I read in the space so I see things I wouldn't see anywhere else. My favorite posts are the ones on audio and watches.
RAPIDFIRE
1. Your style of movie
a) Pulp Fiction
b) Sound of Music
c) The Original Star Wars
d) The Shining
e) Real Genius
f) Other
Matt: The Original Star Wars
2. Your favourite Jazz song
a) Along Came Betty
b) A Night in Tunisia
c) Free For All
d) Blues March
e) When Love is New
f) Other
Matt: Ain't Misbehavin'
3. Ninja or Pirate
Matt: Ninja
4. The science fiction term(s) which every geek should know
a) Astrochicken
b) Drake Equation
c) Mary Sue
d) Kardashev scale
e) Penrose process
f) Other
Matt: Grok
5. If they had to give Mario a weapon in new version of Bad Ass Mario, what would it be? (no Red Turtleshell)
a) Railgun from Quake
b) Uzi Submachine Gun
c) BFG 9000 from Doom
d) Cerebral Bore from Turok
e) Chainsaw
Matt: Railgun from Quake
6. If a movie is made on your life, what should be its title, and which actress should play your love interest?
Matt: "Pressing Matters" and Corinne Bailey Rae
7. If you were the head of NASA, where you would have want them to put all their resources in and start doing/building/developing.
a) The Death Star (Darth Wader would be happy)
b) Search of Aliens
c) Man on Pluto
d) Intergalactic Mega society (just like in Serenity/Firefly, Stargate: SG-1, Futurama, Dune, Babylon 5)
e) Other
Matt: Sub-orbital flight
8. What is the most important thing(s) about Geek Food?
a) It can be easily be eaten by one hand.
b) It's sauce will magically disappear if dropped on keybaord.
c) It tastes perfect after you take it out of feep-freezer.
d) It never gets cold.
e) It tastes like Pizza.
Matt: It tastes like Pizza
9. Comic Book Hottie you would love to date
a) Wonder Woman - for being goddess and a true warrior
b) Mystique from X-men - because she can be anyone you want.
c) Veronica Lodge - the meanest, richest and the snobbiest.
d) Barbarella - for traveling planet to planet and beating orgasmotron every time.
e) Supergirl - refugee from a dead planet, and epitome of the "All-American girl next door"
f) Red Sonja - The only way you can get her is to beat her in combat and guess what? You'll never beat her in combat!
g) Other
Matt: Rogue from X-men
Thanks, Matt for such a wonderful interview. We wish you good luck in all your future endeavors!
