Podcast with Texts founder Kishan and Techcrunch

Kishan Bagaria and I had chance to catch up with Alex Willhelm on the Techcrunch Equity podcast, it’s a bit of a time travel since we recorded this on November 28th and there has been a ton of activity in the messaging space including the whole Beeper Mini launch and smackdown from Apple. However it’s worth listening to get to know Kishan and hear some of Automattic’s broader, long-term strategy in this space.

To give our current take with regards to iMessage: Right now we run on desktop only, basically automating Apple’s first-party app. This obviously won’t work on iOS or Android. With every network we support we want to have a good, non-adversarial relationship that puts the user first, with the utmost standards for privacy and security, and understanding the principles and values each network is trying to uphold. We’re watching this space unfold very closely, and trying to help where we can. Check out the episode here:

Freedom Grants

Audrey

The Audrey Scholars program is still getting started, but I wanted to introduce another opportunity: Freedom grants. As the page says “If you are an open source contributor, and you feel your current political environment is incompatible with open source values, we would like to offer the opportunity for a grant to help you get set up in a new environment. Please state your case below.”

I’m not sure exactly how this will work, but we’ll figure it out together. The offer is out there. This is very much inspired by the work of the Oslo Freedom Forum.

It’s hard to pick a favorite tenor player, but the GOATs that come to mind are Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Michael Brecker, and I’m missing people but if I had to pick someone to express the human condition and soul, it would be Joshua Redman. He has such incredible fluency with the horn you get an amazing emotional experience with his vibrations. He’s probably the greatest living tenor saxophonist. He just did a Tiny Desk concert, and the audio and visual capture was impeccable. I watched this full-screen on an Apple XDR and listened with Airpods Max—the chords they’re using, the subtlety of the interactions— the experience was exquisite. (Also peep HSPVA grad Paul Cornish!) I can’t embed because it’s not on Youtube yet.

Illuminate has crossed the funding threshold it needed to actually kick off the project of bringing the Bay Lights back to San Francisco, as Heather Knight writes for the New York Times. The upgraded lights will be visible not just from San Francisco but also in Oakland, Treasure Island, Berkeley… all across the Bay. It’s felt like the lights have been the lumen-physical embodiment of San Francisco’s struggles: sparkling and inspiring at the start, then facing troubles, a trough of darkness, and now hope for something better sparked and on the horizon.

I’d love to get as many citizens and addresses in San Francisco as donors, however small, to round out the last bit of the funding, so that as many people as possible can feel the ownership and pride of making the city better. Back in January when I promoted this last it was on a terrible platform, it’s now been re-done by the GiveWP team to be totally native WordPress and a slick donation experience, easy to do on mobile and with Apple Pay. (Major kudos to Devin Walker there!) Please share the link to your friends, especially ones that see the bridge from their home, for $10 it’s the cheapest pro-social dopamine boost you can have every time you look at the bridge.

We no longer need companies, institutions, or government to organize us. We now have the tools to organize ourselves. We can find each other and coalesce around political causes or bad companies or talent or business or ideas. We can share and sort our knowledge and behavior. We can communicate and come together in an instant. We also have new ethics and attitudes that spring from this new organization and change society in ways we cannot yet see, with openness, generosity, collaboration, efficiency. We are using the internet’s connective tissue to leap over borders—whether they surround countries or companies or demographics. We are reorganizing society. This is Google’s—and Facebook’s and craigslist’s—new world order.

— Jeff Jarvis in the book What Would Google Do? Published 2009.

Interesting to revisit as they float trial balloons on breaking Google up (terrible idea) or other antitrust enforcement.

Timex Datalink

Asides

I had a huge nostalgia blast today with this video from Lazy Game Reviews showing and setting up a Timex Datalink watch, which was a “smart” watch that would show data that you transmitted to it by holding it in front of your CRT monitor and it flashing a bunch of lines.

It’s hard to describe how much my Ironman Triathlon Datalink watch was my entire world when I was a little kid, I was totally obsessed with it. I filled up every bit of its memory with numbers and notes. And the Indiglo!

UH Magazine, Revisiting My Alma Mater

My father attended University of Houston, and it’s where I went to college to study political science, I started WordPress when there, and then dropped out after two years to move to San Francisco. It was fun seeing UH Magazine feature an article about my journey from a University of Houston student to co-founding WordPress and leading Automattic. I was surprised they put me on the cover of the physical edition! I wish my Dad were still around to see it.

The piece explores my commitment to open-source, my vision for democratizing online publishing, and the values of creativity and adaptability that have shaped my path. It’s an honor to reflect on these experiences with my alma mater.

State of the Word Tokyo

WordPress

It’s a dream come true being here in Tokyo for State of the Word 2024. We’re going to be in an amazing venue that looks over the city. Most of WordPress and Automattic’s senior leadership is here, and we’ll also have several hundred folks from the local community and press.

(Update: If you’d like a fantastic recap of how the event went, check out this post on .org.)

We’ve gotten so much inspiration over the years from Japanese culture, we wanted to make this event really “of the space” so we’re doing a few extra things this year. My presentation will include Mary Hubbard and Matías Ventura, but also part of it will be in Japanese and presented by Junko Fukui Nukaga. We’ll have piano performances by Aiko Takei. After the presentation and Q&A we’ll do a panel in Japanese with Mieko Kawakami (one of the top novelists in Japan, on par with Haruki Murakami), Craig Mod, Hajime Ogushi, and Genki Taniguchi.

For those who can attend in person, we’ll have a reception afterward with some unique gifts including posters from a local Kanji artist and nice sweater to keep everyone warm this winter.

If you’d like to livestream at home, you can do so on Youtube here:

It’s a busy speaking season! I just spoke at the Intelligent Change summit, and will be at SaaStock in Austin on May 14, SXSW London, on June 4, Brilliant Minds in Stockholm, and WordCamp EU in Basel, Switzerland, on June 7.