If you’ve ever attended a WordCamp, you’ve probably ran into Pete Mall. Pete is a core contributor and a frequent speaker on the WordCamp Circuit. Pete works as an independent consultant, make sure to follow him on Twitter.
Pete is bringing some insight on how you can contribute to WordPress. Check out our interview with him:
How long have you been working with WordPress and what first attracted you to it?
I’ve been working with WordPress for six years now, and I’ve seen it grow from a buggy blogging platform to a polished feature rich content management system. The ease of use and open source community first attracted me to WordPress.
What are your thoughts on the WordPress community as a whole, including WordCamps?
The most exciting thing about WordPress is the community and the most frustrating thing about WordPress is also the community. I love that anyone can start contributing and help shape the future of WordPress. Not only can you learn a lot from the presentations at WordCamps, but you also get an opportunity to meet other users and developers.
Who in the WordPress community inspires you? Who do yo u follow?
Jane Wells does more for WordPress than anyone else in the community. She’s a great resource and I don’t think WordPress would be where it is today without her efforts. She gets blamed for just about anything that goes wrong with the project, but she never gets enough credit for her contributions to the project.
Andrew Nacin inspires me because of his hard work and his ascent from a relatively unknown developer to a committer and a leader in the community.
I also follow Ryan Boren, Mark Jaquith, Daryl Koopersmith, Peter Westwood, Dion, Mitcho, Otto, Jon Cave, Sivel, Chelsea and Sara Cannon (and hundreds of other contributors).
What is the most exciting feature/addition/improvement to WordPress that you have noticed in the last year?
The merge of WordPress MU and the Custom Post Types enhancements are some of my favorite additions to WordPress over the last couple of years. I really like the new Distraction Free Writing mode in WordPress 3.2.
Where do you see WordPress 2 years from now?
WordPress powers 50 millions sites and I see that number increasing exponentially over the next few years. WordPress is being used on a wide variety of sites and there is no limit to what you can do with WordPress.
