WordPress was created from a fork of b2/cafelog in 2003. B2 was licensed under the GPL, so it was open for anyone to fork and create their own version.
B2 was a blogging software platform.
http://cafelog.com/
WordPress founding developers where Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little.
https://ma.tt/2003/01/the-blogging-software-dilemma/ https://codex.wordpress.org/History http://www.wpbeginner.com/news/the-history-of-wordpress/
WordPress Licensing
Like most software, WordPress is distributed under a license, which means there are certain things that you are legally permitted (and not permitted) to do with WordPress software and source code. WordPress is distributed under a license called the GNU General Public License, a very popular license in the open source industry. If that doesn't ring a bell, read on.
About the GPL
The GNU General Public License, or GPL, is an open source license. Open source doesn't just mean that you can view the source code — it has political and philosophical implications as well. Open source, or "Free Software", means you are free to modify and redistribute the source code under certain conditions. Free doesn't refer to the price, it refers to freedom. The difference between the two meanings of free is often characterized as "Free as in speech vs. free as in beer." The GPL is free as in speech.
Why We Chose the GPL
The reasons for WordPress releasing under the GPL are both practical and idealistic. WordPress was born of the very freedom mentioned earlier. The predecessor to the WordPress project, b2/cafelog, was also an open source project.
https://wordpress.org/about/license/
https://codex.wordpress.org/License https://wordpress.org/about/gpl/
Matt Mullenweg is a co-founder of WordPress, the Open Source software used by over 27% of the web. He is also the founder/CEO of Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com and Jetpack.
https://ma.tt/about/
https://www.crunchbase.com/person/matt-mullenweg
Automattic:
Automattic was launched in 2005 as a home for WordPress.com and Akismet.
Automattic marked a new, but challenging, beginning for its employees, who had to balance the free project's aims with the company's commercial goals. It's a balance that has affected both WordPress and Automattic throughout their close histories. The business generates income and provides contributors and support to the project, while the project creates the software that is the foundation of the business. The business needs to grow in a non-destructive, sustainable way, allowing the project to grow, mature, and attract a diverse group of contributors.
The company launched with four employees: Donncha Ó Caiomh, the original developer of WordPress MU, worked on WordPress.com's infrastructure with Ryan Boren, Matt, and Andy Skelton. They left their jobs and put their faith in WordPress -- that it could grow beyond its roots as a small project into a platform that could sustain a blogging business.
https://automattic.com/
Automattic is behind:
WordPress.com
https://wordpress.com/
WordPress.com VIP
https://vip.wordpress.com/
Gravatar
http://en.gravatar.com/
Jetpack
https://jetpack.com/
Akismet
https://akismet.com/
WooCommerce
https://woocommerce.com/
VaultPress
https://vaultpress.com/
Cloudup
https://cloudup.com/
Polldaddy
https://polldaddy.com/
WordPress Foundation:
The WordPress Foundation is a charitable organization founded by Matt Mullenweg to further the mission of the WordPress open source project: to democratize publishing through Open Source, GPL software.
The point of the foundation is to ensure free access, in perpetuity, to the software projects we support. People and businesses may come and go, so it is important to ensure that the source code for these projects will survive beyond the current contributor base, that we may create a stable platform for web publishing for generations to come. As part of this mission, the Foundation will be responsible for protecting the WordPress, WordCamp, and related trademarks. A 501(c)3 non-profit organization, the WordPress Foundation will also pursue a charter to educate the public about WordPress and related open source software.
http://wordpressfoundation.org/
WordPress.com:
WordPress.com is a proprietary blog hosting service provider. WordPress.com is not directly related to WordPress.org which is home of the most popular open source CMS software, WordPress. Even though WordPress.com blog hosting service uses WordPress at its core, there are several limitations to WordPress.com.
WordPress.com was created in 2005, it is a hosted version of the open source software. Here, you can start a blog or build a website in seconds without any technical knowledge. Overall, the WordPress.com network welcomes more than 409 million people viewing more than 15.5 billion pages each month. Our users publish about 41.7 million new posts and leave 60.5 million new comments each month.
WordPress is a publishing platform that makes it easy for anyone to publish online, and proudly powers millions of websites. It comes in two flavors: the fully hosted WordPress.com, and the self-hosted version, whose software is available for free at WordPress.org.
https://wordpress.com/
https://wordpress.com/about/ https://en.support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/
Back in the day, WordPress.com blogs had lots of nifty features that were only available to self-hosted sites through a complicated system of pulleys and levers. Tricking out your self-hosted site with all the features of WordPress.com meant installing and maintaining dozens of individual plugins.
Jetpack is a single plugin that gives you the most powerful WordPress.com features, hooking your self-hosted WordPress site to WordPress.com’s infrastructure to take advantage of robust stats, easy social sharing, and a whole lot more.
Jetpack is hand-crafted by the fine people at Automattic.
https://jetpack.com/
WordCamps:
The first WordCamp was organized in San Francisco by Matt Mullenweg in 2006, and since then local communities around the world have organized hundreds of others.
WordCamps are informal, community-organized events that are put together by WordPress users like you. Everyone from casual users to core developers participate, share ideas, and get to know each other.
There were over 80 WordCamps held in 2016 all over the world.
https://central.wordcamp.org/
https://central.wordcamp.org/about/
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- Bluehost partners w/ Automattic to provide a better experience to our customers
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- Bluehost contributes developer resources to WP.org
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- Bluehost sponsors every WordCamp in the world
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- Bluehost is the premium hosting solution for WP
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- Bluehost is a Guided Transfer partner for wp.com
Capitalization:
WordPress
https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/capital_P_dangit
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