ReadWriteWeb

There is an intense debate brewing in the open source development community these days whose resolution could have widespread implications for the sharing and distribution of software. Matt Mullenweg, the founder of WordPress, disagrees with the way Chris Pearson, creator of a popular WordPress theme and framework, has chosen to distributed his product - a method he believes is against the rules and licenses WordPress operates under. The two seem to be unwaveringly at odds, which could mean a lawsuit is on the horizon, but what would that mean for free software distribution?

Automattic, the makers of WordPress.com, have introduced VaultPress, a plugin to plug the backup gap.

Users of WordPress' hosted service have their blogs backed up automatically (so to speak). So if something goes pear-shaped, the content is caught before it hits the ground. However, if you use a self-hosted version of the software you must back up your content yourself, and heaven help you if you forget.

We posted yesterday about Wordpress.com founder Matt Mullenweg and his view that cloud computing is marketing speak.

The conversation followed a significant Wordpress.com outage. In our research looking into the role that cloud computing played, we discovered a lot of discussions about backing up your Wordpress.com account.

One method looks especially interesting.

If you procrastinated on applying for TechStars Boston and missed Monday night's deadline but still want to attend a TechStars event, their summer program in Boulder, Colorado is now accepting applications.

TechStars is a highly competitive funding and mentoring program based in Boston, Boulder and Seattle that helps young startups jump-start their businesses. Their impressive list of over 50 mentors includes Wordpress founder Matt Mullenweg, venture capitalist Fred Wilson and Foundry Group director Brad Feld.

When you launch a make or break initiative like Windows Azure, you better get it right.

Well, from our vantage point, Microsoft got it right. How? In front of a sea of developers at the Professional Developers Conference, Microsoft trotted out a group of geek all-stars who showed how they are using Azure to do some pretty cool stuff.

Matt Mullenweg's Automattic is quickly becoming the new media conglomerate to be reckoned with.

The parent company behind WordPress, Automattic has been strategically scooping up hot web properties over the past couple years, from its acquiring Gravatar in 2007 to its purchasing Intense Debate, PollDaddy, and BuddyPress in 2008 and Blo.gs this year. Its latest buy is After the Deadline, a natural-language spell-checking plugin for WordPress and TinyMCE.

Yesterday in the gorgeous Nebraska sunshine, about 300 techies, entrepreneurs, and creatives from all over the country gathered in a large but simple room to learn, listen, and make connections.

The one-day, one-track show was just a hashtag to some and entirely unknown to others; still, the pre-show buzz on Twitter and in various blogs had resonated with freshness, immediacy, and inspiration. A week before it opened, the first-ever BIGOmaha conference was sold out.

While Matt Mullenweg was in France for WordCamp Paris 2009, the team from ReadWriteWeb France took the opportunity to catch up with him and ask him a few questions about open source, WordPress, and the future.