The State of the Word is given each year at WordCamp San Francisco. It’s basically an address to the entire WordPress community from Matt Mullenweg, sharing some favorite moments from WordPress’s past and some looks into its future, and this year’s State of the Word did not disappoint. Fortunately, the video was published rather quickly this year, so those of you who missed it can enjoy it now.
Here are some highlights in no particular order:
- A survey was issued to the community, and out of 18,000 responses, 2,800 make their living through WordPress, and consultants charge an average of $58 per hour.
- This year, 22% of newly registered domains are running WordPress.
- Future versions will include a responsive admin interface which resizes perfectly on all screen sizes, even smart phones.
- Drag-and-drop media uploads are planned for a future version.
- Upcoming releases will feature a more guided experience for new users.
- All plugins and themes which have not been updated in the past 2 years will be hidden from search results on the official directories.
- This year’s community mission is to stamp out the Fauxgo.
It’s great to see tools like wordpress giving work to consultants. $58/hour isn’t too bad. It just goes to show open source can create markets.