Teens in Tech Conference Friday, August 5, 2011

Open Source (and you can too)

Hi there! I’m @nacin. Open source web developer and evangelist.

I work for Matt Mullenweg, the founder of WordPress, at Audrey Capital.

Free and open source software.

Open source is about your rights and your freedoms.

Free as in speech, not as in beer.

Free as in speech, not as in beer. (Or soda.)

My story. (How I cut my teeth.)

1. Have idea. 2. Seek knowledge. 3. ??? 4. Profit.

2002 Databases

Never pass up an opportunity to learn.

You have to start somewhere.

2003 Community

You will one day be on a larger stage than you can handle.

Relish it.

2004 HTML & CSS

2005 ASP.NET

2006 Practicum

2007 The Web

2008 WordPress & PHP

Define yourself, but don’t restrict yourself.

Pursue your passions.

Pursue your passions wherever they lead.

Create a balance.

2009 Open source

Interact with the best.

Absorb. Learn.

It’s more than code.

It’s the community.

2010 WordPress core team

2011 What’s next?

It’s not about the technology.

It’s about an idea.

A passion.

At WordPress, our passion is web publishing.

Open source and entrepreneurship are not oil and water.

“Software is largely a service industry operating under the persistent but unfounded delusion that it is a manufacturing industry.”

— Eric S. Raymond “The Manufacturing Delusion,”

The Cathedral and the Bazaar (1997)  

You will use open source.

You should embrace it and contribute back.

Why?

Build an ecosystem.

Grow a network.

Become better.

Find new ideas.

Open source can be your résumé.

Thanks! — @nacin