WordPress is a free content management system (CMS). It was created in May 2003 as a platform to create and manage blogs. The WordPress code is open which allows plenty of programmers from around the world to expand its possibilities. Today WordPress covers the following: blogs, advanced websites, stores and much more.
The Beginnings
History of WordPress – the Beginnings of WordPress date back to 2001, when Michel Valdrighi utilized the PHP and MySQL languages to write a blogging script under the working title of B2/Cafelog. It was made available on the web, and one of the people interested in it turned out to be Matt Mullenweg, who wished to share the pictures taken by himself through his own server that would support technologies utilized in Valdrighi’s script.
Even though the script creator was not interested in further developing it at first, over the months Mullenweg decided to create a blogging platform based on B2/Cafelog on his own. He had his friend Mike Little help him with that, and after some time also the script’s creator, Michel Valdrighi, who got interested in developing a tool based on the draft of his works. It is worth noting that Matt Mullenweg was only 19 at the time and was a student at the University of Houston.
After many months of works on creating a functional and easy to use blogging platform, the most basic version of the system was created: WordPress 0.70. One of the people who got interested about the tool was Mike Tatum – an individual working at the CNET company, which is considered capable of flawlessly predicting technological trends for the upcoming years. He met the representative of the fledgling WordPress in San Francisco and offered him a job. The existing members of the team, on top of developing their tool, were also working their regular jobs at the same time, and as they mention themselves, developing the system only took them about 20% of the overall work time.
The turning point
The Crucial year for WordPress’ development was 2004. It was then when a competitive system named Movable Type changed the type of license entered into by its users and in turn also the conditions of using their tool, driving many Internet users away. Most of the web enthusiasts at the time moved their activity to WordPress, thus popularizing the system created by Valdrighi and Mullenweg. It turned out to be a great alternative, as this tool was not only free but also open source.
A year later Matt Mullenweg quit his job at CNET in favor of his own newly opened company Automattic, which focused on distribution of Open Source software, generating regular profits and enabling further development of WordPress. The tactic chosen by one of the creators turned out to be beneficial – in 2007 WordPress won a prestigious award in the Open Source CMS category. The development of tools offered by the Automattic company allowed it to acquire other profitable systems and add them to their offer.
WordPress today
WordPress is definitely the leader among CMS solutions. It is free and available to everyone. The message boards are very active, which makes it easy to find solutions to problems or doubts, and the documentation is easily available. WordPress is intuitive to use, it offers a lot of plugins and templates. The plugins and templates are constantly being developed by the community built around this CMS, which also focuses on translating it to local languages. It allows people who know nothing about programming to create professional websites and blogs. In 2008 the layout of the WordPress administrative panel (dashboard) started resembling the one we know today.
