Designer / 2.5 Years at Automattic / Image Editor: Sketch / Code Editor: Sublime / Hudson, NY
Open Source is protection against tyranny.
Rick Banister
A12s
Thoughts on Open Source and what else gets us up in the morning (and a few favorite product designs too) by A12s are here for you to enjoy. FYI the numeronym for “Automattician” is A11n because there are eleven characters between ‘A’ and ‘n’ … so A8c is “Automattic” and A12s is how we abbreviate “Automatticians.”
Joan Rho
Marketing Designer / 1st Year at Automattic / Image Editor: Photoshop / Code Editor: Sublime Text / Brooklyn, New York, USA
Open Source is liberating—it encourages collaboration, celebrates experimentation, inspires new ideas, forgives mistakes, and rewards iteration. It’s humble and imperfect, but in the end it benefits everyone.
Matías Ventura
Hybrid: Designer & Engineer / 6 Years at Automattic / Image Editor: Photoshop / Code Editor: Sublime Text / Madrid, Spain / Montevideo, Uruguay
Open Source reflects the ethos of any fruitful age of humanity. It is, at its core, about the open dissemination of knowledge and expression; of acknowledging that nothing is created in a vacuum, and that our entire existence relies on building upon what others have laid before us. Every discipline, every art-form, every scientific theory, every tool and craft, every renaissance has developed thanks to the incalculable wealth and encouragement of the shared knowledge that humanity has built through the ages. The fabric of an open web relies on the same principles. It’s both a privilege and a responsibility to give more than what we take from the world and from the vast archives of human knowledge.
Shaun Andrews
5 Years at Automattic / Image Editor: Sketch (though I’ll always have a special place in my heart for Fireworks) / Code Editor: Sublime Text / Vestal, NY, USA
When I was about 11 years old, my dad traded a Mr. Coffee drip coffee maker for a Commodore 64. This changed my life. I scoured the local library for books with source code and slowly learned BASIC. A few years later, we upgraded to a Packard Bell PC. Around this time, we discovered the internet. Prodigy, then AOL, then the web. I still dream of dialup modem connection sounds.
The web, just like that old Commodore 64, completely changed my life. I was obsessed with how these interconnected pages of text could be used to tell stories, create communities, and just have a ton of fun. The View Source command, and the open nature of HTML (no CSS yet) replaced the library in my quest for knowledge. Seeing the code that powered the web fueled my career and life.
That underlying notion, that code deserves to be accessible to all, still drives me during my day-to-day work on Calypso and WordPress.com
Raoul Wegat
Product Designer / 1 Year at Automattic / Image Editor: Sketch / Code Editor: Atom / Coffs Harbour, Australia
Open Source is why we have the internet we have today. Open Source software drives almost everything; from server operating systems, to database software, to web server software, and even WordPress. But it’s more than just software. It’s an ethos of sharing, of collaborating, of people working together to make a difference. Open Source is the revolution you never saw coming.
Jan Cavan Boulas
Designer / 2 Years at Automattic / Image Editor: Photoshop / Code Editor: Sublime Text / Irvine, CA, USA
WordPress’ Open Source solution is important because it removed the barriers to entry for thousands of developers and designers to contribute and grow their careers in web development. As a result, entire tangential businesses have been formed from paid plugins to theme directory providers.
Mike Shelton
Product Designer / 1.5 Years at Automattic / Image Editor: Sketch / Code Editor: Sublime Text / Richmond, VA
Traditionally competition – among businesses, individuals – has been driven by exclusivity. Hoarding ideas and innovation in hopes of gaining an advantage. Open Source challenges that thinking by exploiting the power of shared knowledge, even among competitors. Everyone is trying to survive in business and in life, so why keep our individual struggles and successes private? Being open leads to an inclusive ecosystem, where many thrive and we can all grow exponentially.
Ian Stewart
Design Democratizer / 6.5 Years at Automattic / Image Editor: Adobe Illustrator / Code Editor: Sublime Text / Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Open Source software literally changed the path of my life. (That and the Web Standards Project.) When I first became interested in participating in design for the web, proprietary software was confusing and beyond my means. Worse still, it seemed like the only real tool for mastering a table-based design. That changed when I was able to make beautiful (well, at least to me) work using my favourite Open Source text editor and FTP client. I could make anything I wanted and distribute it to the world. That was amazing for me. That was only compounded by being part of the community of people making WordPress where I was able to not only take advantage of, but participate in the creation of Open Source tools. Why is Open Source important? It makes a real and positive change in real people’s lives around the world. From the people using the tools, to the people building them, and the people using Open Source software that will be building it tomorrow.
Michelle Langston
WordPress Striker / 5 Years at Automattic / Image Editor: Sketch + Photoshop / Code Editor: Coda / San Francisco Bay Area, USA / Design.blog Issue No. 4 Designer
Open Source is important because at the crux, it’s people creating and building for the people. Because open source is not governed by external interests, we have the opportunity to do things that we never get to do otherwise. Look at WordPress and all that it has spawned as one shining example. By its very nature, open source software provides an abundance of real-life learning material for aspiring coders and designers. Open Source brings people from all backgrounds together. This gives us a chance to approach design and development from multiple perspectives right at the start. Our personal experiences and perspectives are only one part of the whole. One cause that I am privately championing is to truly listen to people. I think listening to what someone has to say, and understanding where they’re coming from goes a long way toward helping them feel heard and that their life experience and voice matters.
Jeff Golenski
Design Tactician on Jetpack / 3rd Year at Automattic / Image Editor: Lightroom+Sketch+Photoshop / Code Editor: Sublime Text / New Bedford, Massachusetts, USA
Open Source is an idea. An idea in which everything is freely available, can be used by anyone, and can be evolved with the help of anyone. It’s a collaborative effort with no central ownership. In my opinion, Open Source is one of the greatest ideas ever conceived because it exists to drive humanity forward – to help people create something today that didn’t exist yesterday, with little or no restrictions. It’s an important value for us at Automattic because, in a way, it inherently brings people together by creating a community based upon common goals.
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