Jay Allen joins Six Apart
Comments: 5
A hearty congratulations to Jay Allen and Six Apart! Jay will be joining the company as Product Manager (and together, I suspect, they shall rule the world).
This site has been using MT since its release nearly 3 years ago, and I have to say it’s been a real if vicarious buzz watching the software and the company go from strength to strength. Bravo! And here’s to many more years of even greater success.
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Posted to The Good • 2004.10.09 (Sat) • 12:11
Comments
Posted by David 2004.10.09, 14:42
Whoa, that’s amazing!
It’s quite disconcerting to see just how many excellent MT coders/bloggers Six Apart is stealing away - first Anil Dash, then Brad Choate, and now Jay Allen?!
My regards go out to Wordpress, of course, but I can’t see how they can match the efforts of such sheer talent (^_^)
Posted by Jay Allen 2004.10.13, 23:02
David, thanks for the kind words. To add some balance though, Wordpress can “compete” (more on that in a second) just fine by sheer numbers and its open source nature where anyone and everyone can pitch in to help make the software better. That’s not to say that people can’t submit patches and modifications to Six Apart, but with Wordpress, you see your results immediately without a gatekeeper.
Honestly though, there is more than enough room in the world for both Open Source (word caps there) software and Commercial software. Six Apart (et al) is paid by its customers to maintain, improve and innovate. Wordpress (et al) is directly driven by the dedication of hundreds or thousands of its users.
There are cases where Open Source is preferable, those where Commercial software is better and those where either one will work just fine. Much ado is made of this so-called “competition” by a vocal interested minority and others who simply see the world in black and white but it is my long-time belief (although not necessarily those of my new employer, mind you) that Movable Type and Wordpress are not competitors, but instead two complementary forces in the same movement: That of enabling and exponentially growing the personal publishing phenomenon.
Really, we all win.
Posted by Kevin LaCoste 2004.10.19, 00:42
While Anil, Brad and Jay seem to be great hires for 6A I have to ask, did these guys ever produce anything for WordPress? If not then I don’t see how their movement in any way affects WP. They probably would have continued to work on their preferred system on the payroll or off.
Posted by Mark J 2004.10.19, 08:31
Kevin, I think you have the right idea. Those talented people and others were contributing to MT directly and indirectly when they weren’t employees. I think the only difference now is that instead of strong outside influencers, they can more readily impliment their ideas into the product.
This doesn’t at all signal doom for WordPress. If anything, the efforts of the new hires for MT will give inspiration to WP contributers. I think that in many ways, the two projects have positively influenced each other more than they’ve “competed.”
Posted by Amit Karmakar 2004.10.19, 15:27
That was summed up really well Jay. And congrats on joining 6A. Every piece of software has its own intended use and its own intended audience. The sooner we don’t see it as competition, the more there is room for further development and collaboration.
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