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What Does David Heinemeier Hansson Say Is Wrong With a Benevolent Dictator for Life?

On Rework, David Heinemeier Hansson tells Matt Mullenweg that benevolent dictator for life is a bad way to govern open source. Wikipedia lists Hansson for Ruby on Rails and Mullenweg for WordPress, and Hansson says the label asks people to trust that a dictator will keep making good choices. He points to Richard Stallman and the free software movement as a case where that title hid real power that was later misused. He wants power in open source named and limited, not excused because anyone is allowed to fork the code.

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Open Source and Power with Matt Mullenweg ·

Rework

More from this episode

  1. Who Is WordPress Co-founder Matt Mullenweg?Matt Mullenweg introduces himself on Rework as the co-founder of WordPress, which he started in 2003, and as CEO of Automattic, the company he founded a few…
  2. What Does @DHH Find to Be So Wrong With the Internet TodayDavid Heinemeier Hansson finds that so much of the internet has been captured by the top ~10 companies, they get to dictate everything that happens on the…
  3. What Makes Podcasting Special on the Open InternetAlthough Apple has been a dominant player in the podcasting space, the RSS feed of a podcast is by default an open standard allowing anyone to participate.
  4. Matt Mullenweg Thinks WordPress Assumed Impact on Blogging Is Overrated, WhyMatt believes that blogging is larger than WordPress and includes places like Twitter and Instagram, so by having WP focus on one section of blogging doesn't…
  5. What Was Blogging Space Like When WordPress Was Just Getting StartedWhen WordPress came on the scene, there were already "too many" blogging platforms.
  6. How Much of the Web Does Matt Mullenweg Say WordPress Runs?Matt Mullenweg tells David Heinemeier Hansson that W3Techs looks at the top 10 million domains and finds about 34 percent running WordPress.
  7. What Makes the Open Source Web So BeautifulMatt says that Open Source does not prevent anyone from starting on it.
  8. Who Has the Power Over Open Source ProjectsDavid says that even if you were to fork Ruby on Rails and call it something like Snoopy on Pails , the chances of your project sticking around are very low.
  9. Does WordPress Have a Monopoly on BloggingNo one is forced to use WordPress, and there are now many different options.
  10. How Can Anyone Compete With a Dominant Open Source ProjectMatt says that WordPress itself was once a fork from another project.
  11. What Does David Heinemeier Hansson Really Think of the Monopolistic Behavior in TechWe are living through an era where a small handful of big tech companies are exerting a completely undue amount of power over the internet, over discourse…
  12. Does Matt Mullenweg Mind WordPress Running the Internet?Matt says that WordPress could get to 85% market share and it would not have any negative impact.
  13. How Is Wordpress Different Front Closed Source RivalsOpen Source platforms are fundamentally different from proprietary platforms and their adoption.
  14. Why Is One Leader Good for a Software Project?Although Matt doesn't love the terminology of "a Benevolent Dictator for Life," he does love some ideas behind it.
  15. How Is Automatic Going to Make Money From the Tumblr AcquisitionTumblr has a critical mass of people spending time there already, and by taking some of what Automatic loves about privacy and user-centricity and combining…

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