The logo you see here belongs to The Open Source Initiative … or it did until we cleverly dropped a WordPress logo into it. That’s a “derivative work” conversation and a matter for another day. Today’s subject is Open Source, a bit about what it means, why it matters to WordPress, and what happens when “WordPress Open Source” becomes a conversation.

WordPress is open source software. Without attempting to get into the nitty-gritty of the legalities that means that you are allowed to download, deconstruct, and Frankenstein WordPress to your heart’s content. We’ll stop on the definition of WordPress Open Source right there.

Members of the old-school WordPress Community (WordPressers?) love to talk about WordPress Open Source issues, and seem to believe more in the rules than the “open” part. Our trials and travails getting cozy with them are well-documented. Now, as we prepare for the resolution of the issues that some folks have seen as us encroaching on The WordPress No-Parking Zone, we find ourselves engaging more and more with the folks we were ticking off a few months back.

Today we came across a piece by Pippin Williamson, a guy who keeps cranking out an impossibly high volume of high-quality WordPress plugins. And we jumped in; Pippin is espousing WordPress Open Source ideals, but he’s blocked us from following his pearls of wisdom on Twitter.

Or had. As it turns out, Pippin had intended to mute us, but blocked us by mistake. You can read our back-and-forth by following the link below.

This story matters for a couple of reasons.

First, kudos to Pippin Williamson. When engaged, he not only replied but replied in a thought-out, intelligent way. Second, and of far greater importance than our personal and professional admiration for Pippin, is this:

[clickToTweet tweet=”WordPress Open Source: the OPEN part isn’t just about software.” quote=”You Can’t Have Open-Source Unless You Commit To Open Communication”]

And that doesn’t even account for the fact that even smart people like Pippin don’t know muting from blocking on Twitter. We didn’t get it either, Pippin!

Simple, right? Want to get Open with The WordPress Helpers?