The Founder of WordPress and CEO of Automattic had a pretty fun inception moment when he joined the TBPN livestream in the middle of the 2025 edition of State of the Word. Sharing the future of personal, open source communication through Beeper, the release of WordPress 6.9, and the state of links on the internet in the age of AI, a fun question was posed to Matt by the hosts of TBPN: What is the word of the year?
The word of the year is freedom.
Matt Mullenweg
Matt responded with a great word, in my opinion. The more and more we consume digital media and play with software that is being created at an unprecedented rate, freedom to publish content and build open source software is the way to take ownership of the internet.
Now is the time to buy your own domain. Build a blog or website. Secure your own corner of the internet and curate it the way you want. Websites might just become the only place you can build meaningful relationships online.
Engage in comment sections on blogs, create forums with bbPress, or start groups with BuddyPress. Use the Friends plugin and join the Fediverse. Join or start an experience that you want to be a part of.
Dueling Live Streams
I’ve never seen a dual live stream before. This was a pretty interesting opportunity to view the same conversation from two perspectives. This is actually my first introduction to TBPN, the so-called SportsCenter for TechBros. I like it!
TBPN Stream
State of the Word 2025
WordPress 6.9 Highlights
My two favorite additions in WordPress 6.9 are the stretchy text variation for headings and paragraphs and block notes.
The stretchy heading is a nice, easy way to add some visual style to your site with text. Our Automattic Special Projects team pioneered this block, and I’m so excited to see it find its way into WordPress Core.
Cool Heading
using the stretchy feature
I’ve said it many times. As a former writing instructor, I want WordPress to replace Google Docs. With commenting in this release and collaboration coming soon, we’re so much closer.
I’ve been working with WordPress for 10 years now, and I’m more excited about it now than ever before. We have such a bright future ahead, and I’m hopeful the next generation adopts the same open source ethos that I was introduced to in grad school and dives head first into WordPress. With the current state of WordPress and the advent of AI, it’s more approachable than ever.
Start building.
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