Automattic

Code for the People is the title of the new Automattic documentary about the open web, and while most people's attention lands on the first word, I know for a fact the one that matters is the last: people. We made that point at the New York screening. The panel afterward brought together four very different people. Bao Nguyen, the director, a storyteller who, by his own admission, knew nothing about open source before he was thrown into it. Anil Dash, who has spent years defending an open internet from the board of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Eric Binnion, who leads payments engineering at Automattic and has contributed to WordPress for years. And I, who spend my days thinking about what a domain name should tell you before you ever click on it. A filmmaker, an entrepreneur, an engineer, a product builder. That's the photo below. But we're all here for the same reason: to defend the thing we just spent an hour talking about. Open source software runs a huge share of the internet, but the software doesn't defend itself. People do that. Code for the People isn't really about the code. It's about the people who refuse to let it become someone else's property.

The open web is a vital, invisible utility, one we've quietly traded away for a handful of walled gardens. A small number of platforms now shape our digital spaces, using algorithms to steer human attention. As these gatekeepers tighten their grip, closed AI systems are reshaping the very nature of how we connect. We stand at a crossroads for our digital infrastructure: surrender control entirely, or reclaim the open-source spirit that built the web in the first place. Automattic exists to promote Open Source software and the Open Web. Code for the People is a documentary that tells the stories of the people fighting every day to keep the web open. It was directed by acclaimed filmmaker Bao Nguyen and shows what we stand to lose if we stop defending a free, diverse internet. It asks who really owns the network, and what purpose it's meant to serve. The film premiered in New York on July 1st, and screened in San Francisco on July 8th. It’s out today. Go check it out. - The web belongs to everyone. It's up to us to decide what comes next.

Most company culture documents are too long to remember and too vague to act on. The Automattic Creed is one page. It's been part of the company since the early days, and most people who've been around for a while can recite it without much prompting. Maybe not in the right order, maybe with two words swapped, but we know it. What makes it useful is that it's written as a series of personal commitments. First person, present tense. Not "we believe" but "I will." Three lines from the Creed are particularly alive right now, with the experiment we just kicked off across the company: "I will never stop learning." "I won't just work on things that are assigned to me." "I will never pass up an opportunity to help out a colleague." In 2026, the entire industry is going through a rewrite. The shape of the work, the tools, the speed at which things ship, none of it is what it was two years ago. If there's one thing I'm sure of, it's that we can't keep doing exactly what we did before. Culture is what gives you permission to act on that.