Introducing 10up’s Open Source Practice
Jeff Paul on
10up aims to make a better web through finely crafted websites, innovative tools for content creators, and open-source contributions that drive growth. As a leading contributor to WordPress and the greater open-source community, the creation and sharing of open platforms and tools is a large part of our identity.
The establishment of an official Open Source Practice within 10up demonstrates our commitment to advance open-source technology, lead by example, and grow the community of which we are proud to be a part and upon whose shoulders we stand.
We have long utilized employee downtime between client projects for open-source contribution. Earlier this year, I joined the team as Open Source Practice Manager. I work most closely with Helen Hou-Sandí, our Director of Open Source Initiatives, and Adam Silverstein, a Lead Open Source Initiatives Engineer, both of whom primarily focus on open source and contribution. That core team is augmented by additional 10uppers, some of whom have dedicated recurring time carved out for open source initiatives, and some of whom join our efforts for discrete projects. Collectively, 10up invests more than 350 hours every month into our open source initiatives.
Open-Source Ethos
10up’s Open Source Practice is committed to the cultivation of a vibrant and healthy open source ecosystem — an ecosystem that played a central role in the growth of the web and 10up’s own continuing success story. In practice, we contribute to impactful open-source initiatives and communities to improve and help ensure the long-term viability of vital tools that fuel creative and innovative projects. From adding MathML support to Google AMP to releasing our Engineering Best Practices as an open-source project, we strive to strengthen open-source platforms and empower global creators.
The Open Source Practice also serves as a place inside of 10up to experiment with emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning, to understand how we can best advance forward-thinking content creators and bring exciting technologies into the open source ecosystem.
Many of our open-source efforts support WordPress, 10up’s preferred website platform and the world’s leading open-source content management system, powering more than one-third of all websites. To help advance the long term success of WordPress in the enterprise, we contribute to WordPress core and develop our own projects and plugins. Our own open projects are most often inspired by recurring needs and patterns we see across 10up clients, and sometimes even begin as customer solutions. When applicable and allowed, these solutions are prepared for release as open source to benefit the broader community. Some highlights include:
- Distributor: A WordPress plugin that makes it easy to syndicate and reuse content across your websites — whether in a single multisite network or across the web.
- ElasticPress.io: The only fully-integrated, end-to-end SaaS solution for adding the power of Elasticsearch to a WordPress site.
- ClassifAI: A WordPress plugin that leverages leading cloud-based services like IBM Watson and Microsoft Azure AI to augment WordPress-powered websites with artificial intelligence and machine learning technology.
A Vision For The Future
10up believes in an open, collaborative internet, and our structured open source team puts those values into practice. In the coming months, we will share our open source best practices, which we hope can serve as a model for other organizations looking to structure their investment in open-source.
To learn more about our project roadmaps and get a close up look at our open source initiatives, check us out on GitHub. If you are interested in open-sourcing your work and would like support, let’s have a conversation — we love consulting with companies on how to help them contribute tools and solutions to the open source ecosystem.
If you want to work for a company that cares about open source and makes amazing projects and tools for WordPress, come work with us!