In the story of WordPress –the tool that powers 45% of the web, including 10s of 1000s of film sites– Mike Little is Steve Wozniak to Matt Mullenweg's Steve Jobs.

Matt polished the interface, the marketing and curly quotes – while Mike added the blogroll, rebuilt the code, and added the one-click easy-upgrade that's been central to its success.

But unlike Woz, Mike never had shares in Matt's $7bn business – or even a job there. He didn't know you could make a living from WordPress until he turned up at the first UK WordCamp. He hasn’t been knighted or hall-of-famed, and isn’t known outside of old WordPress developer circles. Is this because he’s a cheerful and easy-going northerner from Stockport? Because he didn’t have a degree? Because he’s black? I don’t know. All I know for sure, is this is someone who anyone in tech, or who uses WordPress, should know about.

In the story of WordPress –the tool that powers 45% of the web, including 10s of 1000s of film sites– Mike Little is Steve Wozniak to Matt Mullenweg's Steve Jobs.

Matt polished the interface, the marketing and curly quotes – while Mike added the blogroll, rebuilt the code, and added the one-click easy-upgrade that's been central to its success.

But unlike Woz, Mike never had shares in Matt's $7bn business – or even a job there. He didn't know you could make a living from WordPress until he turned up at the first UK WordCamp. He hasn’t been knighted or hall-of-famed, and isn’t known outside of old WordPress developer circles. Is this because he’s a cheerful and easy-going northerner from Stockport? Because he didn’t have a degree? Because he’s black? I don’t know. All I know for sure, is this is someone who anyone in tech, or who uses WordPress, should know about.

The 2026 roadmap focuses on making WordPress easier to discover and interact with across the Fediverse. Key areas include better search and recommendations through FASP support, Starter Packs to help users find communities, a more interactive Reader with reactions and replies, direct messages, and client-to-server APIs. Alongside these, we’ll continue improving interoperability, long-form publishing, and overall federation features.

The 2026 roadmap focuses on making WordPress easier to discover and interact with across the Fediverse. Key areas include better search and recommendations through FASP support, Starter Packs to help users find communities, a more interactive Reader with reactions and replies, direct messages, and client-to-server APIs. Alongside these, we’ll continue improving interoperability, long-form publishing, and overall federation features.

Version 7.9.0 is a spring-cleaning release for ActivityPub for WordPress. Custom Fediverse emoji now render properly, profile and following blocks make it easier to build richer identity pages, and new health checks improve reliability. Alongside performance tweaks and many fixes, this update focuses on polish, stability, and smoother everyday federation.