Nicol WistreichFeb 25

How many people know that #WordPress was co-founded by a black man, Mike Little?

Or that he's from the north of England? A self-taught coder from #Stockport, just south of #Manchester? Or that he never received so much as a share, cent or job offer from the $7bn+ valued Automattic after spending five months working exclusively with Matt Mullenweg on the B2 fork?

After @bevangelist told me about @mikelittle I interviewed him for a documentary I never got round to making. Back then I was left with two certainties: he's Wozniak to Mullenweg's Jobs. Among other things he added the one-click upgrade that's been central to WP's bonkers 45%-of-the-web-success. And he's one of the nicest people I've ever interviewed, which is also bonkers given that he not only didn't share in WP's financial success, but that he's barely known.

But he should be - so, better late than never - please meet #MikeLittle, perhaps the most-influential-least-known person in #foss… https://25.netribution.co.uk/nic/mike-little-the-british-co-founder-of-wordpress-youve-probably-never-heard-of/

Show threadMatt Mascarenhas
@nicol @bevangelist @mikelittle What on Earth? I'm from Stockport too, and sorry to say this is the first time I've heard of you, Mike!
Feb 25 at 6:03pmWeb
Show threadNicol WistreichFeb 26
@miblo that's crazy! I also feel I should know the answer to this, but what does a video indexer do? Is it creating time-synched metadata? Transcriptions?
Show threadMatt MascarenhasFeb 26

@nicol Hehe, ikr! Further parallels with Mike's story: ZX Spectrum was very first computer I used; typing BASIC in from magazines (although it didn't sink in for me, probably too young); and later the continuous-upgrading in my own software works exactly as Mike describes WordPress's. Really beautiful interview!

Aww, cheers for asking. Yeah, time-synched metadata is bang on, I'd say. Example of it at https://guide.handmadehero.org/code/day667/

There's the basic textual summary, but also categories and references.

Simplified Tile Occupancy Checking  —  Handmade Hero  —  Episode Guide  —  Handmade Hero

Show threadNicol WistreichFeb 27

@miblo I remember typing it in from an Usbourne book I think but I never had much patience!

That’s really interesting about the indexing - the other two interviews we published this last month I used Hyperaudio on for time-synchro metadata, and it was quite a faff. First getting the subtitles file via Vimeo, then correct, then converting it, then going thru and making the questions bold with breaks and paragraph returns as needed.. https://25.netribution.co.uk/nic/cath-le-couteur-on-digital-utopias-closing-shooting-people-film-collectives-the-future/.

Must have taken me near a day - so I didn’t do it for Mike! A long time ago I used Pocorn.js to add all sorts of synched info to some vids, that seemed to go out of fashion, but was useful.

Web pioneer Cath Le Couteur on digital utopias, closing Shooting People, film collectives & the future.

> "I'm not an anti-tech person. Shooters was built on technology. But I am mindful that we want technology that doesn't extract, technology that enables people." Long before social networks and smart phones in the mid-90s, Cath entered the world's first cyber-cafe in Soho, London to message a cyber

Netribution @ 25
Show threadMatt MascarenhasFeb 27

@nicol Ooh yeah, very cool! Transcription actually came up in my degree, and I seem to recall activities taking me 10× the material's duration! (Pic attached.)

Last I knew Vimeo actually had built-in support for chapter points – just the basic textual summary – which I guess you may add for Cath's interview based on all the timing you've done. And, btw, if you fancy my stuff I'm very available to do it for you! Vimeo supported.

(Also, the photoed BASIC book lives in my peripheral vision!)

Show threadNicol WistreichFeb 27

@miblo nice! I didn’t realise the history of BASIC till much later (tbh I thought it was a BBC Computer thing!). And that spreadsheet looks a lot of headache.

This is what I did with Popcorn for a family video https://visuali.st/bin/ewa/ - amazed it still works after maybe a decade. Always seemed like it would be good for tutorials or any lesson with accompanying text notes, but it never really took off it seems.

Who do you index for mostly? Podcasters?

Show threadMatt MascarenhasFeb 27

@nicol Aww yeah, really nice, and cheers so much for sharing such a personal video!

So far, it's all been for programmers. Handmade Hero-style live programming streams; conferences; more information-dense programming / presentation videos; a CAD project; we've had the odd interview too; even one "Book Club" project which was just a read-through of a book.

Oh yeah, now you mention this about BASIC, I actually recall spotting with curiosity that we could write it on both the Spectrum and 386.