Proof of open source incline at SixApart

I happen to think SixApart's decision to make Movable Type 4 open source, under the GPL, is big news.

Once again, you have a major vendor being pushed down the open source incline, toward the GPL, by pressure from the marketplace. In this case, from WordPress.

WordPress is already open source. Some full disclosure is required. ZDNet blogs run on WordPress. My personal blog runs on Typepad, the hosted version of Movable Type.

While Rafe Needleman's piece on this emphasizes the importance of WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg, SixApart has its own guru in the background, Joi Ito. I have known Joi since 1985. Few have longer or more intimate knowledge of the online world than he does.

The company's founders, Ben and Mena Trott, are also considered blog industry pioneers, although the business has barely been around since the turn of the century.

Yet SixApart, with all that experience, felt moved to follow WordPress, the newbie. The money here is in the hosted space, where WordPress.Com has been taking big hunks of market share lately.

It seems people get used to a free package and then go to a paid service, not the other way around. Sometimes they upgrade into support-paying customers.

Rafe writes SixApart is also adding a "premium tier" to its Typepad accounts, hoping to keep more blogs as they grow up. There is nothing up yet about Typepad Premium, but the company has also added a Business Class license for enterprises.

Again, the lesson is clear. The market wants open source, and the market rules.