Lots of typical TechCrunch mistakes when covering open source, though. They always think open source projects are "companies". Related example: every single TC article on WordPress seems to say that Automattic is the owner of WP.
Yes, the secret sauce here is potentially Automattic. With WordPress.com, Gravatar and a substantial hold on WordPress.org, they have a rare opportunity to create a centralized platform.
Yes, it's plausible and that's the main thrust of the argument.
I'm not even sure Matt M. has a clear idea of how the direction this might play out but it might be like this:
- build a huge set of site running the same codebase (done)
- start to connect them on the admin level (doing)
- start to connect the on the user-facing level (starting)
True, and BuddyPress has a history with Automattic.
Even more simply, to create a powerful identity platform, they'd probably just need to improve the Public Profile area on WordPress.com.
At the moment there's just First Name, Last Name, Public Display Name, About Us and Gravatar (another Automattic product and the key image identity platform for the web)
Yes, there's definitely very few UI changes between D7 and D8 ... so sitebuilders should feel right at home.
However, everything has changed in the codebase, so developers have a lot of learning to do.