WCEH Keynote: Dave Winer

It’s our great pleasure to introduce Dave Winer as a keynote speaker for WordCamp Canada.

Dave has been a pioneering force whose contributions have shaped the very fabric of the open web. From his earliest work in blogging software to his enduring impact on syndication, podcasting, and content ownership, Dave’s influence has been foundational.

WordCamp has always celebrated the freedom, creativity, and community fueling WordPress — and few individuals embody these values more fully than Dave Winer. As the architect of indispensable publishing tools and a stalwart defender of decentralization, his work has empowered creators worldwide to shape their own online presence and control their digital destinies.

“It’s really all about getting enough people to do something the same way so that a new medium emerges.”

Dave Winer

Veteran Technologist & Visionary

Dave grew up in Queens, New York and graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 1972. Degrees in Mathematics (Tulane) and Computer Science (UW Madison) followed. Dave became a software developer, entrepreneur, and writer whose early innovations include outliner tools and scripting environments like Frontier and Radio UserLand. He started two Silicon Valley companies, wrote for Wired, and has been a Fellow at Harvard and NYU.

Champion of the Open Web & Decentralized Platforms

An outspoken advocate for user control and distributed systems, Dave has always championed interoperability over centralized silos. His “EC2 for Poets” project demystified servers, empowering everyday users to host personal content — free from corporate gatekeepers.

Acclaimed Influencer & Thought Leader

Recognized by InfoWorld as one of the “Top Ten Technology Innovators” (2002) and awarded WIRED Tech Renegade in 2001, Dave continues to publish daily through Scripting News.

Architect of the Blogosphere & RSS

Scripting News began in 1994 — before “blog” was a common term. It helped define what blogging would become. He designed the original RSS specification in December 1997 and led the evolution through RSS 0.92 into the widely used RSS 2.0, which became the syndication backbone embraced byThe New York Times — and pretty much everyone else.

Creator of a New Social Medium

Dave added the enclosure element to RSS and OPML in 2000 as part of the creation of an entirely new medium with software. RSS directly enabled the blogging and podcasting revolution as well as the rise of the CMS — not simply because it was great software, but because it enabled people to use it socially, and they did.

RSS is social at its core and in its intention. It enabled our most convivial tools — tools fit for human use, unlike so many that have followed. The success of independent, digital publishing that is truly our own grew out of and through the relationships that code for people — and people coding together — enabled at conferences like WordCamps.

It is not a stretch to say that we have a WordPress community and conferences like WordCamp Canada thanks to Dave. In his words, “It’s really all about getting enough people to do something the same way so that a new medium emerges.”

That creative ferment from people getting together was happening in 1995, and it is still happening in 2025. Come be part of it — the future of the Open Web — at WordCamp Canada.

Get your tickets, bring your curiosity, and join us in Ottawa this fall for an unforgettable celebration of WordPress, community, and the open web! 🌐

🎟️ Tickets are on sale now, and we’ve secured discount rates for you at area hotels. 🏨

Further Reading:

• The Blogosphere is in full bloom. The rest of the internet has wilted. (The Guardian)
• Learning from Dave Winer (Joel Spolsky)
• 30 Years of Dave Winer’s Seminal Blog, Scripting News (John Gruber)
• Dave Winer’s 30 years of blogging, and much more (Dan Gillmor)
• RSS came from the publishing industry (Dave Winer)
• RSS: A Well Formed Log Entry (Jay Hoffman)
• What is RDF? (Josh Tauberer)
• rss-is-dead.lol (h/t Molly White)