I am an optimist, and I believe that people are inherently good and that if you give everyone a voice and freedom of expression, the truth and the good will outweigh the bad. So, on the whole, I think the power that online distribution confers is a positive thing for society. Online we can act as a fifth estate.

One thing about open source is that even the failures contribute to the next thing that comes up. Unlike a company that could spend a million dollars in two years and fail and there's nothing really to show for it, if you spend a million dollars on open source, you probably have something amazing that other people can build on.

My own personal dream is that the majority of the web runs on open source software.

The rise of broadband and growing ubiquity of Internet access excites me the most. The world changes a lot when, no matter where you are - in the middle of a deserted highway or in a bustling city - you can get high speed broadband access.

Usage is like oxygen for ideas. You can never fully anticipate how an audience is going to react to something you've created until it's out there.

It's good to work for someone else. Because then you appreciate it more when you are an entrepreneur.

Akismet started on a $70 dollar-a-month server. Anyone can scrape together $70.