Even though WordPress already has a large selection of themes, it looks like the WP masters were not thrilled with what they currently had in their inventory.

In order to help widen the selection of themes available, Automattic is launching “The Theme Team” which they hope will attract more quality theme developers as well as more themes for WP.com and WP.org.

I’m super-excited to announce to you today that WordPress.com now has an official Theme Team. In a nutshell, we’re a bunch of people who really care about WordPress Themes and want to see them get better and better—on WordPress.com and for every WordPress.org user. And yes, that means we’re getting more themes, more often. [...] read more

Matt Mullenweg has, in an attempt to clear the confusion with themes and the GPL license they might or might not inherit from WordPress, contacted the Software Freedom Law Center, who was instrumental in creating the GPL version 3 license. The reply, which is presented as a whole in the wordpress.org blog, basically says that while CSS and images might not be “tainted” by the GPL license, the template files surely are since they load WordPress functions and rely on them to work. read more

The hub of all things WordPress, as in the kind you install on your own, is wordpress.org. There’s both a plugin and a theme directory there, and the latter has now gotten some commercial (aka premium) themes treatment. However, the new page merely lists some resellers of commercial GPL themes, so this is not the marketplace a lot of people has been waiting for.

Some of them you may pay for access, some of them are membership sites, some may give you the theme for zero-cost and just charge for support. What they all have in common is people behind them who support open source, WordPress, and its GPL license.

If you’re selling GPL themes for WordPress you can get listed, just scroll down to the bottom of the page. Personally, I think the themes should be hosted on wordpress.org so that they got automatic updates and so on, but that’s a whole other story. I do hope this is just the first step of many in this area, but we’ll see. An official blog post has yet to outline this addition, which might or might not have been up for some time, I really can’t tell.

Premium themes marketplace WooThemes are changing things, going GPL on all themes, and launches a theme club, along with the WooCamp blog. There’s a bunch of membership options for the themes club, and the whole site got a makeover. More will follow. It is hip to be GPL these days. read more

WordPress 2.8 News: The final stages of development, testing, and patching is underway for the release of WordPress 2.8. The latest news on the next version of WordPress includes: read more

Some Administration Panel Redesigns in WordPress 2.8: While WordPress committed to no changes in the WordPress Administration Panels interface, there will be a few minor tweaks. In “Design Tweaks: Who’s In? (An idea in three acts),” Jane Wells explains that your help is wanted to redesign the header area of the interface. UX and design guidelines have been posted and you are welcome to have your input until Tuesday, April 27, 2009. The submissions will be offered for voting for only one day due to the pressure to get WordPress 2.8 released.

WordPress 2.8 News: The final stages of development, testing, and patching is underway for the release of WordPress 2.8. The latest news on the next version of WordPress includes: read more

WordPress 2.8 Has-Patch Marathon: Jane Wells announced The Super-Awesome WordPress 24-Hour Has-Patch Marathon to attack 500 active tickets on WordPress 2.8. The invitation included developers, hackers, and coders to dig into the code of WordPress and fix all kinds of things and test them from April 16-17. We’re awaiting results of the marathon.

TalkPress: Imagine combining the architecture behind WordPress.com with bbPress. The end result is TalkPress. In a recent announcement on the bbPress blog, Sam Bauers explained that TalkPress is going to be a hosted forum service using bbPress with the HyperDB extension for WordPress to create a WordPressMU style network of bbPress forums. It is currently being tested by corporations such as Time’s Health.com site. read more

New WordPress Widgets API Feedback Wanted: The WordPress developers are seeking testers and feedback on the new Widgets API which will be released with WordPress 2.8.

Time to Say Bye-Bye to Kubrick? Weblog Tools Collection asks if it is time for Kubrick to retire. Known as the Default WordPress Theme that comes with every installation of WordPress, many have been calling for a replacement.

Integrating bbPress with BuddyPress: While many are working with WordPressMU to integrate bbPress, Trent Adams writes about integrating bbPress with BuddyPress. read more

WordPress 2.8 News and Development: The WordPress Development team has confirmed that WordPress 2.8 will be released in April. Articles and features worth noting on WordPress 2.8 development include: read more

The Google Summer of Code^TM 2009 is on and applications for the WordPress aspect of the project is in full swing with student applications now being accepted.

In a comical typical dialog between a son, desperately trying to explain web technology and terminology to a father, thrilled his son might get paid for what he’s long considered was “time wasting computer stuff,” Jane Wells of Automattic spells out some of the basics of this year’s WordPress Summer of Code 2009. read more