Ryan McCue

What’s Fair is FAIR

In this talk, Ryan McCue, Director of Product at Human Made and Altis, introduces the FAIR Project — an initiative to make WordPress more secure, independent, and future-proof by reducing its reliance on wordpress.org. FAIR stands for Federated and Independent Repositories, a new model designed to decentralize WordPress’s software supply chain, improve transparency, and give the global open-source community shared governance over critical infrastructure.

Ryan outlines FAIR’s mission to establish technical independence for WordPress — ensuring it can function without depending on a single entity — and to create a federated package management system that empowers plugin and theme developers to distribute their work safely from multiple trusted sources. Through FAIR, projects like technical independence and package management aim to replace outdated or opaque systems (such as Browse Happy and Ping-o-Matic) with modern, privacy-respecting, standards-based solutions.

He also demonstrates how FAIR takes inspiration from the decentralized structure of the web itself: multiple repositories, multiple “search engines” (discovery aggregators), and open participation — all without a central authority. This approach ensures resilience, transparency, and choice for developers and users alike, moving WordPress closer to a sustainable, independent ecosystem that aligns with the open-source ethos.

What You’ll Learn

  • What the FAIR Project is — a decentralized initiative under The Linux Foundation to make WordPress more secure and independent.
  • Why WordPress needs FAIR — the risks of relying on wordpress.org, a privately owned site not part of the official WordPress Foundation.
  • How FAIR ensures “technical independence” — replacing WordPress.org dependencies like plugin and theme updates, version checks, and data collection systems.
  • How “package management” works in FAIR — creating a federated plugin and theme ecosystem that supports multiple repositories and improves security and user experience.
  • Real-world privacy and functionality improvements — including new approaches to browser checks, indexing, and plugin updates that protect user data.
  • The decentralized vision for WordPress’s future — where multiple repositories, discovery engines, and open standards empower users, developers, and hosts without central control.