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In the opening keynote of RubyConf 2018, titled "The Power of The Community," Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto shares his journey of creating the Ruby programming language and highlights the significance of its community. Matz discusses how he began programming as a teenager, initially frustrated with the limitations of BASIC. He later discovered other languages and developed a passion for creating his own programming language.

Key points include:

- **Early Experiences**: Matz recounts his early experiences with programming and his initial inspirations that led to the creation of Ruby.
- **Community Formation**: After Ruby's development in 1993, Matz formed a mailing list that fostered early community engagement, highlighting the importance of user feedback in shaping the language.
- **Evolution of Ruby**: Ruby grew from initial obscurity to widespread adoption, cited by major companies like Twitter, Netflix, and Airbnb. The community’s contributions, such as Unicode support and generational garbage collection, were essential in this evolution.
- **Open Source Philosophy**: Matz emphasizes the difference between traditional and open-source communities, describing the latter as collaborative yet less structured, driving innovation through shared knowledge and voluntary contributions.
- **Community Engagement**: The growth of Ruby is attributed to a friendly and supportive community that encourages participation. Matz insists that continuous innovation is vital to retain community interest and combat stagnation.
- **Future Aspirations**: Matz expresses excitement for upcoming features in Ruby 3, such as pattern matching and improved concurrency, while urging the community to remain committed to Ruby's ongoing development.

In conclusion, Matz views the community as the driving force behind Ruby's success, rather than the language itself, emphasizing the collective effort required to maintain and advance Ruby in the ever-evolving landscape of programming languages. He encourages attendees to collaborate and innovate for the future of Ruby, reinforcing that everyone plays a key role in its journey forward.

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