Ben Werdmuller

Unions work

The Writer’s Guild of America seems to have received everything it asked for: Delivering on issues that many scribes saw as core to their profession, the deal contains big leaps in AI guardrails, residuals and data transparency for writers — leaps that could be transplanted into the upcoming negotiations between

NotableLinks

Britain’s attitude to refugees shows, once again, that it’s a colonial nation

"Hostile immigration policy stokes racism but the foundation it builds upon itself is racist and maintains a 'colonial present'. Through dealing with migrants like pests, who deserve to be locked away in a prison barge, the British government continues to ignore the fact that, “Borders maintain hoarded

NotableLinks

In defense of aggressive small-town newspapers

This: "The prevalence of “news deserts” has apparently led some to think it’s normal for neighborhood news outlets to function as lapdogs rather than watchdogs." The purpose of journalism is to investigate in the public interest.  #Media [Link]

NotableLinks

Optimizing for Taste

A solid argument against A/B testing. A lot of it comes down to this: "It fosters a culture of decision making without having an opinion, without having to put a stake in the ground. It fosters a culture where making a quick buck trumps a great product experience.

NotableLinks

Failing Without Knowing Why: The Tragedy Of Performative Content

Thought-provoking for me: particularly as someone who thinks through ideas through writing. But perhaps that writing doesn't need to be in public, in front of an audience.  #Business [Link]

NotableLinks

FTC Sues Amazon for Illegally Maintaining Monopoly Power

"Amazon’s ongoing pattern of illegal conduct blocks competition, allowing it to wield monopoly power to inflate prices, degrade quality, and stifle innovation for consumers and businesses." Whatever happens here, it will be meaningful. It's also nice to see the FTC actually wielding its antitrust powers.

NotableLinks

In the AI Age, The New York Times Wants Reporters to Tell Readers Who They Are

I think this is the right impulse: people tend to follow and trust individual journalists, not publications. Building out profiles and establishing more personal relationships helps build that trust.  #Media [Link]

NotableLinks

Counting Ghosts

"Web analytics sits in the awkward space between empirical analysis and relationship building, failing at both, distracting from the real job to be done: making connections, in whatever form that means for our project."  #Media [Link]

NotableLinks

Meredith Whittaker reaffirms that Signal would leave UK if forced by privacy bill

Signal on UK privacy law: "We would leave the U.K. or any jurisdiction if it came down to the choice between backdooring our encryption and betraying the people who count on us for privacy, or leaving." Good.  #Technology [Link]

NotableLinks

Publisher wants $2,500 to allow academics to post their own manuscript to their own repository – Walled Culture

The open access movement is an important way academics can fight back against predatory publishers for the good of human knowledge everywhere - but the publishers are still out there, grifting.  #Media [Link]

NotableLinks

U.S. Counterintel Buys Access to the Backbone of the Internet to Hunt Foreign Hackers

"The news is yet another example of a government agency turning to the private sector for novel datasets that the public is likely unaware are being collected and then sold."  #Technology [Link]

Parenting in the age of the internet

I learned to read and write on computers. Our first home computer, the Sinclair ZX81, had BASIC shortcuts built into the keyboards: you could hit a key combination and words like RUN, THEN, and ELSE would spit out onto the screen. I wrote a lot of early stories using those