Ben Werdmuller helps leaders at newsrooms, non-profits, and mission-driven organizations to navigate their biggest technology challenges.
Technology
[Kate Knibbs at WIRED] This is an insightful interview with Bluesky CEO Jay Graber. The headline here overreaches quite a bit, and needlessly describes what Bluesky is doing in monopolistic terms; I left excited about what's next for the open social web, which I've believed for
AI
[Khari Johnson in The Markup] The Republican legislature is working on ensuring that AI is unencumbered by regulations or protections: "The moratorium, bundled in to a sweeping budget reconciliation bill this week, also threatens 30 bills the California Legislature is currently considering to regulate artificial intelligence, including one that
Democracy
[Mike Monteiro] Such a great piece about language, discrimination, and how we can avoid limiting our own thoughts. It's all delivered through the lens of the MSG scare in the 1970s, which turns out to have been pretty racist: "Monosodium Glutamate is a flavor enhancer. Like salt,
Startups
[Jen Dennard at Startup Soup] A culture of open, direct feedback is important for any organization to foster. Jen Dennard has some great tips here: "Like most things, the key to getting the value is to make it a habit. Set aside time during 1:1s or make a
Corey Ford just launched his new consultancy, Point C, and I couldn’t be more excited. He’s changed my professional life — more than once — through a kind of empathy-driven coaching I’ve never found anywhere else. He didn’t ask me to write this post, but I feel compelled
Technology
[Tom Warren at The Verge] File under: beware proprietary APIs. "Microsoft is shutting off access to its Bing Search results for third-party developers. The software maker quietly announced the change earlier this week, noting that Bing Search APIs will be retired on August 11th and that “any existing instances
Notable links
[Joshua Kaplan, Brett Murphy, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski at ProPublica] From my colleagues on the newsroom side at ProPublica, a story about how the State Department pressured Gambia on behalf of Elon Musk's starlink: "Starlink, Musk’s satellite internet company, had spent months trying to secure
Science
[Patricia Cohen in The New York Times] This was inevitable: "As President Trump cuts billions of federal dollars from science institutes and universities, restricts what can be studied and pushes out immigrants, rival nations are hoping to pick up talent that has been cast aside or become disenchanted."
Notable links
[Erin In The Morning] Unsurprisingly, there are major flaws with the Cass Report - and an expert report in Springer Nature's BMC Medical Research Methodology puts a fine point on it. "The BMC study reviewed seven different facets of the Cass Review, and found that all seven
Fediverse
[Flipboard Expands Publisher Federation with International Partners] Flipboard just launched 124 new publishers to the Fediverse - bringing the total number it hosts to 1,241. "We’re excited to announce that Flipboard is beginning to federate publisher accounts in France, Italy, and Spain, while also expanding federation in
Notable links
[Mark Mansour] Stephen Miller, who the author rightly labels as the most dangerous person in America, has argued for removing a core constitutional right for millions of people on American soil. He wants to classify unauthorized immigration as an "invasion". It's insane, and is the precursor
Technology
[Shakeil Price at The Marshall Project] The technology situation for incarcerated people in the United States is beyond bad: "Because prison telecom vendors tend to bundle their services, corrections systems often contract with a single provider, regardless of quality. And dozens of states make “commissions” from user fees. Within