Ben Werdmuller helps leaders at newsrooms, non-profits, and mission-driven organizations to navigate their biggest technology challenges.
General
Intersection: Publishing 2010 is a BarCamp which aims to discuss the future of publishing. There are a bunch of problems with the current models (for example, Amazon’s attempts at digital lock-in), and we want to get people from different backgrounds – publishers, authors, geeks, lawyers, marketers, academics – in a
Politics
I'm interrupting my scheduled series of posts about social messaging, because this is important. (The final part should appear tomorrow.) Here in the UK, the Digital Economy Bill looks like it's set to be rushed through Parliament: There’s plenty to oppose in the Digital Economy
Enterprise
My previous post was a response to Gartner’s prediction last month that social networking would replace email as the “primary vehicle for interpersonal communications for 20 percent of business users.” In it, I named some properties that would need to be held by any social networking system that would
Enterprise
The analysis firm Gartner just released five key predictions for social software: 1. By 2014, social networking services will replace e-mail as the primary vehicle for interpersonal communications for 20 percent of business users. 2. By 2012, over 50 percent of enterprises will use activity streams that include microblogging,
General
My sister is a singer-songwriter. Her songs are great, and you can find them in the usual locations: MySpace Music, Last.fm and Facebook. Interestingly, though, she’s decided there are different purposes to each: * Her Last.fm page contains more polished recordings. * Facebook has those too, but also
Software development
This is inspired by the iBooks launch, but it’s applicable to any ereader that uses the ePub format. (Or, indeed, it could use any ebook format – MobiPocket, Kindle, DAISY, etc.) A podcast is just an RSS feed with a file enclosure – part of the RSS standard – that points to
Software development
If you pay any attention at all to the tech press, you’re probably sick to death of the iPad, Apple’s announced tablet device. I’m posting about it anyway, because there are two things that haven’t been discussed enough, which I think deserve a mention. One: this
Web
Going out and checking in I’ve been using Foursquare quite a bit lately (here’s my profile). There’s a lot to be impressed by: not least the level of mobile integration. Foursquare doesn’t make much sense if you’re sitting at your desk, so it’s far
Politics
The British equivalent to Obama’s data.gov opened today. Over at ReadWriteWeb, Marshall Kirkpatrick points out the scale of the ambition involved: At launch, Data.gov.uk has nearly 3,000 data sets available for developers to build mashups with. The U.S. site, Data.gov, has less than
Politics
The Internet has, undeniably, changed our culture. For most of the 20th century, we paid for our news, entertainment, art and literature. We allowed businesses to act as gatekeepers for this content, and accepted that the media landscape would be dictated by decisions made in the boardroom. Publishers, movie studio
Web
The Christmas period is traditionally when I take a step back and consider what I’m going to do over the next year. For me, it’s a time for family, for quiet reflection and for evaluation. What have I done well? What will I do better next year? During
Web
As research for a new project I intend to launch, I’ve been using a variety of sharing and bookmarking services to keep track of web resources I’ve found interesting. I think the parallel processes of bookmarking, sharing and publishing can all be improved upon, and the new tool