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Ben Werdmuller

Ben Werdmuller

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As TikTok ban threatens stability in social media ecosystem, some brands settle into the fediverse

Buried here: "Vox Media’s technology news publication The Verge says it also has plans to federate its own site to have more ownership over its content and audience, according to The Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel." The fediverse is both the future of social media and the future

24 Apr 2024

NotableLinks

FTC Announces Rule Banning Noncompetes

This is genuinely wonderful: “The FTC’s final rule to ban noncompetes will ensure Americans have the freedom to pursue a new job, start a new business, or bring a new idea to market.” This was already true for California; banning it nationwide is an enormous step for innovation everywhere.

23 Apr 2024

NotableLinks

Newsletter platform Ghost adopts ActivityPub to ‘bring back the open web’

"This has long been the dream, and it seems like the platforms betting on it in various ways — Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, Flipboard, and others — are where all the energy is, while attempts to rebuild closed systems keep hitting the rocks." Just an enormous deal: for the web, for

22 Apr 2024

NotableLinks

The Internet and Climate Change

"A recent MIT study indicated that “the cloud” now has a larger carbon footprint than the airline industry, and that “a single data center can consume the equivalent electricity of 50,000 homes.” The study also cites the enormous cooling costs, the huge volumes of water required, and the

22 Apr 2024

How I vote

I like mail-in ballots because I can do my research as I go, on my own time, in my own environment. To me, it feels a lot closer to giving the process the time and attention it deserves. I filled in my Pennsylvania primary ballot this morning. I’d never

20 Apr 2024

NotableLinks

Vision for W3C

This is exactly what I'd hope to see from a standards organization like the W3C: "W3C leads the community in defining a World Wide Web that puts users first, by developing technical standards and guidelines to empower an equitable, informed, and interconnected society. The fundamental function of

19 Apr 2024

The social web doesn't exist without social justice

So much of what we build on the web is about connecting people. It is impossible to connect people effectively without paying attention to social justice and equity. Otherwise we’re just connecting the privileged with the privileged, creating ever smaller networks of influence, and learning nothing new.

19 Apr 2024

No tech for apartheid is within its rights to protest

Solidarity with the 28 Google workers who were fired for protesting Project Nimbus this week. Anonymous Google and Amazon workers described the project as follows a couple of years ago: Project Nimbus is a $1.2bn contract to provide cloud services for the Israeli military and government. This technology allows

19 Apr 2024

NotableLinks

What you see

"Too often, [...] we assume that the person who is the object of our feedback has something to learn and fail to notice the same thing about ourselves." This is a really important observation. Without checking ourselves, our feedback can be a way to ensure our vision remains myopic,

19 Apr 2024

Backdoors are an everyone problem

From the OpenJS Foundation: The recent attempted XZ Utils backdoor (CVE-2024-3094) may not be an isolated incident as evidenced by a similar credible takeover attempt intercepted by the OpenJS Foundation, home to JavaScript projects used by billions of websites worldwide. The Open Source Security (OpenSSF) and OpenJS Foundations are calling

18 Apr 2024

NotableLinks

AI isn't useless. But is it worth it?

"I find my feelings about AI are actually pretty similar to my feelings about blockchains: they do a poor job of much of what people try to do with them, they can't do the things their creators claim they one day might, and many of the things

17 Apr 2024

NotableLinks

Amazon is filled with garbage ebooks. Here’s how they get made.

"Virtually every single part of the self-publishing grift world that can be automated or monetized has been automated and monetized." This is a really depressing read: fascinating, for sure, but what's left unsaid is what happens to traditional publishing as these folks become more and more

16 Apr 2024
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Werd I/O explores the intersection of technology, democracy, and society. It's independently published by Ben Werdmuller, reader-supported, and always free to read.