Ben Werdmuller
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Ben Werdmuller

Ben Werdmuller

NotableLinks

Paying people to work on open source is good actually

"My fundamental position is that paying people to work on open source is good, full stop, no exceptions. We need to stop criticizing maintainers getting paid, and start celebrating. Yes, all of the mechanisms are flawed in some way, but that’s because the world is flawed, and it’

17 Feb 2024

NotableLinks

Leaked Emails Show Hugo Awards Self-Censoring to Appease China

"A trove of leaked emails shows how administrators of one of the most prestigious awards in science fiction censored themselves because the awards ceremony was being held in China." What's remarkable here is that they weren't censored by the government - instead this trove

15 Feb 2024

NotableLinks

The text file that runs the internet

It's hard to read this without feeling like the social contract of the web is falling apart. And when social agreements fall apart, that's when we start having to talk about more rigid, enforced contracts instead. As the piece notes: "There are people on both

15 Feb 2024

NotableLinks

Building Slack: Day 1

Catnip for me: the first post in a new blog that tells the story of building Slack from the ground up, by two of its former employees. This was surprising to me, although I guess I don't really know why: "We used the tried and true LAMP

14 Feb 2024

NotableLinks

Caribou High School to use fingerprinting to track student attendance

"[The ACLU] publicly challenged the school district in a statement to media outlets stating that it has filed a public records request seeking more information about the district’s decision to [a firm] to track student attendance and tardiness by having students place their fingers on a biometric scanner.

14 Feb 2024

NotableLinks

Extending our Mastodon social media trial

The BBC extends its Mastodon experiment for another six months: "We are also planning to start some technical work into investigating ways to publish BBC content more widely using ActivityPub, the underlying protocol of Mastodon and the Fediverse." The BBC's approach has been great: transparent, realistic,

13 Feb 2024

NotableLinks

Who makes money when AI reads the internet for us?

"Local news publishers, [VP Platforms at The Boston Globe] Karolian told Engadget, almost entirely depend on selling ads and subscriptions to readers who visit their websites to survive. “When tech platforms come along and disintermediate that experience without any regard for the impact it could have, it is deeply

12 Feb 2024

NotableLinks

Against Disruption: On the Bulletpointization of Books

"A wide swath of the ruling class sees books as data-intake vehicles for optimizing knowledge rather than, you know, things to intellectually engage with. [...] Some of us enjoy fiction. And color." Amen. I'm firmly on team fiction. A brilliant novel can teach you more about the

11 Feb 2024

A creative process

Over on Threads, Amanda Zamora asks: I'm plotting away on Agencia Media and some personal writing/reporting this weekend (over a glass of 🍷 and many open tabs). One of the things I love most about building something new is the chance to design for intended outcomes — how to

11 Feb 2024

NotableLinks

Hidden prison labor web linked to foods from Target, Walmart

"Intricate, invisible webs, just like this one, link some of the world’s largest food companies and most popular brands to jobs performed by U.S. prisoners nationwide, according to a sweeping two-year AP investigation into prison labor that tied hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of agricultural products

10 Feb 2024

NotableLinks

Enough is enough—it’s time to set Julian Assange free

The former Editor in Chief of the Guardian on Julian Assange: "I know they won’t stop with Assange. The world of near-total surveillance, merely sketched by Orwell in Nineteen Eighty-four, is now rather frighteningly real. We need brave defenders of our liberties. They won’t all be Hollywood

10 Feb 2024

NotableLinks

Meta won't recommend political content on Threads

"Threads users will be allowed to follow accounts that post political content, but the algorithm that suggests content from users you don't follow will not recommend accounts that post about politics." It's not clear to me what the definition of "politics" encompasses

09 Feb 2024
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Ben Werdmuller

Ben Werdmuller

Writing at the intersection of technology, journalism, and community.

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Ben Werdmuller explores the intersection of technology, democracy, and society. Always independently published, reader-supported, and free to read.