That's beautiful!
That's beautiful!
Ben Werdmuller
Ben Werdmuller helps leaders at newsrooms, non-profits, and mission-driven organizations to navigate their biggest technology challenges.
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Pushing for a lower dev estimate is like negotiating better weather with a meteorologist
I've lived this, and I'd go so far that it's a sure sign of a dysfunctional team: when non-technical leadership pushes for lower estimates based on their own business hopes and doesn't accept the ones given by their in-house experts. "Pushing
Senior web development at ProPublica
ProPublica is hiring a senior web developer. You’re familiar with ProPublica’s reporting even if you’re not sure about the name. They’re the newsroom that reported on Justice Clarence Thomas’s close relationship with GOP megadonor Harlan Crow; on TurboTax’s misleading practices that coerce low income
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What Palestinians Really Think of Hamas
Palestinians in Gaza are, by and large, not fans of Hamas, and are not aligned with eliminating Israel. "By and large, Gazans do not share Hamas’s goal of eliminating the state of Israel. When presented with three possible solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (as well as an option
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The Handcrafted Artisanal Web
"The future is returning to an artisanal web, where you cultivate your niches and small communities, where maybe you don’t become a millionaire and a star, but you do feel a sense of belonging, and maybe make enough to get by. I think that’d be okay, honestly.
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‘The Messenger’ Speed Runs The U.S. Journalism Implosion Cycle Thanks To Incompetent Billionaires And ‘Both Sides’ Clickbait Gibberish
"Like so many rich media executives (see: Politico owner and CEO Mathias Döpfner), Finkelstein’s incapable of seeing most of the fatal flaws in modern U.S. journalism, whether it’s the inherent class, race and gender biases in most newsrooms, the steady erosion of trust caused by feckless
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Beyond Checkboxes: Privacy Protections That Work for the Future Generation
I think the conclusions here are the right ones. In particular, ensuring privacy by design is a far better strategy than pushing for informed consent, because the vast majority of people are not informed about the implications of data collection (even without considering Gen-Z's ambient comfort with the
Journaling in private with my friends
I kind of miss having something like a LiveJournal. If you missed its heyday about twenty years ago, LiveJournal was a private blogging community that led to much of what we know as social media. You could follow your friends, and they could follow you back if they wanted; your
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Without a Trace: How to Take Your Phone Off the Grid
A really accessible guide to privately using a cellphone. One thing I think might be missing here: you probably shouldn't use the phone near your home or regular haunts. While not connecting to your home wi-fi is probably smart, cell tower records will still show your most common
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Bandcamp Editorial Director: “Fuuuuuck Bandcamp United”
This is a complete misunderstanding of the nature and value of unions: they're not just for low-income workers. Unionization can help all workers and make healthier workplaces for everyone. Even with that aside, this kind of public rhetoric pits a manager directly against his workforce in a way
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Leaving Twitter
Interesting to see this comment from Benedict Evans, who is far from an ideological internet participant: his social commentary very often leans conservative, and he was formerly a partner at Andreessen Horowitz. But enough is enough. Musk's promotion of antisemitic sources and tropes has pushed him off the
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POSSE: a better way to post on social networks
Really fun to see indieweb concepts like POSSE gain attention again. When I built POSSE into Known, I knew it would be a matter of time before API changes cut off access (and it was). These days, in a world made of open source protocols, these restrictions don't