Ben Werdmuller helps leaders at newsrooms, non-profits, and mission-driven organizations to navigate their biggest technology challenges.
I’ve been increasingly uncomfortable with how links show up on this site, and their intersection with longer-form blog posts. Last night I made a few adjustments: 1. Blog posts and links on the site now have the same font size, resetting the information architecture to display them as equals.
I thought it would be interesting to detail some of my day-to-day setup, Uses This style. This week I'm completely independent, so I'm only using my own hardware and software, which feels like a good time to take stock. This is my stack - I'
NotableLinks
Anyone that sets themselves up to be a single point of failure like this will be a target. And here we are, with hackers now able to make authentic-looking police requests for data. Something that caught my eye in these screenshots: they include Authy, Twilio's 2-factor authentication app.
NotableLinks
This came out of left-field for me: not only Peter Thiel but also Charles Johnson are FBI informants. The former fed information about foreign influence in Silicon Valley; the latter about January 6th and related movements. There seems to be an angle of retribution here from Johnson, who made a
NotableLinks
I sometimes wonder what is being concealed from us today that we'll find out has been killing us decades later? Are these sorts of efforts underway for cellphones or food supplements or some other ubiquitous good? I mean, probably. We'll have to wait and see what.
I’ve made a few updates to my technical assessment rubric, which is designed to help guide teams as they assess whether or not to adopt new internet services and software libraries. The response has been pretty great: some folks have described using it in practice, while others have sent
NotableLinks
I truly aspire not to be one of these parents. #Society [Link]
NotableLinks
I'm grateful that Signal exists. Meredith Whittaker has so far shown great leadership and spoken about the right things. May all projects follow her lead. #Technology [Link]
NotableLinks
"Perhaps, then it’s no surprise this reads like it was written by a 14 year old and put on Pastebin. That it was written by a 52 year old with billions of dollars at his disposal says more about the failure of capitalism to imbue life with meaning
NotableLinks
"The fix for the internet isn’t to shut down Facebook or log off or go outside and touch grass. The solution to the internet is more internet: more apps, more spaces to go, more money sloshing around to fund more good things in more variety, more people engaging
NotableLinks
"You have to hire the correct people, motivate them to continue working even when there's no clear risk of being fired, make them feel valued and appreciated, not waste their time, ensure they've got the space to do work the right way, only accept the
NotableLinks
This is a racket, run by the police. #Democracy [Link]