Future of News
Building a newsroom technology culture
A practical guide to hiring, supporting, and empowering the technology competence that journalism needs to survive.
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Technology
What I've Learned from Ten Years with Coral
[Andrew Losowsky] Running an open source community platform for a decade is no small feat - particularly one as storied and supported as Coral. Andrew Losowsky's reflections on its first decade are inspiring. "Among so many conversations, we brought commenters into newsrooms to speak with journalists, moderators to
Notable links
Sahil Lavingia's DOGE diary
[Sahil Lavingia] I personally don't think his decision to join DOGE was defensible, but there are lots of interesting details in Sahil Lavingia's diary of the 55 days he worked there. For example: "I was excited to help in-source VA's software, but
Media
The Substack Election
[Lauren Egan at The Bulwark] If I was Substack, this is exactly what I'd be doing. But then again, if I was Substack, I wouldn't have paid Nazis to post on my network. "The company sees an opportunity. Its employees have been meeting with congressional
Technology
12 years of Ghost
[John O' Nolan at Ghost] This is a lovely reflection on 12 years of Ghost, the non-profit, open source publishing platform that powers independent publishers and allows them to make a living on their own terms. "Over the years, we've focused consistently on building the
Fediverse
Mastodon updating some legal features
[Mastodon] Mastodon's legal updates are an important way to support different kinds of communities. It's great to see the Mastodon team grow to support these features. I'd love to see CC-licensed terms of service for communities to use. Those features: * "Mastodon servers
Focusing on speculative futures
If you’ve enjoyed my recent series about the open social web, great! There were four parts, which I think are collectively some of my best work: * What the future of Bluesky might look like * How Mastodon could be the future of online communities * What I’d do if I
Let's fund the open social web
If the open social web is going to grow and thrive, people need to be able to build new platforms and services sustainably. But that’s not what the email I was reading was telling me. The message in my inbox captured a persistent and problematic idea in open tech
Technology
Bluesky Is Plotting a Total Takeover of the Social Internet
[Kate Knibbs at WIRED] This is an insightful interview with Bluesky CEO Jay Graber. The headline here overreaches quite a bit, and needlessly describes what Bluesky is doing in monopolistic terms; I left excited about what's next for the open social web, which I've believed for
AI
Congress moves to cut off states' AI regulations
[Khari Johnson in The Markup] The Republican legislature is working on ensuring that AI is unencumbered by regulations or protections: "The moratorium, bundled in to a sweeping budget reconciliation bill this week, also threatens 30 bills the California Legislature is currently considering to regulate artificial intelligence, including one that
Democracy
How to get good fried rice
[Mike Monteiro] Such a great piece about language, discrimination, and how we can avoid limiting our own thoughts. It's all delivered through the lens of the MSG scare in the 1970s, which turns out to have been pretty racist: "Monosodium Glutamate is a flavor enhancer. Like salt,
Startups
Great Startups Run on Feedback
[Jen Dennard at Startup Soup] A culture of open, direct feedback is important for any organization to foster. Jen Dennard has some great tips here: "Like most things, the key to getting the value is to make it a habit. Set aside time during 1:1s or make a