Commentary on links that caught my attention around the web.
AI
[OpenAI] OpenAI's for-profit arm is becoming a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation: "Our plan is to transform our existing for-profit into a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation(opens in a new window) (PBC) with ordinary shares of stock and the OpenAI mission as its public benefit interest. The PBC
Media
[ProPublica] While the website I work for is not the cheeriest place on the internet, its deeply-reported stories are some of the most vital and impactful. These are the most-read ProPublica stories of 2024, including: The Year After a Denied Abortion: "Tennessee law prohibits women from having abortions in
Notable links
[Aishvarya Kavi] President Biden commuted the sentences of all but three prisoners on federal death row. (He doesn't have the power to pardon or commute the sentences of people held on state charges.) This is also good: "The president campaigned in 2020 on ending the federal death
Technology
[OpenStreetMap] Meta has contributed 178,710 Euros (an oddly specific number!) to OpenStreetMap. On one level: hooray for people contributing to open source. On another: Meta has a $1.5 Trillion market cap and uses OpenStreetMap in multiple applications. To be fair, it also provides direct non-monetary contributions, but regardless,
Labor
[Scharon Harding at Ars Technica] From the "gee, you don't say" department: "Return-to-office (RTO) mandates have caused companies to lose some of their best workers, a study tracking over 3 million workers at 54 "high-tech and financial" firms at the S&P
Fediverse
[A New Social] I'm psyched about this announcement: "We're A New Social, a new non-profit organization focused on building cross-protocol tools and services for the open social web. [...] The first project we'll take on to accomplish this mission is Bridgy Fed, a service
Technology
[Ernie Smith at Tedium] Is the ongoing Matt Mullenweg / Automattic / WP Engine drama really about private equity undermining the open source WordPress project? In his summary of the latest developments, Ernie doesn't think so: "But I don’t think that’s really what’s been happening here.
Fediverse
[Ghost] Another great update from the Ghost team, this time with some lovely animation to illustrate the fediverse reading experience. The second topic of the post gave me a little bit of pause, because, whoa Nelly, I've been there: "In light of that, we opted to go
Technology
[Erin Griffith at the New York Times] I've been using Mozi for a little while and like it quite a bit: "Mr. Williams views Mozi as an attempt to return to social media’s original intention, which was about interacting with people you already knew. Over the
Fediverse
[Erin Kissane] Erin Kissane breaks down some interesting research about alternative social media platforms for social justice organizations in the Majority World: "The Engine Room team found that their informants with deep experience in Majority World civil society and social justice work understand exactly what’s wrong with and
Fediverse
[Skyseed] Really fascinating play: "Open Source veteran entrepreneur Peter Wang today launches Skyseed Fund, the world's first venture fund and incubator focused exclusively on Bluesky and its open ecosystem." Peter has been involved in decentralized social networking for a long time. There's $1M in
Technology
[Daniel Appelquist and Yves Lafon at the W3C] These ethical web principles that guide the ongoing development of the platform are great. And this is spot on: "The web is a fundamental part of our lives, shaping how we work, connect, and learn. We understand that with this profound