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Writing at the intersection of technology, journalism, and community.
IndieWeb
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
"Every federal and gubernatorial race, by name and by state, read from what people are actually saying" - all powered by the open social web.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
The people who can see journalism most clearly are the people who have the least time and space to solve its problems.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
Amazon's concessions indicate that data center protests are working. But the company is offering less than pocket change.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
The Lenfest AI Collaborative lets newsrooms explore a new technology together - but more importantly, it gives them the muscle to open source their work and collaborate.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
By taking identity resolution to an independent organization, Bluesky is securing the future of its network, and of AT Protocol.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
In the same week, the President banned three networks from the White House - and started his own. It's not a coincidence that this happened so close to the midterms.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
How the JSK Fellowship is putting me in a more generative culture.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
My 1925 Tudor on half an acre in Elkins Park, PA is up for sale. Here's why I loved living in it
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
Behind the power dynamics in AI and news – and is your TV spying on you?
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
Publishers are suing AI vendors, accusing them of theft. But are they giving the creators responsible for building their value a fair deal?
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
In a world where predictive policing is becoming more commonplace, TVs that report on what you're watching, record you using live mics, and scan your network for connected devices are a liability.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
Years ago, Facebook's lack of care for global communities made them complicit in a genocide. AI companies risk making the same mistakes.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
Chicago Public Media is building a social network for America's third largest city. Forget AI - this is the thing I'm most excited about in news technology.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
Chicago Public Media is building a social network for America's third largest city. Forget AI - this is the thing I'm most excited about in news technology.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
I'm spending a year at Stanford to explore community platforms in news.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
Change is fractal; data ownership can be collective.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
"Leaders are leverage. Every leader is a multiplier, if they choose to be."
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
The DOJ is trying to prosecute Sam Tunick for allegedly using a duress passcode. It's a lesson in why your best protection is having nothing to protect.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
"Data collectives and cooperatives, which let creators control the collection and distribution of their data, are emerging as preferred alternatives to big tech companies."
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
America's AI dominance is under threat; AI vendors put us at risk; meanwhile, everyone's staying in their jobs for the health insurance.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
There were two big lapses in the Hugging Face / OpenAI hacking story: the lack of security protections on OpenAI's end, and Hugging Face's vulnerable production database. That should worry anyone who uses AI with sensitive data.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
1 in 4 American workers stay in their jobs because of the healthcare. It suppresses wages and working conditions - and prevents innovators from heading out on their own.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
Apps like Granola make it easy to transcribe conversations without asking for consent. Those transcripts are a subpoena honeypot.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
China's open-weights AI strategy is winning: its companies are taking the lead. America's closed-first, locked-down strategy is doomed to failure - and it could take the US economy down with it.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
At a time when journalism is increasingly under attack, we need PIT Crews for news.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
"Allies, archives and infrastructure in the AI age" - a list of people with the potential to push news forward.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
Surveillance doesn't improve crime or make anyone safer. It wastes civic dollars and creates new risks for vulnerable communities. The SFPD's leak demonstrates one reason why.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
Zohran Mamdani has unveiled a radically collaborative, cross-disciplinary approach to building internal technology capacity. News has a lot to learn from it.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
"After losing their jobs at NOAA, Rebecca Lindsey, her sister and another colleague teamed up to rebuild a pivotal resource the Trump administration took offline."
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
"Historically, the Justice Department has sought to subpoena reporters only as a last resort after other reasonable options have been exhausted." Now the FBI is doing it to satisfy an angry President.
