benwerd 1 year ago

Focusing on speculative futures

Ben Werdmuller

Focusing on speculative futures

I'm changing the direction of my blog.

benwerd 1 year ago

Let's fund the open social web

Ben Werdmuller

Let's fund the open social web

A pro-social approach to building better platforms

benwerd 1 year ago

Bluesky Is Plotting a Total Takeover of the Social Internet

Ben Werdmuller

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 desc...

benwerd 1 year ago

Congress moves to cut off states' AI regulations

Ben Werdmuller

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 morat...

benwerd 1 year ago

How to get good fried rice

Ben Werdmuller

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 ...

benwerd 1 year ago

Great Startups Run on Feedback

Ben Werdmuller

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...

benwerd 1 year ago

The mentor who changed my career (and might help you too)

Ben Werdmuller

The mentor who changed my career (and might help you too)

Point C helps leaders build extraordinary lives and lead cultures of innovation.

benwerd 1 year ago

Microsoft shuts off Bing Search APIs and recommends switching to AI

Ben Werdmuller

Microsoft shuts off Bing Search APIs and recommends switching to AI

[Tom Warren at The Verge] File under: beware proprietary APIs. "Microsoft is shutting off access to its Bing Search results for third-party devel...

benwerd 1 year ago

Trump State Dept. Leaned on African Nations to Help Musk’s Starlink

Ben Werdmuller

Trump State Dept. Leaned on African Nations to Help Musk’s Starlink

[Joshua Kaplan, Brett Murphy, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski at ProPublica] From my colleagues on the newsroom side at ProPublica, a story abou...

benwerd 1 year ago

The World Is Wooing U.S. Researchers Shunned by Trump

Ben Werdmuller

The World Is Wooing U.S. Researchers Shunned by Trump

[Patricia Cohen in The New York Times] This was inevitable: "As President Trump cuts billions of federal dollars from science institutes and univ...

benwerd 1 year ago

Landmark Report Finds Major Flaws in the Cass Review

Ben Werdmuller

Landmark Report Finds Major Flaws in the Cass Review

[Erin In The Morning] Unsurprisingly, there are major flaws with the Cass Report - and an expert report in Springer Nature's BMC Medical Research ...

benwerd 1 year ago

Flipboard Expands Publisher Federation with International Partners

Ben Werdmuller

Flipboard Expands Publisher Federation with International Partners

[Flipboard Expands Publisher Federation with International Partners] Flipboard just launched 124 new publishers to the Fediverse - bringing the to...

benwerd 1 year ago

No, Immigration Is Not An “Invasion”—And It Doesn’t Justify Suspending Habeas Corpus

Ben Werdmuller

No, Immigration Is Not An “Invasion”—And It Doesn’t Justify Suspending Habeas Corpus

[Mark Mansour] Stephen Miller, who the author rightly labels as the most dangerous person in America, has argued for removing a core constitutiona...

benwerd 1 year ago

Why New Jersey Prisons’ Change from JPay to ViaPath Tablets Is Distressing

Ben Werdmuller

Why New Jersey Prisons’ Change from JPay to ViaPath Tablets Is Distressing

[Shakeil Price at The Marshall Project] The technology situation for incarcerated people in the United States is beyond bad: "Because prison tele...

benwerd 1 year ago

AI Is Not Your Friend

Ben Werdmuller

AI Is Not Your Friend

[Mike Caulfield in The Atlantic] A smart analysis and suggestion about the current state of AI by Mike Caulfield: "I would propose a simple rule:...

benwerd 1 year ago

If I started fresh

Ben Werdmuller

If I started fresh

What would I do if I was building an open social web platform from scratch?

benwerd 1 year ago

AI of dead Arizona road rage victim addresses killer in court

Ben Werdmuller

AI of dead Arizona road rage victim addresses killer in court

[Cy Neff in The Guardian] This is straight out of Black Mirror: "Chris Pelkey was killed in a road rage shooting in Chandler, Arizona, in 2021. ...

benwerd 1 year ago

Evolving the Team

Ben Werdmuller

Evolving the Team

[Andy Piper at Mastodon] It’s really exciting to see these new movements from Mastodon - not least because they’re very intentionally marching...

benwerd 1 year ago

We Need to Talk About AI's Impact on Public Health

Ben Werdmuller

We Need to Talk About AI's Impact on Public Health

[Adam Wierman and Shaolei Ren in IEEE Spectrum] An interesting finding on the energy use implicit in training and offering AI services. I do think...

benwerd 1 year ago

A Case For Ethical and Transparent Research Experiments in the Public Interest - Coalition for Independent Technology Research

Ben Werdmuller

A Case For Ethical and Transparent Research Experiments in the Public Interest - Coalition for Independent Technology Research

[By Sarah Gilbert, Michael Zimmer, and Nathan Matias at the Coalition for Independent Technology Research] A strong statement from the Coalition f...