Notices by Ben Werdmuller (ben@werd.social)

What’s a piece of art (visual, writing, music, etc) you enjoyed lately that feels like truth to you? Not arch, not clout-chasing, not playing to a crowd, but human and raw and real in a way that cuts through the bullshit and the marketing and the artifice?

The open social web is the first thing I’ve really been excited by in tech for years. It’s a fundamentally pro-human movement where the antipattern is centralized control, surveillance, and wealth hoarding. It’s going to empower artists, journalists, artists. What could be more exciting than that?

Elon Musk appears to have algorithmically boosted Republican accounts on X from the moment he endorsed Trump. #Democracy https://werd.io/2024/elon-musk-algorithmically-boosted-republican-accounts-on-x-from-the

I’m at #kleincamp24 - and hosting a conversation about getting newsrooms onto the open social web at 11am. Say hi if you’re here?

This is a great piece about the decentralized social web, featuring @cwebber, @blaine, and me. It’s in Polish, but the translate button on your browser works pretty well. https://oko.press/ucieczka-z-twittera-przyszlosc-mediow-spolecznosciowych

Mozilla wants to know what we want from it. Here's my answer: it's the web, stupid. https://werd.io/2024/what-i-want-from-mozilla #technology #opensource #mozilla #openweb

Everyone is entitled to their own hopes and dreams for a platform, but what I hope for from decentralized social media is for every social media user to be on it, and for the owners of centralized platforms to no longer be able to influence elections, movements, or genocides. It’s got to go big.

"We think that the benefits of being on X are now outweighed by the negatives and that resources could be better used promoting our journalism elsewhere." #Media https://werd.io/2024/why-the-guardian-is-no-longer-posting-on-x

They made a government department to tear it all down and they called it Doge. Right now the basement-dwelling incel demographic is cackling with glee.

Starter packs are a genius feature - something genuinely new - and I wish Mastodon had them natively too.

A bill being fast tracked through the House "basically empowers the Treasury secretary to target any group it wants to call them a terror supporter and block their ability to be a nonprofit." #Democracy https://werd.io/2024/congress-about-to-gift-trump-sweeping-powers-to-crush-political

"Shipping in a big tech company is a very different skill to writing code, and lots of people who are great at writing code are terrible at shipping." I think not just big tech: many orgs are like this. #Technology https://werd.io/2024/how-i-ship-projects-at-big-tech-companies

I'm the son and grandson of US Army veterans. I'm also the grandson of a resistance fighter against Japanese forces in WWII. And the great nephew of underground resistance fighters against the Nazis.

None of them did it to pursue dominance or to celebrate a flag. They did it for principles, and to help create the world they wanted to see. In particular, one that was inclusive and participative: a rejection of nationalism and fascism.

To everyone who has served for similar reasons: thank you.

A caveat: one of them, my father, did it because he was drafted. When he left the Army, he became an activist who heavily protested the Vietnam War. I'm extremely proud of him and who he is, just as I'm extremely proud of all of them.

"Today we’re launching call links: Share a link with anyone on Signal and in just a tap or click they can join the call. No group chat required." #Technology https://werd.io/2024/improving-private-signal-calls-call-links-more

I doubt I’ll ever see it, but I’d love to read a clear-eyed postmortem from the Democrats themselves.

I think this era is probably a good time to stop using location-monitoring apps like Swarm, too.

@ntnsndr @islamoyankee @ntnsndr @medlab @ben I’ve been trying to ship a similar idea for a while. I’m excited for the incubator and I’m trying to put together a space for open source technologists and newsrooms to collaborate.

I’ve noticed a few mistaken assumptions circulating on social media lately, so I thought it was worth clarifying a few things around privacy and surveillance. https://werd.io/2024/psa-social-media-privacy-and-you #privacy #technology

"It is long past time for journalism to abandon Twitter." To say the least: #Media https://werd.io/2024/journalists---is-twitter-actually-your-community