Notices by Ben Werdmuller (ben@werd.social), page 2

"One practical thing you can do in as much depth as you like, identify a particular area of information that you care about or feel is important and protect it." Superb advice: #Technology https://werd.io/2024/one-practical-thing-protect-information

Some thoughts about the work over the next four years. https://werd.io/2024/building-the-news #journalism #opensource #technology

"Leftist channels do not receive widespread financial backing from billionaires or large institutional donors, primarily because leftist content creators support policies that are completely at odds with what billionaires want." #Media https://werd.io/2024/why-democrats-wont-build-their-own-joe-rogan

There's an Ani DiFranco song about the music industry that goes, "I may not be able to change the whole fucking world, but I could be the million that you never made". I think there's a case to be made that open tech can be that: a chip against the wealth hoarding that so easily leads to centralized power which can be deployed against our interests.

I'm seeing CEO after CEO kiss the ring, and I don't need to be a part of feeding any of it.

Platform request:

Remember LiveJournal? Private weblogs connected as a social network?

But make it federated,

And make it fully end-to-end encrypted,

And make connections double opt in.

#fediverse

@evan A few reasons:

I don't think the writing I've put out has been helpful.

I no longer know what I can add.

I wonder if I should refocus around other modes of communication that are more proactive and less reactive.

I'm worried about retaliation.

But as @seth said: temptation is not action.

It is very tempting to take my whole web presence (as it stands) dark.

Just a quick reminder that if you happen to see abuses of power and betrayals of the public trust by government, business, and other institutions today, there's a newsroom for that. https://www.propublica.org/article/election-day-2024-propublica-reporters

"For years, data brokers have abused Americans’ most personal data in every way possible, selling people’s identifying information to businesses, other individuals and even governments. Now, a string of news stories underscore how the industry’s practices are increasingly endangering women’s safety." #Technology https://werd.io/2024/sen-ron-wyden-womens-phones-have-become-a-tool-for

Standing room only in the SEPTA train this morning. I’m the only person here wearing a mask. I’ve got to say that the Flo Mask is a gamechanger: so much more comfortable than anything else I’ve tried so far. https://www.flomask.com/

A genuinely inspiring post about the foundation behind Ghost and how it operates. It feels like a blueprint for so many open source projects. #Technology https://werd.io/2024/democratising-publishing

I started my week by tidying my desk. (This is what a tidy desk looks like in my world.) Through taking this photo, I realized I badly need to water my plant.

"There are two possible options in this election. And, to be honest with you, I can’t believe we even are having a conversation about it." It's in 10 days. https://werd.io/2024/theres-an-election-coming-up-and-i-cant-believe-were #uspol #democracy #election2024

This funding is significant because it indicates that investors who have put money into Web3 are interested in the federated social web (and other non-blockchain decentralization). #Technology https://werd.io/2024/bluesky-announces-series-a-to-grow-network-of-13m-users

Here's why I think growing the open social web is a huge opportunity - and some ideas I've had for making it happen: https://werd.io/2024/helping-to-build-the-open-social-web

#fediverse #opensource #socialweb

There should be a fund for people building platforms on ActivityPub.

Everyone’s asking whether they should be using Threads or Mastodon or Bluesky or Nostr or something else, and the simple answer is that it’s not zero sum. The era of one social network being the holder of the conversation is over. The only sustainable answer is for them all to interoperate.

Very, very bullish on Mastodon.

Mathew Ingram's overview of the WordPress drama continues to be updated. As he says: it's a mess. #Technology https://werd.io/2024/is-matt-mullenweg-defending-wordpress-or-sabotaging-it

This feud is getting bonkers. #Technology https://werd.io/2024/wordpressorgs-latest-move-involves-taking-control-of-a-wp-engine