Ben Werdmuller @benwerd@mastodon.social

Companies are realizing that, yes, they do need to own their own websites after all. But they're still having conversations on social media, which are subject to the same issues. I believe we'll see more self-hosted discussion communities this year. https://werd.io/2019/indie-communities-and-making-your-audience-known

Each year, the Nieman Lab solicit predictions for the future of journalism. Mine is a call to action for publishers to help build the internet they need: http://www.niemanlab.org/2019/01/the-platform-tide-is-turning/

I've decided to go dark on all social media, including Mastodon, for the rest of 2018. Here's why I'm doing it - and how to stay in touch with me.

https://werd.io/2018/im-going-dark-on-social-media-for-the-rest-of

‘“There are direct links between the political movements behind Brexit and Trump. We’ve got to recognise the bigger picture here. This is being co-ordinated across national borders by very wealthy people in a way we really haven’t seen before,” he added.’ https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/nov/17/arron-banks-emails-steve-bannon-brexit-campaign-funds

😐

I'm behind on my #nanowrimo, but still writing it in public.

I decided to write a paranoid thriller about technology, democracy, and the rise of fascism. Cheery stuff. It's been difficult because the actual reality has overtaken it and been objectively worse a few times so far this month.

As is the nature of #nanowrimo, it's a first draft, but you can check it out here: http://inference.werd.io/

I don't want to be skeptical of this model, but I am.

I desperately want to be proven wrong. I put in some money. Please join me if you can. Journalism and democracy need this.

https://boingboing.net/2018/11/14/jay-rosens-letter-to-my-ne.html

We expect to see efforts to paint George Soros as being behind progressive movements from anti-semitic groups. It’s quite another thing to see it from one of the world’s largest corporations, and a social network that claims to want to bring people together. Over the last two years Facebook has gone from a worry about centralization and data gathering to a Trump collaborator, racist meme spreader, and being complicit in genocide in Myanmar. They don’t deserve any of our attention or business.

The Facebook story is so outrageous. But when I posted it over there, I was angrily told to provide an alternative. It’s both an addiction and a capture of modern life with no real alternative - there’s nothing else with billions of users.

It really is time to take them on, but I don’t see any plausible place for people to go. The fediverse certainly isn’t it - at least, not yet.

And at the same time, I know something will eventually displace it. I just wish I could see it coming.

I really need to find a high-skilled front-end engineer, preferably based in NYC, for a React-based project. It's incredibly difficult to find the right people - and FE engineering is such a tough skill to master. If anyone has any leads, I'd love to chat.

Also: Known 1.0 will be out pretty soon. Open source versioning is crazy to me - the project has existed since 2013. But there's a lot to come. https://withknown.com

Starting another week on Unlock. It's been an adventure in learning more about blockchain, and - frankly - pushing code again after almost two years of not writing any. We're getting there, and the team is expanding, but we're still looking for more. https://unlock-protocol.com

I'm participating in #nanowrimo this year - in public. You can read my story as I go. And this year it's also on GitHub, so you can send bug reports and feature requests if you want. It's about data, and resources, and that's all I'm going to say. http://inference.werd.io/

The decentralized web throws up some ethical questions in a world where hate speech is on the rise. What are the implications for hate, and how can we design around them? https://werd.io/2018/gab-and-the-decentralized-web

Holy wow. Good outcome for Red Hat; I’m not completely sure where it leaves IBM. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/28/ibm-is-reportedly-nearing-deal-to-acquire-red-hat.html

A fun thing that happened to me over on the birdsite is that Gab quote tweeted me and I had to deal with its delightful users for the rest of the day. I try to be empathy-first but I have real trouble understanding that mindset. It seems so fear orientated, so worried about power and control.