ben

ray, 3 hours ago to random

@ben Yer everywhere! My account on this instance will be mostly read only btw. My “real” account is over at @alongtheray

ben, 4 hours ago to journalism

I wrote up some thoughts about the things newsrooms need to do right now in order to survive the massive search engine and audience squeeze they're experiencing. TLDR: so much of it comes down to creating an open-minded culture of experimentation. #journalism #media https://werd.io/2024/dispatches-from-the-media-apocalypse

ben, 1 day ago to random

Maybe July 4th will be Britain's independence day now, too.

ben, 1 day ago to random

Did .. did an AI write this

ben, 1 day ago to journalism

"It’s a good time to be ProPublica. And it’s a good thing that we have ProPublica." Hey, that's where I work! #Media https://werd.io/view/664d137794f64e2643083042

ben, 1 day ago to technology

"The various decentralized social media systems that have been growing over the past few years offer a very different potential approach: one in which you get to build the experience you want, rather than the one a giant company wants." #Technology https://werd.io/view/664d04264dfbda935c050bc2

ben, 2 days ago to random

Which newsrooms are doing a good job of in-house technical and product innovation? What makes them stand out in your mind?

ben, 2 days ago to random

The thing about a political campaign centered around a notable fraudster with a published fascist platform that includes literal Nazi references in its media materials is that it's so outlandish to be unbelievable for most people.

They've been taught that America is better than this; that we're somehow exceptional; that it can't happen here. It's not; we're not; it is, in fact, happening right now.

Campaigners are in a tough spot. How do you make the message land when it sounds like a movie?

ben, 3 days ago to random

Why it’s usually better to work with a talented designer: here are some sketches I did for my own ShareOpenly icon. I, uh, do not have the touch.

ben, 3 days ago to journalism

"The free version of Apple News is one of the biggest news platforms in the world. It’s the most widely used news application in the United States, the U.K., Canada, and Australia, and boasted over 125 million monthly users in 2020." And publications are becoming dependent on it. #Media https://werd.io/view/664b71ebb03e591ffd06b8d2

ben, 3 days ago to technology

"I want the IndieWeb to be a viable alternative to social media, gradually widening the audience beyond tech-savvy folks by making the tools easier to use and more reliable." This is what we were trying for with Known. #Technology https://werd.io/view/664b6e260510a99fb30adb72

ben, 4 days ago to random

Oh, hey, my work bio was published this week. https://www.propublica.org/people/ben-werdmuller

ben, 5 days ago to DoctorWho

This week’s #DoctorWho had a lot of good things to say and was gripping from start to finish. Really appreciated the anti-war, who-really-benefits message. Still the best show ever.

jonhicks, 6 days ago to random

I've added @ben's fediverse-friendly ShareOpenly to the Hicks.design Journal, and blogged a bit about the icon:

https://hicks.design/journal/share-openly

ben, 6 days ago to technology

A lovely blog post by Jon Hicks on his process for creating the ShareOpenly icon. Characteristically, lots of care and attention went into this. #Technology https://werd.io/view/66478c57e052fabafd0db252

tylrfishr, 12 days ago to random

Pitch: Google Reader over ActivityPub

ben, 6 days ago to random

Oh, hey, there's a new Ani album out today. I've seen her live almost 20 times; been following for decades and decades. Looking forward to listening. https://anidifranco.bandcamp.com/album/unprecedented-sh-t

ben, 6 days ago to business

"Our findings imply that return to office mandates can imply significant human capital costs in terms of output, productivity, innovation, and competitiveness for the companies that implement them." #Business https://werd.io/view/664765a219e4d579460b55f2

ben, 7 days ago to random

If Google makes its money through contextual ads on search results pages now, in an AI-driven world it’ll make its money through sponsored answers (or just contextual ads related to the answers). The way sites will continue to get traffic is through buying ads.