@ben@werd.social
@ben@werd.social avatar

ben

@ben@werd.social

I lead technology at ProPublica and write speculative fiction. This is a personal account.

Every day, I write about tech, democracy, and society at https://werd.io.

More about me: https://about.werd.io

#indieweb #opensource #journalism #writing #fiction #blogs #blogging #startups #openweb #web #fediverse #socialweb #ethics #product #writingcommunity #philadelphia #sanfrancisco

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

ernie, to random
@ernie@writing.exchange avatar

It’s alive. https://udm14.com

dsalo, to random
@dsalo@digipres.club avatar

Johns Hopkins is doing a long-COVID survey and apparently is having trouble finding controls -- people who haven't had COVID. If this is you, consider giving them some clicks.

https://covid-long.com/

evan, to random
@evan@cosocial.ca avatar

Sixteen years ago tomorrow I published the first post on the fediverse.

https://web.archive.org/web/20080618164355/http://identi.ca/notice/1

It's still visible on Identi.ca today, although the URL format changed a few years ago, and the redirect plugin stopped working a few years after that.

https://identi.ca/evan/note/Y0QwGyc1QYilqqawkDrQlg

Thanks to everyone who made identi.ca a great place to be, and thanks to everyone who's expanded the fediverse since then.

evan,
@evan@cosocial.ca avatar

Thanks especially to people building software, making art, telling their personal stories, inviting friends or organizations, joining groups, making jokes, thinking hard, making connections, liking, reading, listening, watching, administering, moderating, supporting, sharing, being kind, making friends, answering questions, and otherwise laying down the careful and intricate network of connections between people, software and content that is slowly but surely changing the world.

jonhicks, to random
@jonhicks@mastodon.social avatar

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

kottke, to random
@kottke@mastodon.social avatar

I missed this from last year: the original “on the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog” New Yorker cartoon sold for $175,000 at auction. https://news.artnet.com/market/new-yorker-cartoon-highest-price-auction-2381602

mnot, to random
@mnot@techpolicy.social avatar

And this is their earnings call.

"I think the central risk to Palantir, America and the world is a regressive way of thinking that is corrupting and corroding our institutions that calls itself progressive, but actually — and is called woke — but is actually a form of a thin pagan religion,"

andypiper, to random
@andypiper@macaw.social avatar

Co-authored an update from the @MastodonEngineering team with my friend @renchap - a sneak peek at what is coming in 4.3 (and looking ahead from there). We'll aim to make these updates a regular feature for the blog. Let us know what you think! https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2024/05/trunk-tidbits-april-2024/

ProPublica, to news
@ProPublica@newsie.social avatar

"Friends of the Court," ProPublica's investigation into Supreme Court justices' beneficial relationships with billionaire donors, has been awarded the Prize for Public Service!

Here are the highlights from the reporting (THREAD)

raganwald, to random
@raganwald@social.bau-ha.us avatar

Balderdash is a parlour game where a player presents an obscure word and a definition that may be correct, or a bluff that sounds plausible.

The challenge for the player is to understand what “correct” sounds like, so that they can bluff with verisimilitude. The challenge for everyone else is determining when something that sounds like it ought to be correct, is actually false.

———

Oh hey, I’m sorry, I meant to talk about using Generative AI to answer questions.

ben, to random
@ben@werd.social avatar

Where's the Xerox PARC for social software?

octothorpe,
@octothorpe@mastodon.online avatar

@ben also tho: where’s the Xerox PARC of now?

natematias, to random
@natematias@social.coop avatar

I really did have the best PhD advisor. @ethanz just sued Meta today

“On May 1, 2024, the @knightcolumbia filed a lawsuit on behalf of Ethan Zuckerman—a professor of public policy, communication, and information at the University of Massachusetts Amherst—asking the court to recognize that Section 230 protects the development of tools that empower social media users to control what they see online”

https://knightcolumbia.org/cases/zuckerman-v-meta-platforms-inc

skinnylatte, to SanFrancisco
@skinnylatte@hachyderm.io avatar

I read in a newspaper article about my neighborhood: "The Tenderloin is the center of the fentanyl crisis in San Francisco and is known for squalid conditions, homelessness, crime, drug trade, and prostitution."

(And delicious food, cheap rent, the most diverse working class communities, the only part of the city with real city density, with access to all public transit)

ben, to business
@ben@werd.social avatar

"Every worker has a stake in the company’s fortunes and a say in how it is run, and receives a share of the profits." I've always loved Mondragón; this is a lovely profile. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/apr/24/in-the-us-they-think-were-communists-the-70000-workers-showing-the-world-another-way-to-earn-a-living?utm_source=werd.io&utm_campaign=mastodon&utm_channel=mastodon

billseitz,
@billseitz@toolsforthought.social avatar

@ben multiple links/backlinks at
http://webseitz.fluxent.com/wiki/MondragonCooperatives

luckytran, to random
@luckytran@med-mastodon.com avatar

People love to applaud civil rights, anti-war, and anti-apartheid protests of the past, and say that they can't believe that people opposed them back then. Yet at the same time they see no problem attacking people protesting for human rights and social justice today.

ProPublica, to news
@ProPublica@newsie.social avatar

New Legislation Would Expand Access to Disaster Relief, Provide Help With Titles for Large Number of Landowners

The bills come after ProPublica’s reporting on land passed down informally within , known as heirs’ property.

Representing about one-third of Black-owned land in the , it can be ineligible for aid and vulnerable to forced sales.

https://www.propublica.org/article/heirs-property-black-land-loss-disaster-relief-legislation-fletcher

nnedi, to random
@nnedi@mas.to avatar

The cicadas are coming. Beautiful. They are a sign of joy from the Earth, no matter how much human beings [the true scourges of the Earth] whine about them.

_Davidsmith, to random
@_Davidsmith@mastodon.social avatar

While the App Store is far from perfect, seeing Delta sustain its position at the top of the App Store is a lovely reminder of its best feature.

That an indie developer can dedicate years honing their craft and then create something so compelling that it beats out apps from trillion-dollar companies, enriching the lives of millions of people along the way.

That’s beautiful. That’s inspiring. And just plain awesome.

I feel incredibly fortunate to have my career at a time when that is possible.

ben, to random
@ben@werd.social avatar

The lessons we're learning from XZ Utils aren't just applicable to open source projects. They're a warning to every team that builds software. https://werd.io/2024/backdoors-are-an-everyone-problem

acdha,
@acdha@code4lib.social avatar

@ben @bentomn the other scenario CIOs should be asking: if one of my employees had some kind of problem, would our response prevent or create a blackmail opportunity? Especially at the level of low-respect/pay jobs, similar to how telcos keep compromising customers when someone defeats SMS MFA by compromising low-level customer support people.

jenn, to random
@jenn@pixel.kitchen avatar

if you see a weird plant at your local store after the eclipse is over KILL IT IMMEDIATELY

natematias, to random
@natematias@social.coop avatar

I am finding LinkedIn's AI guided responses to be so insightful.

A real value-add to HR conversations that will help me follow employment law.

evan, (edited ) to Canada
@evan@cosocial.ca avatar

Jacob Flickinger was killed when the World Central Kitchen convoy was attacked while bringing food to starving people in . He has a partner and infant child here in . They need your support.

https://gofund.me/fdf40bac

wingo, to random

this logo. who is going to tell them https://circle.gnome.org/

natematias, to random
@natematias@social.coop avatar

Someday, I would love to see publicly-funded university labs do routine testing of tech/AI safety questions.

This fabulous study showed that single -serving milk cartons, rather than being more sanitary, have higher bacteria counts than larger containers & lose flavor more quickly.

It could lead to improvements in the safety & taste of milk— benefiting drinkers & dairy producers alike.

The study was funded by the Dairy Promotion Order, a very tax on NY milk producers

https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2024/03/higher-bacterial-counts-detected-single-serving-milks

ernie, to random
@ernie@writing.exchange avatar

I’m realizing that people think the Internet Archive is the solution to any site-goes-offline problem, when it’s not.

The solution to any site-goes-offline problem is to have a plan for when your site goes offline.

taylorlorenz, to random
@taylorlorenz@mastodon.social avatar

Media Matters and GLAAD looked at a full year New York Times coverage of anti-trans legislation:

🔴 Two-thirds of stories didn't include trans voices

🔴 18% quoted misinformation without adequate fact-checking

🔴6 articles obscured the anti-trans background of sources

https://www.mediamatters.org/new-york-times/seen-not-heard-new-york-times-failed-quote-trans-people-over-60-2023-stories-anti

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