Ben Werdmuller
Ben Werdmuller — Technology director at ProPublica, indie publisher
Writing at the intersection of technology, journalism, and the open web.
werd.ioA good open source project is a community, not a package.
An independent blog at the intersection of technology, journalism, and the open web. Ben writes about digital rights, open source culture, and what happens when newsrooms and tech companies make decisions that shape how information flows. His perspective draws on years building publishing tools and working at ProPublica — he's as comfortable discussing hiring practices as he is dissecting the collapse of open-source journalism.
Written by Ben Werdmuller.
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Notable links: July 10, 2026
Most Fridays, I share a handful of pieces that caught my eye at the intersection of technology, media, and society.Did someone forward this to you? Subscribe for free.Chicago Public Media launching community website — chicago.com — in the fallIn an increasingly AI-dominated information landscape, real trusted communities and relationships will be the way to build trust and loyalty — I’m convinced of it, and organizations like New_ Public agree. So it was exciting to s...
Communities will build trust and loyalty for local public media. Chicago Public Media is taking a big leap forward.
Link: Chicago Public Media launching community website, by Amy Yee at the Chicago Sun-TimesIn an increasingly AI-dominated information landscape, real trusted communities and relationships will be the way to build trust and loyalty — I’m convinced of it, and organizations like New_ Public agree. So it was exciting to see Chicago Public Media take a huge step towards building a community platform.The site will include Chicago-area information, civic and cultural resources, community...
As social networks fill up with AI slop, trusted relationships and communities will win.
Link: AI Content Is Everywhere on Social Media, Especially LinkedIn, by Max Spero at PangramThis is one of the core effects of AI: even when people are not engaging with AI-generated content directly, it’s hard to avoid. Our feeds are increasingly full of AI slop.“AI-generated content appeared across all social media platforms in our data set. The average AI rate across all scanned items was 13.8%, but specific rates varied by platform and item length. On four out of five platforms...
IndieWeb Fiction Carnival: May 2026 Roundup
Back in May, I signed up to host the IndieWeb Fiction Carnival, and kicked it off with a prompt: sticks and stones will break my bones.I'm incredibly late with my roundup: just as soon as I'd kicked it off, life became chaotic in a way that won't settle down until September. Which is a poor excuse, because I received some great submissions.Daniel Miller wrote Pull:The first chamber was larger than the second. Wren heard and felt the pneumatic doors close behind them and was carefu...
Startups track business metrics. Newsrooms should learn from them.
Link: Your SaaS Metrics Are A Result, Not A Strategy, by Itay Sagie in Crunchbase NewsI still subscribe to sites like Crunchbase News from my time in startup-land; although it’s been a while since I’ve run the financial side of a business, I’m interested, and I know that I’ll run one again. I see stories like this and wonder: what would it look like for a newsroom to think this way? In startups, these metrics are known top to bottom, but I’ve rarely heard busin...
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Thoughtful, independent writing about technology and media from someone who's been building tools for both — and thinking critically about where they're headed.