Ben Werdmuller

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://werd.io/about/ 

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

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Last Notes

2026-03-30 17:14:06 UTC

Surf is SO COOL. Go check it out.
#nevent1q…kuew

2026-03-24 13:21:30 UTC

What ICE is doing in US airports today, it will be doing at US polling places in November. These photos aren’t funny or incongruous; they should be giving us nightmares. This has to end now.

2026-03-23 18:52:31 UTC

I'm looking for excellent Svelte / SvelteKit contractors in the US with current availability. If that's you, send me a private reply or email me at ben.werdmuller@propublica.org.

2026-03-20 20:23:47 UTC

This was the feature I needed to make the switch. Looking forward to trying it!
#nevent1q…ugvj

2026-03-05 14:23:19 UTC

The BBC is dying. It needs to be preserved - but doing so will require a radical reinvention. #Media https://werd.io/bbc-says-irreversible-trends-mean-it-will-not-survive-without-major-overhaul/

2026-03-04 00:53:01 UTC

If you’re a small, resource-strapped team, for example in a newsroom, how can you figure out what software is feasible for you to build and maintain? I wrote a guide. https://werd.io/can-we-build-the-dog/

2026-02-27 04:58:48 UTC

News and culture is very rapidly being dominated by administration-aligned companies. It's actually astonishing how fast this has happened. And it's not stopping.
Today will be a significant detail in the many, many textbooks that will be written about the era I fear we're still at the start of.

2026-02-26 21:25:54 UTC

Feeling a bit discouraged and self-critical this evening. What's something that's made you feel happy and confident lately?

2026-02-21 16:48:59 UTC

If you're a daily coffee drinker at home, what are your go-to everyday beans? Not the fancy stuff you treat yourself to sometimes, but the stuff you always make sure you have in the house.

2026-02-21 15:35:24 UTC

It’s all well and good to be worried about centralized social media when it’s owned by fascists and there are troops on the streets and peaceful protesters are being kidnapped and killed and we’re about to strike Iran, but next time, can we listen to the people sounding the alarm a little earlier?

2026-02-21 03:09:31 UTC

The detail here about archive dot is and its other domains altering webpages because of a grudge is worth knowing. Not to mention running a DDoS attack, obviously. Yikes. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/02/wikipedia-bans-archive-today-after-site-executed-ddos-and-altered-web-captures/

2026-02-09 18:26:19 UTC

"Hundreds of children are currently being held with their parents at an immigration detention center in Dilley, Texas. In letters and drawings, eight kids convey the pain of feeling trapped with no end in sight." https://www.propublica.org/article/ice-dilley-children-letters

2026-02-07 17:07:15 UTC

This isn’t new news as such, but people keep being surprised by it, so it’s worth repeating. Substack hosts, profits from, and promotes explicitly Nazi content, and if you are adding value to that network, you are helping them to do so. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/feb/07/revealed-how-substack-makes-money-from-hosting-nazi-newsletters

2026-01-26 13:53:57 UTC

There's a common thread disparaging people who might move away in this moment. All I'll say is that many of the wave of immigrants who came to the US 80+ years ago are also people who moved away in a moment that's looking more and more similar. People get to do what's right for them to keep their children safe.

2026-01-24 19:39:28 UTC

Seeing lots of variations of we should abolish “Trump’s ICE” or “this kind of ICE” from elected representatives. No, the whole concept is bogus. It was always based on propaganda about immigration. It’s an authoritarian dream based on a fiction. Abolish ICE and fix our foreign policy.

2026-01-24 19:29:01 UTC

At this point any lingering belief that this America will live up to its stated norms and values is quaint at best and willful ignorance at worst.

2026-01-20 14:31:10 UTC

A Supreme Court case about a bank robbery could redefine digital rights in the US. I wrote about it and its implications. https://werd.io/who-owns-your-data/

2026-01-18 18:35:38 UTC

I stopped going to Blue Bottle when Nestlé acquired a majority stake, so I’m not sure how I’m still on their list, but it seems like *particularly* bad marketing to be excitedly mailing me about their new cafe in a mall in Skokie, Illinois.

2026-01-14 23:06:59 UTC

I published this fictional scenario planning piece about mitigating a hypothetical newsroom raid yesterday. It feels a lot more relevant today. https://werd.io/the-zurich-protocol/

2026-01-13 21:59:55 UTC

Please allow me to share a nightmare with you. https://werd.io/the-zurich-protocol/ #journalism #democracy

2026-01-10 22:29:55 UTC

I don't think it's a coincidence that all of this (worldwide) is happening when most of the people who lived through WWII have just died. We need to do a better job of keeping their memories and ideals alive.

2026-01-07 19:55:52 UTC

https://propublica.org/tips

2026-01-06 14:12:29 UTC

I wrote up how I hire engineers: building a team means building a community, which means looking beyond live coding tests to find empathetic collaborators who care about a mission. (PS: I'm hiring!) https://werd.io/how-i-hire-engineers/

2026-01-04 13:50:36 UTC

Following this has meaningfully improved my first few days of the year. So far, so good. https://werd.io/a-2026-checklist/

2026-01-03 18:43:12 UTC

“The reality is that America is in breach of the United Nations charter. It has committed the crime of aggression, which the court at Nuremberg described as the supreme crime, it’s the worst crime of all.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/03/is-there-any-legal-justification-for-the-us-attack-on-venezuela-trump-maduro

2026-01-03 04:21:06 UTC

POSSE is on the front page of Hacker News right now, which I think is kind of delightful. Lots of people discovering the more human, independent approach that the #indieweb advocates.

2025-12-27 03:00:56 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…7vc6 into it!

2025-12-24 17:34:07 UTC

Tim's 2026 predictions are worth paying attention to - and form a great map for following where the open social web is going. #Technology https://werd.io/my-2026-open-social-web-predictions/

2025-12-12 14:41:57 UTC

We're looking for a mission-driven director of product engineering for our product team at @nprofile…k02x. Our journalists investigate abuses of trust and power in the public interest. This is a way to make a difference. (Must be US-based.) https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/propublica/jobs/4623874006?gh_src=0eh7t3h36us

2025-12-11 15:18:15 UTC

I'm hiring a Director of Product Engineering for our product team at @nprofile…k02x. If you're an engineering leader in the US who wants to truly make a difference, we're a nonprofit newsroom investigating abuses of trust in the public interest. Please consider joining us. #amhiring #getfedihired https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/propublica/jobs/4623874006?gh_src=0eh7t3h36us

2025-12-09 13:48:04 UTC

For decades, RSS has been a workhorse that connects systems on the timely web and ensures that publishers can syndicate and grow their reach. Here's why it matters more than ever. https://werd.io/why-rss-matters/

2025-12-02 05:11:50 UTC

Donating to @nprofile…k02x supports a newsroom full of investigative journalists intent on bringing about real change through reporting on abuses of power in the public interest. They've done incredible work this year. And if you donate on #GivingNewsDay your donation is matched dollar for dollar. https://give.propublica.org/campaign/748664/donate?c_src=ben #givingtuesday #journalism #democracy

2025-11-22 23:33:25 UTC

I actually like this a lot. Don’t hire jerks. (I’ll save you a click: she asks the receptionist whether the candidates treated them well. I agree that it speaks volumes.) https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/05/former-netflix-chief-talent-officer-used-this-test-to-weed-out-disastrous-hires.html

2025-11-21 16:47:18 UTC

Seeing a lot of criticism of this. I won't comment on that for now, but I think it would be a valuable exercise to create a version of the linked document for the hypothetical organization people would like to see. https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/rewiring-mozilla-ai-and-web/

2025-11-21 14:48:54 UTC

I wonder what it would look like to create one single donation point that sends money to a mix of Mastodon, SWF, Free Our Feeds, and other non-profit open social web projects.

2025-11-19 14:58:37 UTC

Podcast pitch: Last Week Tonight but about the Internet. Same pointed humor, same sense of outrage, same scripted writing, but specifically about the web, the tech industry, underlying power dynamics and egos.

2025-11-10 15:28:56 UTC

I upgraded macOS and it clobbered my vscode installation. Completely corrupted. I reinstalled, but maybe it's a good time to switch IDEs? I used to be a big Webstorm fan. What are people loving these days? I don't want an AI IDE.

2025-11-09 14:34:02 UTC

The most racist people imaginable have a cunning plan to undermine the most popularly-elected NYC mayor since 1969. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11/9/republicans-push-to-strip-zohran-mamdani-of-us-citizenship-is-it-possible

2025-11-07 21:08:26 UTC

It's still so weird to me that the idea of universal healthcare is so political here. It's a given in so many other places, and I miss it. And people don't realize how good it is for innovation. You can take so many more risks when your health and well-being aren't tied to a salaried employer.

2025-11-07 20:00:30 UTC

I came back to this talk today - and I've got to admit, I think it's a banger. Lots to say about how mission-driven technology can be successful. https://werd.io/why-the-open-social-web-matters-now/

2025-11-06 14:31:24 UTC

One of my underlying working models for non-profit news is that nobody is in competition with each other. We should all be co-operative. We should be open sourcing code, sharing wins and losses, and doing as much as possible to lift each other up - out in the open so newcomers can benefit too.

2025-11-02 18:46:47 UTC

The pandemic isn't over, and there's still much to fear from the COVID-19 virus. #Health https://werd.io/this-physicist-says-we-dont-take-covid-seriously-enough/

2025-10-21 14:51:06 UTC

I think this is cool: an index of countries based on how much self-sovereign, self-hosted digital technology they use. Are they in control of their own cloud services, or is their tech outsourced? https://dsi.nextcloud.com/

2025-10-20 13:08:04 UTC

Hear me out, but maybe it's not superb that most of the internet is hosted on three very large providers?

2025-10-17 13:39:30 UTC

MEP Alexandra Geese argues that Europe needs its own infrastructure, social networks, and software. Rising US authoritarianism means the clock is ticking. #Technology https://werd.io/europe-cant-defend-democracy-on-us-servers/

2025-10-14 02:23:47 UTC

I thought this was brilliant: a great introduction to the problems of The Free Press (and what the CBS acquisition represents), and John Oliver as energized as he's ever been. https://youtu.be/gieTx_P6INQ?si=_mqJ31487lcuaE6w

2025-10-13 16:23:28 UTC

I don't know what happens next, but on the face of it, the ceasefire and the return of captives from both sides feels really good. May there be peace, may the rebuilding be equitable, and may everyone get to live and co-exist in dignity and prosperity.

2025-10-11 20:03:41 UTC

Today I learned that an interview with my great uncle is in the collection of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum:
"Reinald Leidelmeyer describes his experience as a member of the Dutch Resistance in the Hague; details of his arrest; his time in a slave labor camp; and actions that led to his release."
https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn85997

2025-10-10 14:18:12 UTC

I'm skeptical of using AI for alt text generation. The tech is not bad at all about describing what's in a picture, but I'm unconvinced that it can tell you what's *important* in a picture. Maybe if you fed in the context around it? But also, a human can write an alt text sentence in a minute or two, so is it really worth it?

2025-08-15 13:43:16 UTC

"Now, nearly two years and more than 250 assassinations later, I can count the names of the living journalists in Gaza I follow on one hand." #Democracy https://werd.io/how-do-we-tell-the-story-of-gazas-murdered-journalists/

2025-08-14 18:49:57 UTC

I'm a huge fan of @nprofile…eznj. The work she does is inspiring - and this is a great interview. https://www.niemanlab.org/2025/08/independent-journalist-molly-white-knows-how-to-follow-the-memecoin/

2025-07-30 21:47:36 UTC

I love to cook. Not, like, show-offy chef recipes (although I like to do that too), but everyday meals that come together inside an hour and keep everyone fed. Most nights, I’m the one who cooks.
I have absolutely no idea what to make for dinner tonight and I’ve had a day full of meetings. Pasta? 🤷

2025-07-24 20:47:24 UTC

And now, an executive order that calls for the involuntary institutionalization of the homeless and mentally ill without due process or clear release criteria. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/07/ending-crime-and-disorder-on-americas-streets/

2025-06-28 00:35:45 UTC

I’m beginning to feel like the people who love vibe coding resent software engineers, the people who love making music with AI resent musicians, the people who love AI art resent artists. It’s more than not understanding what good is. It’s active pushback.

2025-05-03 00:20:13 UTC

I just told a room full of newsroom execs and investigative journalists, hopefully coherently, to always start with human problems, do not add AI to their workflows uncritically, and to build and use technology according to their values, with a duty of care for their communities. Privileged to do so and grateful for the opportunity.

2025-04-18 18:59:43 UTC

Mastodon is a revolution in people-powered social networking. But it needs help to push it past its early adopter community. In the spirit of my previous piece about Bluesky, here's what I would do if I ran the project: https://werd.io/2025/if-i-ran-mastodon #fediverse

2025-04-11 17:11:16 UTC

Very excited to be at an in-person @nprofile…7nr8 aperitivo at #IJF25. @nprofile…xt5t is welcoming us all and setting the stage. The #fediverse can help build a more free, more international, more democratic social web.
https://cdn.masto.host/werdsocial/media_attachments/files/114/320/439/315/803/807/original/9e569d472411e7f1.jpeg

2025-04-09 00:03:17 UTC

In a world where people are deported for liking an Instagram post, I worry that we’re making a huge mistake by building open social protocols that don’t have privacy at their core. I’m glad people are working on it.

2025-04-05 22:39:16 UTC

Campaign to import every CAMRA ale into the US. I don't ask for much, but I wouldn't mind a Caledonian Deuchar's or a Wadsworth 6X now and then.
Then again, I'm glad that I can get Samuel Smith's, and that Brewdog is nowhere to be found as far as I can see. (Brewdog is awful.)

2025-04-05 02:23:59 UTC

Trans people are targeted, their rights stripped: some murmurings
Students deported for protesting: some angst
People shipped against a judge's orders to a prison in El Salvador with no possibility of being retrieved: a few people saying this is bad
The stock market goes down: everyone is angry

2025-04-04 14:04:21 UTC

A thing I underappreciated about moving to the suburbs is how excited the neighborhood gets when a chain supermarket or a fast food joint opens nearby. There's a new Giant (Stop & Shop) nearby and you'd have thought it was the second coming of Christ. There was already a Safeway next door.

2025-04-04 03:11:34 UTC

One top insurer has warned that they will no longer be able to provide cover for many climate risks - which will have knock-on effects on lots of other financial instruments. #Climate https://werd.io/2025/climate-crisis-on-track-to-destroy-capitalism-warns-top-insurer

2025-04-04 02:02:40 UTC

“Everyone has just been copying each other’s features in walled gardens, but now innovation will become decentralized around human connection.” #Fediverse https://werd.io/2025/facing-the-looming-threat-of-ai-publishers-turn-to-decentralized

2025-04-03 01:21:49 UTC

From my colleagues. Utterly devastating. https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-ice-air-deportation-flights

2025-04-01 02:24:35 UTC

I know it's not popular to say, but I really like a well-executed April Fool's joke. Goofy but really committed to the bit. I just can't imagine doing one in the midst of all of this. What kind of prank could you even pull?

2025-03-31 18:15:11 UTC

I'm not British, but I grew up in the UK and love it dearly. I'm fearful for them that they're not far behind us. https://www.searchlightmagazine.com/2025/03/birmingham-rally-makes-clear-the-challenge-of-nigel-farage-and-reform/

2025-03-30 21:48:09 UTC

Art matters. Guthrie's guitar said "this machine kills fascists" for a reason.

2025-03-26 14:54:24 UTC

I wonder if they also have a Signal group about the executive order to decimate voting rights.

2025-03-26 12:58:02 UTC

"In recounting events, the author glosses over her own indifference to repeated warnings from policymakers, civil society, and internal teams outside the U.S. that ultimately led to serious harm to communities." #Technology https://werd.io/2025/careless-people-facebook-insiders-memoir-reveals-more-in-what-it

2025-03-25 19:52:06 UTC

- reply

But it’s engagingly-written, frequently hilarious, and jaw-dropping on almost every page. She’s done us a service by painting this insider’s picture of Facebook / Meta. It’s one that I hope every politician who hopes to touch tech policy will read.

2025-03-25 19:51:53 UTC

Careless People is a complicated book: the author is complicit in the activities she describes, which no amount of ironic detachment or claims of trying to change the system from the inside can hide. #bookstodon
https://bookshop.org/a/7949/9781250391230

2025-03-23 20:54:19 UTC

Some days, I wonder what it would take to obtain the rights to franchise Greggs in the United States and wonder if this might unexpectedly be my real calling.

2025-03-22 19:31:34 UTC

I have a retaining wall that is bursting (yes, bursting), and fixing it is turning out to be highly expensive and really annoying. Grump.

2025-03-22 14:49:35 UTC

Nobody's looking for a return to the status quo. The old playbooks don't work. Irrespective of what the stock market might have been doing, real people are struggling. It's about building a bold plan for a future that serves everyone and ensures nobody falls through the cracks. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/21/politics-have-changed-but-the-democrats-havent-they-are-old-and-out-of-touch

2025-03-21 15:30:19 UTC

So far this year @nprofile…j3rp has reported on who's working for #DOGE, the impacts of cuts on agencies like #USAID, and a lot more. Reporting on abuses of power matters more than ever before.
This is the last day of our spring member drive you can give as a member. As always, I would love the #fediverse to be represented in our member base. It matters.
If you have the means, please consider joining as a member through a gift of any amount: https://give.propublica.org/give/346423/#!/donation/checkout?c_src=ben #journalism

2025-03-21 13:44:27 UTC

I really want to order frozen lemper ayam for delivery in the United States, and it just does not seem to be a thing. Sad face.

2025-03-20 18:26:44 UTC

Someone reached out to buy my blog so they could add it to their referral traffic network. Obviously, no.
Unless ...
What would be *your* number that you would sell your personal website at?

2025-03-20 12:59:30 UTC

Divide I've noticed: people who have never experienced systemic oppression in their own or their family's lives are treating this like business as usual. Those who have family memories of camps, unjust incarceration, or are part of vulnerable communities, are freaking out. Listen to the latter.

2025-03-19 22:14:34 UTC

"After some research, the reality became clear — ICE detention isn’t just a bureaucratic nightmare. It’s a business. These facilities are privately owned and run for profit." #Democracy https://werd.io/2025/youre-not-a-criminal-but-youre-going-to-jail-my

2025-03-19 21:36:54 UTC

On the inevitability of returning to the office: https://werd.io/2025/forcing-people-back-to-the-office-was-a-choice-im

2025-03-18 13:01:32 UTC

Don't keep an Amazon Echo (or any smart speaker) in a room where you'll be having sensitive conversations, either with your family or on a work call. Particularly if you're a journalist or activist. #Technology https://werd.io/2025/everything-you-say-to-your-echo-will-be-sent-to

2025-03-17 20:34:26 UTC

I'd love to read some takes on the pan-European political movement Volt.

2025-03-16 23:02:44 UTC

This is absurdly great, but I haven't read a single blog post or news article about it. A fully open source, offline-first alternative to Notion that's a collab between the French and German governments because they want to host documentation securely and on their own terms. THIS is what Europe should be doing. https://docs.numerique.gouv.fr/ #opensource

2025-03-16 22:43:01 UTC

I watch a fair amount of toddler videos on YouTube. It's fascinating to me that a lot of very well-produced videos have no clear provenance and seem to share the same narrators. It feels like people are starting many multiple accounts and channels to make it harder to block them and potentially manipulate the algorithm. You don't need to be a Cocomelon to make bank; I wonder who all this money is going to.

2025-03-15 01:40:51 UTC

ProPublica made a full-length documentary, based on Duaa Eldeib's Pulitzer Prize finalist reporting. The full streaming premiere is March 20, with live filmmaker discussion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-lrlMTptRg

2025-03-14 20:13:42 UTC

End to end encrypt all the things.

2025-03-11 11:34:40 UTC

I'm not investing in startups, fairly obviously so, and at this point I think approaching me for investment (particularly on LinkedIn, where my profile clearly says that I'm not investing) is kind of a negative signal.

2025-03-10 16:37:48 UTC

Surreal. https://theconversation.com/why-annexing-canada-would-destroy-the-united-states-249561

2025-03-10 12:27:48 UTC

Big work event this week. I used to be excited about extended trips to New York - I loved wandering around. And I still love the city; it's amazing in so many ways. But I had to say goodbye to my son this morning, and he doesn't understand why I have to go or that I'll be gone for a while, and there's no way I can be happy about that.

2025-03-10 12:08:06 UTC

So many stories of tourists getting apprehended by ICE lately. And student activists, too. For lots of reasons, I don't know that I'd encourage anyone to visit the US right now. Or be a student here. Or invest here. This is not a good situation.

2025-03-09 17:44:41 UTC

"As an engineering leader, you should be constantly working to reduce the amount of time it takes to complete one cycle of a feedback loop." This is good, actionable advice. #Technology https://werd.io/2025/feedback-loops

2025-03-09 15:21:16 UTC

If you're in Austin, visiting #Fediverse House at 412 Congress Ave today and tomorrow is what you need to be doing. I don't think you need a #SXSW ticket - just show up and meet some of the key people building and thinking about this network for all of us. https://about.flipboard.com/fediverse-house/

2025-03-06 02:53:17 UTC

My take remains: smacking is child abuse. Ban it everywhere, completely. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9q4x9d9xgpo

2025-03-06 02:44:55 UTC

Immigrants should proably consider moving to private Signal groups if their visa status is in flux, unfortunately. Dystopian stuff. #Democracy https://werd.io/2025/trumps-uscis-wants-to-review-all-prospective-citizens-social-media

2025-03-03 14:22:31 UTC

Sometime over the last few years I completely stopped listening to podcasts. I just don't have time for it. Maybe it was becoming a parent; maybe it was something else. But I don't get where it fits into anything else.

2025-03-02 22:46:48 UTC

Musk said that invading Poland and starting wars was what made the Nazis bad. (Curiously, or perhaps not, he left out a very big thing they did.) But all those things were symptoms. The core, bad thing was the fascism.

2025-03-02 22:43:28 UTC

"It's said that there are only 2 hard problems in computer science: Cache busting, naming things, and off-by-one errors. But if we can add a 5th, database architecture should probably be on the list." Great update on ActivityPub in Ghost. #Fediverse https://werd.io/2025/warp-factor-5-mr-sulu

2025-03-02 13:47:44 UTC

I don't mean to brag, but
https://cdn.masto.host/werdsocial/media_attachments/files/114/093/145/792/821/509/original/26612038c1380f94.jpeg

2025-03-02 02:07:07 UTC

I loved this. https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/dae_03_25/

2025-03-01 22:03:07 UTC

Excited to read this story raising the alarm about American snacks illegally entering the UK market because their ingredients are harmfully toxic. Luckily in America we believe in BUSINESS and CHOICE which means people can get CANCER from CHIPS if they want to. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/feb/13/imported-sweets-american-candy-flooding-uk-high-streets-councils-banned-additives