Ben Werdmuller

Author: Ben Werdmuller

  • Building a distributed social network? You’re doing it wrong.

    Here are some distributed social networking platforms and technologies designed to facilitate distributed social networking: Status.net DiSo 6D Kopal DSNP Noserub Appleseed OneSocialWeb Diaspora (included for completeness, but there isn’t any code yet) Wow, that’s a lot! And following Diaspora’s flurry of both coverage and cash, you can bet there’ll be plenty more to come. […]

  • Devices and desires: why the portable device wars are a red herring

    A little pre-history When I was a kid, I had an Atari 130XE. You’ve probably never heard of it. It was an 8-bit, all-in-one box that booted straight into BASIC; a flexible, well-built, sturdy computer. There was just one problem: it wasn’t a ZX Spectrum or a Commodore Amiga. At the time, Britain was undergoing […]

  • A note on me, Elgg, and social networking projects

    Note: As of 2011, this is no longer true. Enough people have asked me about this over the last year, that I thought I’d write a little more about why I don’t do social networking work. Most regular readers will be aware that I co-founded Elgg, the open source social networking framework. If you weren’t, […]

  • So why do we need apps anyway?

    Ebooks don’t cut it: everyone wants an app NB (May 20, 2010): A lot of my suggestions for web-based apps are part of the Google Chrome Web App Store. In fact, the .crx file used there is a zip file with very similar characteristics to epub. (I assume, as Chromium is open source, that .crx […]