Why the open social web matters now

The needs are real – and you have so much power.

Ben Werdmuller 14 Oct 2025 — 17 min read

was privileged to deliver the opening keynote at this month’s FediForum, a conference for people building and supporting the open social web. My talk touched on what’s happening now, drew on my experiences building Elgg and Known and investing at Matter Ventures, and gave participants three important questions to ask themselves as they build platforms and serve communities.

Here’s the talk in its entirety, courtesy of FediForum. The transcript [is on the page.]