Hi! I’m Ben Werdmuller von Elgg. Right now I’m working as Tech Team Leader for Latakoo, an exciting Texan startup. I’m also Geek in Residence at the Edinburgh Festivals Innovation Lab, helping all twelve Edinburgh Festivals innovate using web technology.

More generally, I’m a creative tinkerer: I like to write and build new things and share them with people.

Previous work

I’ve been building online communities, websites and applications for fifteen years. Building on this experience, I co-founded Elgg, one of the leading social networking platforms, as well as Curverider, the company created to provide commercial Elgg services. Until I left to pursue new projects in April 2009, I was both a director of Curverider and its Chief Technology Officer, as well as Elgg’s technical lead. Over a five year period, I guided the software’s development and engaged with clients, developers and business partners. In 2007, having cultivated Elgg into a leading open source community, I helped Curverider become one of the few British open source companies to attract investment.

In my previous roles, I have acted as an editor for one of the first web magazines, a learning technologist pioneering the use of social software in universities, and as an online administrator at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School. I have an honours degree in Computer Science from the University of Edinburgh.

Elsewhere

You can learn more about my business history and connect to me professionally over at my LinkedIn profile.

Meanwhile, I’m also active on Twitter and Flickr, amongst others. You can also see stories I’ve shared on Google Reader.