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i absolutely think this is the next step. we're at a point now where it's becoming obvious to even a layperson that we really are lacking a lot of agency over o

i absolutely think this is the next step. we're at a point now where it's becoming obvious to even a layperson that we really are lacking a lot of agency over our lives, which has been given over to big tech companies to arbitrate. i also think it could be a way away from the monopoly of facebook over our social lives, to have e.g. library servers which run a local instance of mastodon, for local people, to be connected to the actual community they're in. the only way to reverse suppression of small email providers is to make it more common for people to /use/ small email providers - which happens if it's more common for email addresses to be administered by someone you actually, physically know. for that to be the trust relationship with the system administrator, rather than blindly accepting every new privacy policy just because it feels like there's no other option. the more i research this topic, the more this feels like the only sustainable way out of the dystopian hellhole described in her letter.

mxuribe 4y ago
I'll extend off of your great commentary and suggest that the letter/small correspondence delivery portion of the USPS (not the parcel/package delivery segment) should be collaborating with U.S. libraries to establish more digital infrastructure for citizens; especially those who lack what others might consider the digital basics. This could include free/low cost email, local instances of ActivityPub servers, matrix (or other secure, but open source equivalent) chat services, etc. I understand this would open up many issues, and not an easy fix...but if more and more things are truly becoming more digitized, then government (and government-adjacent) services should not just evolve, but also help the citizenry evolve to take advantage of said services. At that point, i can imagine a scenario where if such a free/low cost email service were available, the likes of google and microsoft could not block digital correspondence since there would be at least some regulatory framework/policy in place to avoid such issues. Again, none of this is easy, but i feel the path forward can still leverage gov. entities - like libraris and USPS - that have greatly helped citizens in the past throughout our history.

mxuribe 4y ago

I'll extend off of your great commentary and suggest that the letter/small correspondence delivery portion of the USPS (not the parcel/package delivery segment) should be collaborating with U.S. libraries to establish more digital infrastructure for citizens; especially those who lack what others might consider the digital basics. This could include free/low cost email, local instances of ActivityPub servers, matrix (or other secure, but open source equivalent) chat services, etc. I understand this would open up many issues, and not an easy fix...but if more and more things are truly becoming more digitized, then government (and government-adjacent) services should not just evolve, but also help the citizenry evolve to take advantage of said services. At that point, i can imagine a scenario where if such a free/low cost email service were available, the likes of google and microsoft could not block digital correspondence since there would be at least some regulatory framework/policy in place to avoid such issues. Again, none of this is easy, but i feel the path forward can still leverage gov. entities - like libraris and USPS - that have greatly helped citizens in the past throughout our history.