4 ms·

> EU Voice is open for registrations only to EU institutions, body and agencies. Disappointing. Better then nothing, but why not provide a platform for everyon

> EU Voice is open for registrations only to EU institutions, body and agencies. Disappointing. Better then nothing, but why not provide a platform for everyone, or at least every EU citizen?

bojan 4y ago
I'd like that as well. Possibly scaling (=funding) issues?
- amadeuspagel 4y ago
  It's a matter of will of course. The EU talks a lot about digital sovereignty and right now, with a lot of people looking for alternatives to twitter, they have an incredible chance to advance that.
notsound 4y ago
If you limit it only to government officials/orgs, moderation isn’t an issue. Plenty of good, trustworthy mastodon instances exist.
givemeethekeys 4y ago
Cost of moderation would be significantly higher.
- espadrine 4y ago
  Moderation choices themselves would also have geopolitical readings from trading partners. It would be quite touchy.
- Joeboy 4y ago
  I've been wondering about the handling of PR / legal / moderation issues on The Fediverse. Surely if it becomes popular, those burdens will fall on the shoulders of well-intentioned volunteers who just wanted to run a server, who will generally be ill-equipped to deal with them? I guess it could be OK if you're running a small invite-only server for people you know, but not sure how it's going to work for larger instances. Which, looking at the history of email, are probably where most people will want to be.
  - 7steps2much 4y ago
    Assuming the fediverse becomes popular enough there will no doubt be large websites that finance themselves with ads/subscriptions. After all git is a decentralized system as well and big silos like GitHub exist.
mqus 4y ago
It's federation. You also wouldn't expect every citizen to get an @europarl.europa.eu e-mail-adress. The platform is decentralised by design, so just by joining, the EU is contributing to "providing a platform" imho.
- amadeuspagel 4y ago
  I don't see why the EU shouldn't give every citizen an @europa.eu email address.
  - jimkleiber 4y ago
    I've often hoped the US would do this as well. Postal addresses are dependent on having a physical address—home, apartment, etc. Would love if people could habe a digital address that were not dependent on paying rent but citizenship.
  - lrem 4y ago
    For the same reason not every US citizen is entitled to a .gov address?
    - amadeuspagel 4y ago
      .gov is intended to signify offical US government websites. .eu domains can be registered by anyone.
      - arlort 4y ago
        .europa.eu is the closest equivalent to .gov It's the base url used by all EU institutions
        capableweb 4y ago
        europa.eu is a domain, .eu is the TLD. There is no TLD equivalent of .gov for Europe. European agencies use bunch of different domains, not all of them are a subdomain under europa.eu, although many of them are under that one. You can see some examples of organizations/agencies that are not here: https://european-union.europa.eu/institutions-law-budget/institutions-and-bodies/institutions-and-bodies-profiles_en https://european-union.europa.eu/institutions-law-budget/ins...
ploum 4y ago
It is better to have an official instance just like you have official websites. It means that accounts on this instance are official, that you can take their words as official statement. Having one big instance for every EU citizen is just political centralisation and is not a lot better than the economical one done by Twitter. We have to unlearn that "everything centralized is good and the only way to go"
- amadeuspagel 4y ago
  > It is better to have an official instance just like you have official websites. It means that accounts on this instance are official, that you can take their words as official statement. The EU could verify official accounts on their instance. > Having one big instance for every EU citizen is just political centralisation and is not a lot better than the economical one done by Twitter. It would be an alternative. People would of course remain free to choose other instances.
  - zimpenfish 4y ago
    > The EU could verify official accounts on their instance. I don't think the Fediverse has any concept of "verification" as such. Hence "use your own domain to prove your identity".

> EU Voice is open for registrations only to EU institutions, body and agencies. Disappointing. Better then nothing, but why not provide a platform for everyone, or at least every EU citizen?

bojan 4y ago

I'd like that as well. Possibly scaling (=funding) issues?

amadeuspagel 4y ago
It's a matter of will of course. The EU talks a lot about digital sovereignty and right now, with a lot of people looking for alternatives to twitter, they have an incredible chance to advance that.

notsound 4y ago

If you limit it only to government officials/orgs, moderation isn’t an issue. Plenty of good, trustworthy mastodon instances exist.

givemeethekeys 4y ago

Cost of moderation would be significantly higher.

espadrine 4y ago
Moderation choices themselves would also have geopolitical readings from trading partners. It would be quite touchy.
Joeboy 4y ago
I've been wondering about the handling of PR / legal / moderation issues on The Fediverse. Surely if it becomes popular, those burdens will fall on the shoulders of well-intentioned volunteers who just wanted to run a server, who will generally be ill-equipped to deal with them? I guess it could be OK if you're running a small invite-only server for people you know, but not sure how it's going to work for larger instances. Which, looking at the history of email, are probably where most people will want to be.
- 7steps2much 4y ago
  Assuming the fediverse becomes popular enough there will no doubt be large websites that finance themselves with ads/subscriptions. After all git is a decentralized system as well and big silos like GitHub exist.

mqus 4y ago

It's federation. You also wouldn't expect every citizen to get an @europarl.europa.eu e-mail-adress. The platform is decentralised by design, so just by joining, the EU is contributing to "providing a platform" imho.

amadeuspagel 4y ago
I don't see why the EU shouldn't give every citizen an @europa.eu email address.
- jimkleiber 4y ago
  I've often hoped the US would do this as well. Postal addresses are dependent on having a physical address—home, apartment, etc. Would love if people could habe a digital address that were not dependent on paying rent but citizenship.
- lrem 4y ago
  For the same reason not every US citizen is entitled to a .gov address?
  - amadeuspagel 4y ago
    .gov is intended to signify offical US government websites. .eu domains can be registered by anyone.
    - arlort 4y ago
      .europa.eu is the closest equivalent to .gov It's the base url used by all EU institutions
      - capableweb 4y ago
        europa.eu is a domain, .eu is the TLD. There is no TLD equivalent of .gov for Europe. European agencies use bunch of different domains, not all of them are a subdomain under europa.eu, although many of them are under that one. You can see some examples of organizations/agencies that are not here: https://european-union.europa.eu/institutions-law-budget/institutions-and-bodies/institutions-and-bodies-profiles_en https://european-union.europa.eu/institutions-law-budget/ins...

ploum 4y ago

It is better to have an official instance just like you have official websites. It means that accounts on this instance are official, that you can take their words as official statement. Having one big instance for every EU citizen is just political centralisation and is not a lot better than the economical one done by Twitter. We have to unlearn that "everything centralized is good and the only way to go"

amadeuspagel 4y ago
> It is better to have an official instance just like you have official websites. It means that accounts on this instance are official, that you can take their words as official statement. The EU could verify official accounts on their instance. > Having one big instance for every EU citizen is just political centralisation and is not a lot better than the economical one done by Twitter. It would be an alternative. People would of course remain free to choose other instances.
- zimpenfish 4y ago
  > The EU could verify official accounts on their instance. I don't think the Fediverse has any concept of "verification" as such. Hence "use your own domain to prove your identity".