42 Free and Open Source Projects Receive Funding to Reclaim the Public Nature of the Internet
Submitted 1 day ago by mesamunefire@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
https://nlnet.nl/news/2025/20250422-announcement-grants-CommonsFund.html
HubertManne@piefed.social 23 hours ago
I still feel that certain must haves on the internet should have a government option. Email is something that is very problematic to change. Its your home on the internet. Its the core of the internet identity. I think everyone should have a right to an email address that is already secured for government communications which don't have to leave the internal government system. They don't have to allow for vast storage as the user can pop email off and hold it locally. It should be setup to work with heavily regulated industries like banking so that communication is considered secure. I always get flak on this but its like dudes you can still have your proton account or google or whatever but this would be an email you have a right to but you don't have to use outside of government communications and you should be able to go to the government office if you have issues with it. In the us I could see usps handling if it it was country wide or secretary of state for the state level.
rottingleaf@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
People have invented cryptographic identities. Maybe unbinding email identity from service is long overdue.
I’m biased, but seems much better than what you are suggesting.
HubertManne@piefed.social 3 hours ago
I mean that is fine as long as its secure and 100% recoverable by the user. I don't see those two being possible without a central authority.
Mavytan@feddit.nl 6 hours ago
It doesn’t have to be email. Denmark has such a system, called e-boks. It’s essentially your digital mailbox where you can receive most letters from government agencies and banks (no more paper!). Other institutions and companies can use it too (not sure about who can and can’t use, maybe you can send ‘letters’ from one individual to another too?). I think it’s also possible to respond in some cases.
HubertManne@piefed.social 3 hours ago
Yeah if it can essentially work like email but given another name that is fine to me. I think it should at least have a box that can accept emails from whoevery for general correspondence if you need it but yeah I sorta want it to be different for the security it should have. I just figured there would be like an internal government network part with encrypted connections for that communication and then like the secondary one for banks and such where the institution that use something like a vpn to that area and again is all encrypted and then like a public box that is citizen beware type of thing. I have mentioned this before and I think someone mentioned the denmark thing sorta. At least it only makes one more thing you need to log into as opposed to like a million different agencies and institution portals. There is one eastern europe country too that I recall was doing a lot of things online and I assume maybe they have something like this.
vhstape@lemmy.sdf.org 21 hours ago
I sometimes like to imagine a future where your local library provides email addresses to card holders
HubertManne@piefed.social 20 hours ago
I was actually thinking libraries would make sense to. Problem is it would be good for something that can stick with you for life no matter where you move. USPS for the us would be the only thing I ccan think of with offices that wide spread.
Simulation6@sopuli.xyz 8 hours ago
Do any countries provide email services to their citizens? Of course email is no use unless you have a way to access it, so you would need to add some sort of basic internet connection. And of course you would need something to connect with…
madame_gaymes@programming.dev 22 hours ago
The idea is sound, I think. Treat them, in a way, like we do phone numbers and house addresses. Except this doesn’t ever change, when your name could. I wonder what the identifier would be for the address? Obviously SSN@usa.gov is a bad idea 😅
However, could you imagine the nightmare (on both sides) of a tech support call center for official government email account support?
Joshi@aussie.zone 17 hours ago
I dislike this idea that government run is bad.
I recently changed my name and had to call several government agencies and found them competent and helpful every time.
HubertManne@piefed.social 22 hours ago
you know that is the thing. If we expect the populace to deal with large portions of their lives virtually then they need that support. Support the private industry does not give and quite frankly makes less secure. In addition its part of something that has always been a government task. identity. birth, death, marriage records and basic id.