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A realization of why email is critical infrastructure for the Internet

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Re: A realization of why email is critical infrastructure for the Internet

#101

Post by anticodon »

cycomanic wrote: post #49
feldrim wrote: post #40

Well, in Estonia, they have a different approach. 1. If you are a citizen or a resident, you get an ID card to use for every public service. It's just a smart card with a government PKI. 2. The public services provide an email account that can only be used within the e-government services. The card is used for accessing those services. 3. The email service accepts either identity number or registry number of the reci…

I always discover how Estonia is really amazing for lots of technology things. AFAIK they are by quite a margin the most advanced country in Europe when in comes to egovernment services. Moreover my (admittedly outside) impression is that they often go for technologically sound solutions not the ones which some large lobby organisation pushed for. This is particularly remarkable considering how small the country is,…

Size of the country is also something to consider. Population of the whole Estonia is fewer than population of a single city in other country. Area of the Estonia is also minuscule.

What works for a tiny state isn't always appropriate for a big state.

Re: A realization of why email is critical infrastructure for the Internet

#102

Post by severino »

dento wrote: post #59
OtomotO wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do that, but you're still at the whim of a corpo and have no real legal right to that domain/email adresses. Also it's kind of technical. Perfect for a nerd like me, but e.g. for my mum? Nope!

Regional domain providers, i.e. .cc country code domains, usually give you legal rights to that domain as long as you pay the fees.

Interesting. So if you want to have some kind of legal protection over your domain, the best bet is buying a .cc domain (from the country you currently live in, I suppose) but no chance when buying a .com, .org domain, right?

Re: A realization of why email is critical infrastructure for the Internet

#103

Post by sneak »

Arathorn wrote: post #52

> As j. b. crawford notes, the prospect for another federated, Internet wide communication system seem very remote at this point in time, so email is it. I really don’t think this is true, and is defeatist at best. SIP and XMPP both had a good shot at creating a federated Internet-wide communication system, and we are doing our best to build one with Matrix or die trying.

Matrix is crap, though, and doesn't solve any new problems.

Re: A realization of why email is critical infrastructure for the Internet

#104

Post by pibechorro »

toyg wrote: post #97
fredley wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably because they're so small they're overlooked by the salespeople and lobbyists from the big corps. I imagine that helps a lot. In the UK there are plenty of smart people in Government who can and would build things in a sensible way (and sometimes they do!), but there are also legions of smooth talking salespeople who usually bend the ministers' ears more easily.

This is the right answer. If I'm Fujitsu or Accenture and I lose $BigCountryContract, it's a Big Deal and somebody is not going to get his fat bonus. If I lose Estonia, "Whatever, it was pennies anyway". Smaller orgs also don't have the sort of complex bespoke requirements that allow consulting firms to really entrench themselves.

Decentralization is the way forward

Re: A realization of why email is critical infrastructure for the Internet

#105

Post by tarkin2 »

pydry wrote: post #93
fredley wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably because they're so small they're overlooked by the salespeople and lobbyists from the big corps. I imagine that helps a lot. In the UK there are plenty of smart people in Government who can and would build things in a sensible way (and sometimes they do!), but there are also legions of smooth talking salespeople who usually bend the ministers' ears more easily.

The self developed UK government online services tend to be pretty good (sometimes very good!). It's the stuff they outsource to government contractors whose CEOs play golf with government ministers that are universally terrible.

This "playing golf with government minister" should be called out for what it is: a probable or possible bribe. It won't be money in a brown paper bag but the result will be the same. It's endemic. We like to think bribery and corruption happens to other countries but there's plenty of it in the UK: it's just higher up the totem pole and largely accepted.

Re: A realization of why email is critical infrastructure for the Internet

#106

Post by mrweasel »

feldrim wrote: post #40

Well, in Estonia, they have a different approach. 1. If you are a citizen or a resident, you get an ID card to use for every public service. It's just a smart card with a government PKI. 2. The public services provide an email account that can only be used within the e-government services. The card is used for accessing those services. 3. The email service accepts either identity number or registry number of the reci…

A question about number 4. By forwarding address, do you mean to a real email address? Denmark has a similar solution, but it can only be accessed via the website or a mobile application. The idea is that the content will almost always contain person information, so it shouldn't be allowed to be transmitted via an unencrypted channel.

Side note: Denmark has a one time pad instead of a smartcard. A smart phone app has since been added, and the one time pad will be discontinued in about a year, sadly.

Re: A realization of why email is critical infrastructure for the Internet

#107

Post by naasking »

causi wrote: post #2

Email is our only reliable communication method between different organizations. I'm still of the opinion there should be public-option internet services. Everyone deserves an e-mail address that cannot be taken away from them without a court order.

> Everyone deserves an e-mail address that cannot be taken away from them without a court order.

Not even a court order, arguably. Internet access and it's essential services like email, is arguably a human right in developed countries. Almost impossible to find employment without it.

Re: A realization of why email is critical infrastructure for the Internet

#108

Post by pmlnr »

BlueTemplar wrote: post #90
aero-glide2 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was suprised to learn WhatsApp uses XMPP. Would be nice if all popular chat applications are interoperable.

"Is based on" rather than "uses" - AFAIK they deliberately broke compatibility ? (Ditto with Facebook Messenger and at least one of the Google chats ?)

FB uses MQTT; Google chats, who knows.

Re: A realization of why email is critical infrastructure for the Internet

#109

Post by wott »

sofixa wrote: post #31
DoItToMe81 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds horrible. Mobile phones are bad enough, I don't want any more 'guaranteed' ways to be contacted by work or other annoyances in my free time.

That's where right to disconnect and anti-spam measures come in. I'm in France, and i have the right to refuse my employer contacting me outside of work hours, and they pay me if i don't. And since robocall spam is illegal, i get ~1 call every 4-5 months at most, to sell me a different internet or electricity or mobile plan, and they're obligated to respect my refusal to be contacted thereafter ( and all do).

> And since robocall spam is illegal, i get ~1 call every 4-5 months at most, to sell me a different internet or electricity or mobile plan, and they're obligated to respect my refusal to be contacted thereafter ( and all do).

You are just lucky with your number. We get an average of 10 calls a day. Yes, in France. Stuff like Bloctel do not work, it isn't respected. I don't even know if fake caller numbers are now finally disallowed, it doesn't look so; anyway they were allowed for a long time.

Each time the government grants subsidies for whatever, it is immediately diverted by an enormous amount of companies which deal with the grey areas of the laws (laws concerning that subsidies and laws concerning solicitations), and if you have a residential number, you get spammed with commercial robot calls all the time (and then there are the 'empty' robot calls, too).

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