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If there were a local cooperative host for your email, Mastodon, and file-sharing, would you join?
The domain name would have to be cool
@ntnsndr why local?
@gaba because for lots of people the local is an important locus of identity and dense networks.
@ntnsndr Yes. If there is some kind of active participation in the governance of this cooperative then I would join a local coop that hosts all those services.
@ntnsndr Only if it has direct democracy and isn't subject to the excessive committee-ization that certain cooperatives I've seen have been.
@ntnsndr
@ftdl https://ftdl.pl/ is close - they're a foundation, and they do matrix instead of email, but otherwise that's pretty close to what you're asking.
And I might, if my hackerspace didn't run and offer those 
@josh
We are a non-profit foundation that operates like a sociocratic cooperative. We offer both Mastodon, email (on request, for entire domains, we rely on mailcow) and a free Nextcloud nch.pl instance for everyone and small groups, and separate Nextcloud AIO instances for organizations/larger groups collaborating on projects (also on request).
Also Matrix, PeerTube, Pixelfed, Kbin, Mattermost, Loomio and other open source software.
All this is done in our own server room in Krakow, Poland, we do not use external enterprise cloud services (except in special cases).
@ntnsndr depending on the number of techs involved (as in not a one person shop), yes. @thepoliticalcat
@ntnsndr
> If there were a local cooperative host for your email, Mastodon, and file-sharing, would you join?
In a sense, that's kind of my situation. This server is run under the umbrella of an incorporated society, of which I'm a financial member. Governance of the server itself is fairly informal, but there are various forums where members gather, where issues relating to it can be raised.
@ntnsndr yes but based on confidence in internal governance and (especially for file sharing) technical implementation
@ntnsndr well, no, we prefer to run our own, but we'd probably donate or something
@ntnsndr Quite probably yes, but ALL the details would matter 
@ntnsndr@social.coop Email and file-sharing, sure, but Mastodon, not so much. It is one of the worst Fediverse platforms, I have no clue why people keep making new instances with it when so many better alternatives exist that are so much cheaper to operate.
@ntnsndr if it can provide custom domain support and respects privacy I am sure there is a market for it.
I am constantly asked for this.
If someone set up a Fedi instance for Nottingham, I'd be keen to have an account there for planning covid-careful in-person events. That's a project which would really benefit from connections in the same geographical area.
@ntnsndr I absolutely would! I've often wondered if running these types of services under a credit union's umbrella of products would be beneficial in both privacy/security as well as being more established/accessible to a community as an entity. Could potentially become a data stewarding service + payment processor too.
@kalebpace yes, me too—i have suggested it to CU execs and got the impression they had no interest in growing their risk profile
@ntnsndr bldrweb is doing alright, I think. Not seeing much member growth, but that's ok.
I don't think my local server is big enough to be useful for local-focused discussions. It seems hashtags are better for that. #boulder
I think in general, accounts (identities) should not be location specific. People move. People have multiple simultaneous locations/communities. Etc. And they don't want to manage multiple accounts (or inboxes) or try to migrate things when moving locations.
@ntnsndr Co-op/collaborative adim or selfhosted online communities and other tools: yes!
But I think a lot of care needs to be taken when thinking about which parts define an online identity (and thus don't change or change infrequently and/or are mutually exclusive if you want multiple simultaneously) and which parts are communities your identity participates in.
Roughly, in my mind anyway:
Email, username, etc: identity
Discourse posts, toots, files, slack messages: things done by the identity.
Not the best expression of my thoughts here, but hopefully that's interesting, at least 
I guess another point I was trying to make: I love the idea of community/self hosted identities and spaces and tools, but I don't think I want my identity(ies) closely coupled to my physical location. I want something more permanent for my identity association.
And I usually want to minimize the number of identities I have to manage. From a privacy perspective, separate identities rarely remain fully separate, so I'd rather not fool myself into thinking they do. I mostly want these two:
- Thomas (for most everything)
- anonymous (when needed, fully ephemeral)
@thomasw totally reasonable points. And I think this is one thing I prefer about the composable model of AT Protocol: the layering of relationships, rather than Mastodon's one size fits all.
@ntnsndr yes, but factors such as ownership, security, stability etc. would persuade or not
@ntnsndr tbh no. Those specialties are all pretty distinct. Proton does 1 of those really well and I wouldn't remotely care if they did a fedi instance cause I chose my community here pretty deliberately.
Email deliverability, encryption, hosting of attachments, dealing with subpoenas and shit... I cannot fathom wanting to take that on. Email is hard :/
I don't really see why it would be compelling
@ntnsndr yes, assuming the governance looks good.
@ntnsndr I'm not sure who they'd qualify as "local" for, but I have been considering a move to @mayfirst (https://mayfirst.coop/en/), so... maybe!
@ntnsndr Yes - in fact, @mesm has been using @femprocomuns email & file-sharing services for a few months already and I was considering using them for my personal mail too 
Also, we stood a Mastodon-compatible instance for @mesm with @albertomoreta based on @takahe and we plan to scale it for a wider audience.
@ntnsndr Maybe, maybe not, because it creates a single point of failure. I’m a big fan of diversifying my service providers.
@ntnsndr
No, probably not.
I find some topical ones to be more important to me, hence local is less of an issue for me.
@ntnsndr self hosted email is pain
@ntnsndr i had a longer answer, than this, but i think the crux of it is that i'm not sure i want to entangle those things, and i evaluate the needs for each pretty differently, so... very maybe.
@ntnsndr not local, but Vivaldi is 2/3s there
@ntnsndr https://cooperative.computer/ has some of that, and I'm already on a local co-operative mastodon server
Will likely be moving @MCQN_Ltd's matrix over there (once work calms down a little)
@ntnsndr nooooooooope. I learned my lesson with a local Slack
@ntnsndr Depends who it's run by; when it comes to services like that I prefer longevity. Like an org that has been around for a long time and isn't going to fold in a few years.
@ntnsndr @ehashman There is, sortof.
I pay into the SDF's general fund and they give me email, mastodon (that i pay extra for) and host a computer festival (that I pay to have happen)
There needs to be more spaces like the SDF aimed at less techy people. You know, ones that aren't named after a giant mecha anime ship and run on NetBSD.
@ntnsndr yes. a million years ago i was part of a local ISP. I would absolutely join hyperlocal nextcloud, fedi, secure email etc.
@ntnsndr interesting to see the replies to this. The bounds of what this means varies a lot depending on peoples understanding
@ntnsndr
It takes a lot of credibility for anyone to be trusted in such a thing. Physical proximity does not correlate with trust, so "local" adds nothing.
Essential question is what "cooperative" entails. For example, if it means taking turns to admin, then no effing way. If its about paying/helping out a few skilled techies who share their server and offer reasonable obligations, then happily so. But I must have either personal or legal reasons to really trust them.