Re: Federated, decentralised communication on the internet (was: domain names, was: hostname)

[deloptes <deloptes@gmail.com>]

tomas@tuxteam.de wrote:

> +100
> 
> To put that on stronger terms -- we'd end up with two and a half
> gatekeepers for mail: Google, Hotmail (aka Microsoft) and... who
> did I forget?
> 
> The same nightmare we have at the moment with the so-called "social"
> networks.
> 
> They are already trying hard (and spam *is* their ally in that). Don't
> help them, they are powerful enough as-is.

I worked last year on a project at one large ISP to enable DMARC. They
however moved away from google and build up cloud for about 18-20mil
customers, so definitely many ISPs and also companies will keep using their
own mail servers.
There are also smaller ISPs or companies that provide email services. I do
not think that only few big will be playing around in the future, but what
will not be possible, is that anyone could come out with own mail server.
OF course you could pay for a static IP, pay for domain name and operate a
mail server, however you must do all the work by yourself to protect it
from spammers and that's not a so simple task.

To me the key issue is always enlightment. If the public gives its personal
information for free to the big players, what can you do against it.
Education is the only way.

The "socials" are a different phenomenon - it is build up on tribal
instinct - to belong to something, to be part of that group, to know the
latest gossip etc. Mail is replacement for post in classical sense. You
don't have to belong to the post, to get a mail from somewhere.

But back to DMARC, it indeed works for the big players as smaller one can
not easily implement and get the ratings the bigger get, however I have
seen also smaller companies use their own mail servers and keep them up to
date and score pretty well.

I hope it gives you some positive feeling ;-)

regards