Waldo JaquithFeb 13, 2023

There are two trends in government over the past 30 years that have collided to cause a never-ending series of high-profile failures:

1. Outsourcing anything technology-related, regarding tech as outside of government’s core competencies (or even government’s proper role).
2. Relying on technology to accomplish nearly all agency goals and intermediating interactions with the public through software.

Can you identify the problem here?

Show threadBrian Orce 
@waldoj @anildash Every American should have a USPS email and bank account
Feb 14, 2023 at 1:42amIvory for iOS
Show threadNickFeb 14, 2023
@JIMNOBU @waldoj @anildash USPS is where the federal government is present every day in every part of America — post offices are its consulates in big cities and small towns and the remotest places — and something that binds the nation together for 63¢ wherever you are is capable of binding the nation together in so many other ways.
Show threadArtemisFeb 14, 2023

@JIMNOBU @waldoj @anildash and

- any part of government and semi-government should exclusively bank there and only payout to someone's account there

- and USPS should provide broadband internet (fiber), USPS is the only party with a mandate and obligation to reach everyone. Call them postal routes to make it easier to put them in the ground, it worked for the interstate

Show threadMike BrownFeb 14, 2023
@JIMNOBU a guy in my old hockey team was the Chief Info Security Officer for USPS. He had pushed *HARD* for USPS email accounts and certified email concepts but they were always rejected (Silicon Valley will figure it out!)
Show threadColin DevroeFeb 14, 2023

@JIMNOBU @waldoj @anildash and mastodon account?

I can imagine domain names with county and state names in them that would make up both the email address and mastodon instance URL.

Show threadAlex is catching up on sleepFeb 14, 2023
@cdevroe @JIMNOBU @waldoj @anildash that’d make it hard to move interstate. In Australia you can get a .id.au domain for your personal name (see eg the URL in my bio) for which you need to provide government issued photo id. It’s a pretty good system except for name clashes. You can use variations in that case, eg. Initials, middle names, etc. It’s not really a problem because our population is relatively small and only a certain kind of nerd bothers with these domains anyway. But I like the idea.
Show threadWaldo JaquithFeb 14, 2023
@cdevroe @JIMNOBU Those used to be a thing, in the 1990s. I had jaquith.charlottesville.va.us.
Show threadAvi Rappoport (avirr)Feb 14, 2023
@JIMNOBU @waldoj @anildash that reminds me of the early internet, collectivism, before everything got libertarian.
Show thread: j@fabrica:~/src;  Feb 14, 2023
@JIMNOBU Next you’re going to tell me that the post office was the first paid federal office, in place before the United States even had completed its constitution.