What do we have to do to set up an *independent organisation* in Europe with an endowment from our (EU taxpayers’) money to maintain a free/open, private-by-default web browser that we legislate must be included in all operating systems made available in the EU?
We would likely fork Firefox, remove all the Silicon Valley/commercial bullshit, and hire engineers from Mozilla and elsewhere who want to work somewhere where they have the freedom to work on a browser for the common good without any Silicon Valley/commercial interference.
The challenge here isn’t technical; it’s funding and independence.
To succeed, any such organisation must be free of political interference and its funding must be guaranteed via an endowment and not privy to the whims of short-term political posturing.
@kravietz
Exactly. That's why this idea has great potential as a much needed counterweight to the current interessts tugging on webbrowsers, as they are mainly driven by the ad industry.
@witchescauldron @aral
@xro @kravietz @aral it's a good/bad path, people would be pushing on a open door at the #EU to folk Firefox at mo... Would need a soughted crew and likely in the end get to the same #NGO place that we are in now. A good outcome could do something in the "space" a move like this would open a "commons" for a while #OMN
@witchescauldron @aral In Germany the public media is separated to some degree from short-term politics by separating financing from government decisions. There are people who rally against this, but it is one of the reasons there’s a minimum standard for quality of news that the privates don’t dare to undercut too much. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licence#Germany
@ArneBab @aral we used to have the "public broadcasting" in the UK which your Germany system was likely modeled on after WW2.
It's mostly swept away by the last 40 years of #deathcult worshiping over here. So you have the same pressure?
@witchescauldron @aral Yes, we have pressure, since this year even from a mainstream "conservative" party, but the public television still has majority support.
@ArneBab @aral try and keep it, its better crap or worst crap. The is SOME value in social democratic systems in the face of "common sense" #deathcult worshipping.
@witchescauldron @aral
Ahem, an independent organisation lobbying for a public-funded web browser is technically just as much “political interference” as Google lobbying for the opposite. Any government or international structure such as EU is the sum of political interferences, and it’s only a problem when these are not balanced or some stakeholders are not represented.