# Why we need a public Internet and how to get one

**URL:** <https://community.spritely.institute/t/why-we-need-a-public-internet-and-how-to-get-one/113>\
**Category:** Social Framing\
**Created:** [May 23, 2022, 4:42pm UTC](https://community.spritely.institute/t/why-we-need-a-public-internet-and-how-to-get-one/113 "2022-05-23T16:42:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jfred](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/community.spritely.institute/jfred/32/18_2.png) [@jfred](https://community.spritely.institute/u/jfred)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2022, 4:42pm UTC](https://community.spritely.institute/t/why-we-need-a-public-internet-and-how-to-get-one/113/1 "2022-05-23T16:42:30Z")

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> **[Why we need a public internet and how to get one](https://www.theverge.com/2022/5/23/23125917/ben-tarnoff-public-internet-interview)**
>
> "What if every library in the US had a social media server?"

Fediverse-adjacent interview I just read that some of you might find interesting. Among other things, it gets into how we can elevate decentralized social networks out of the niches that they usually stay in. It’s a difficult problem.

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**Author:** ![zarutian](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/community.spritely.institute/zarutian/32/24_2.png) [@zarutian](https://community.spritely.institute/u/zarutian)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2022, 11:57pm UTC](https://community.spritely.institute/t/why-we-need-a-public-internet-and-how-to-get-one/113/2 "2022-05-25T23:57:23Z")

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As someone that is not a native English speaker which meaning of the word public is meant here?

Public as in public institution, polity founded and run?

Public as in publicly accessable, that is any joe rando can access?

or something else?

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**Author:** ![tsyesika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc29f/32.png) [@tsyesika](https://community.spritely.institute/u/tsyesika)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2022, 8:55am UTC](https://community.spritely.institute/t/why-we-need-a-public-internet-and-how-to-get-one/113/3 "2022-05-26T08:55:13Z")

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It’s referring to public as in the state is involved.

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**Author:** ![alanhkarp](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/community.spritely.institute/alanhkarp/32/20_2.png) [@alanhkarp](https://community.spritely.institute/u/alanhkarp)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2022, 5:36pm UTC](https://community.spritely.institute/t/why-we-need-a-public-internet-and-how-to-get-one/113/4 "2022-05-28T17:36:14Z")

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Another article making the same point.

> **[Opinion | The Internet Is Broken. How Do We Fix It?](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/27/opinion/technology/what-would-an-egalitarian-internet-actually-look-like.html)**
>
> What would an egalitarian online system actually look like?

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**Author:** ![cwebber](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/community.spritely.institute/cwebber/32/9_2.png) [@cwebber](https://community.spritely.institute/u/cwebber)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2022, 6:35pm UTC](https://community.spritely.institute/t/why-we-need-a-public-internet-and-how-to-get-one/113/5 "2022-06-06T18:35:00Z")

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Language is fuzzy, and “public” can mean the state is involved, but the other option is “in the public interest”, of which the state is one way to accomplish that. Sometimes open source projects, nonprofits, co-operatives, decentralized hosting infrastructure, etc can all provide governance mechanisms to that end. Looking at the top article, I see snippets of all the above mentioned.

I do like the idea of libraries playing a bigger role in such systems.