This post is about buy local, but not the way you might think.
It fact, it's more of a 'Think Local', and by that I mean supporting the 'small business' in the tech industry.
We all know who the tech giants are out there, so not much point of me linking to them (and advertising them for free). You can get your social networking for free, your email for free. I'm willing to bet the very web browser you are reading this on now was guess what -- free!
The internet, for all it's positives and negatives, is effective at bringing people together, at letting us communicate with others half way around the globe, like they were a neighbor in our own back yard.
So when offered something for free many people jump on it downloading he latest free browser, signing up for free webmail, joining large social networks - and why not right?
The thing is none of this is really for 'free' these big companies are in it for big profit, and they do it simply by selling your personal information.
And what really blows my mind about this - is if you ask people - 'Would you pay just $12/year' to not have your information stolen' - people will say 'No', that they 'demand it for free'
As a developer myself, with three kids, I can tell you I am grateful for my job, it let's me pay to support my family, but it would also be nice to put out their some of my own creative works, that others find interesting... dare I say useful even, and be supported by it. But just like it's hard for the local small business competing with 'big tech' who give things for free (again by selling your personal information) to actually make products can be almost near impossible.
Here are some 100% completely free tools (that don't steal any personal information), that setup their software as 'donation' ware. Consider showing them, as well as the local geek you know some love by donating to help support their work, the same way you donate to buy local.
Signal is a non-profit company with a devotion to privacy, the messenger works on android, apple, windows, linux- Completely end to end encrypted and free to use - Truly private conversations (text, video, audio) with individuals and groups)
Social
Networking systems that don’t advertise! Run by local admins. Sign up to any
server your want, and your content is shared with all other servers in the
network (run by other admins)
Just Donate
to your local admin for the cost of them running the server. Donate to other
admins too if you want. Do all your social networking for free, without anyone
tracking you and without any ‘fancy algorithms’.
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