We're homeschooling. We want to socialize our child by connecting with other local homeschoolers.
- There are literally zero local groups who maintain a current website of any kind.
- They use Facebook groups exclusively.
- They use GroupMe chats to organize and discuss goings-on.
- All signups for co-op classes or activities are done with Google Forms.
- All documents that are shared are through Google Docs.
- Photos from activities are shared on Facebook.
- Nobody involved knows that any of this is a problem.
I am completely lost on how to regularly participate without undoing all my hard work. Right now my plan is to duplicate their privacy-violating services with FOSS and self-hosted options, then try to find a few who will consider using those instead. They're tolerating me currently, but one is already obviously frustrated that I can't just be found and added to groups with the app.
I was blindsided by the ignorance of the homeschool community. There's very little thought present of freedom or sovereignty, in privacy or money. Everything is permissioned, centralized, and doxxed.
I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed. We'll keep on keeping on, but it would be nice to have some switched-on locals to supplement the good Nostr crowd.
nostr:nprofile1qqsrkl7gyds37xh2af37uwlknvjm32ska3hgr5d0cwgzdqy0ux2r2ncpzemhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuvrcvd5xzapwvdhk6yscnpy Curious to hear your thoughts or suggestions on this, also.
this sounds like a battle you can win.
1. test and establish working alternatives to all regularly used tech.
2. present a compelling argument to the group as to why using big tech puts the children at a long term disadvantage and exposes them to mass surveillance, manipulation, and teaches them to be dependent on untrustworthy corporations rather that becoming self sufficient.
3. demonstrate that alternatives exist and work.
That's sort of the plan. I'm going to have Snikket and Nextcloud cued up for chat and file sharing to start. Ente for photos, I think. I can show them that we use this stuff daily, and it works without much drama.
"For the children" is becoming my icebreaker. Nobody ever wants to say they don't care about privacy because their KIDS "have nothing to hide."
