A Left-friendly email service provider? October 15, 2012
Posted by Tomboktu in Capitalism, Community, Ethics, Internet, Other Stuff, Society, Trade Unions, Workers Rights.trackback
Hi Folks,
My main email account has been with ireland.com since the 1990s. Today they sent an email to say they are closing the service in less than a month (so the domain can be transferred to Tourism Ireland).
I could simpy transfer everything to my back-up gmail account, and may do that simply to ensure that I have the data. However, I was wondering of any readers of CLR know of a Left-friendly email service provider?
So, what would be Left-friendly? My ideal would be one run as a co-op, and I wouldn’t mind paying for that, but I’ve no notion if there are any or if any I might find thrpugh an internet search are secure or reliable. My second preference would be one run by a company that recognises unions. (When I got my first mobile phone, I checked with the CWU to see which providers recognised it and/or other unions. The initial reply gave me a list of companies where the union has members, but I did get an answer the specific question a few days later. I don’t know how often the union gets a query like that.)
Thanks,
Tomboktu
Dear Account Holder,
The Irish Times and Tourism Ireland today announced a digital content cooperation agreement to promote Ireland as a tourist destination. The agreement spans a number of areas, including the sale of the ireland.com domain name to Tourism Ireland. Tourism Ireland will use the ireland.com url to attract more web traffic and enhance the promotion of Ireland overseas.
As a result, we wish to inform our @ireland.com email subscribers that the service will be discontinued from November 7th, 2012. From midnight on this date, you will no longer be able to send or receive messages. You will, however, be able to access your account until December 7th for the purpose of transferring any data (i.e. emails, tasks, documents, appointments and/or contacts) currently saved on your account. We are writing to advise you of this change and to ensure the transition to a new service provider is as seamless as possible.
To aid the transition, we have provided a step-by-step guide and FAQs on ireland.com and a helpline has been established to assist wherever possible. The helpline will operate between 8am and 8pm weekdays on telephone 1890 876 666 or 01 685 6999 or email customerservice@digitalworx.ie .
We would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused to our valued customers.
John O’Shea
Head of Online, The Irish Times
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
Sad to see Ireland.com go. I have found it increasingly erratic over the past couple of weeks and almost impossible to access. It is a sad end to one of the.best of the early Irish sites and no, I don’t know a leftish alternative. Maybe an opening for someone
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I too suffered from recent erraticism (though I didn’t access it for over a week when I was away). I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the eraaticism was caused by preparations for the transfer to the tourism company.
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riseup.net is interesting.
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Perhaps http://www.connect.ie? I’m not up to date with them, though, bjg
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Yeah, check riseup.net or so36.net. Both are noncommercial leftwing email servers…
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I have used ireland.com many times daily for 15+ years, and am disgusted that we get 3 weeks notice to vacate! Many useres may not have even heard yet. I think a 6 month orderly shutdown would be much more appropriate. I set up gmail in a panic last night, as it will take a certain amount to transfer everything across, but I would have liked a bit more time to do it more orderly. I’m not happy right now.
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Follow this issue at: http://www.facebook.com/ReverseIreland.comClosure
This decision is not just about inconvenience to users of ireland.com email accounts.
The ability to promote Ireland through increased use of the ireland.com email service clashes with Tourism Ireland’s stated aim of “rolling out an extensive marketing plan to capitalise on the strong interest in the island of Ireland.”
The decision also jars with the Programme for Government pledge, “to support international marketing and advertising programmes” to enhance Ireland’s external image.
It is also at odds with ‘The Gathering 2013’ project – “The initiative is an invitation to the wider world to connect with the people of Ireland in business, the arts, sports, communities and public life.”
What better way to promote Ireland than to get more people using the ireland.com email service?
Let’s have some joined-up policy thinking.
Ask Tourism Minister Leo Varadkar to intervene to reverse this decision.
Email Minister Varadkar: minister@dttas.ie
And cc Tourism Ireland: corporate.admin@tourismireland.com
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[…] year, I mentioned (in passing) that when I when I first bought a mobile phone, I made a point of buying fr…. I did not mention then that I had also done some research to see if I could buy a model that […]
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This looks really interesting. If it flies it would offer a genuine alternative. Btw which mobile provider is not anti union?
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