Re:Public Sans – A strong, neutral typeface for text or display
by nathan_long on Monday April 08, 2019 @02:15PM
(#19607650)
Why would we go beyond step 2? As a taxpayer, I could buy the argument that the govt needs a new font, and that, having made one, it should make said font available for free so taxpayers can get the benefit.
I don't see why my taxes should fund a public CDN, though.
Re:Public Sans – A strong, neutral typeface for text or display
by yellowapple on Monday April 08, 2019 @03:03PM
(#19608086)
It's possible (probable, even) that the government would want to use a CDN for static assets (like fonts) for the same reasons that sufficiently-large private orgs would want to use a CDN for static assets.
In that case, it's also possible (probable, even) that some particularly-lazily-developed smaller sites would simply point to those same CDNs instead of hosting things themselves (much like how quite a few sites point toward CDN-hosted versions of jQuery and FontAwesome and such).
The only remaining step would then be for that taxpayer-funded CDN to cache any and all taxpayer-funded static assets.
Re:Public Sans – A strong, neutral typeface for text or display
by alvalentini on Monday April 08, 2019 @02:35PM
(#19607857)
Why not? It all depends on how important as an infrastructure CDNs will become. I know that in the States you prefer things to be privately held, but it's not too absurd imagining a future where CDNs are an essential and fundamental service to every day life for the vast majority of the population.
1. Publicly-funded font(s) created
2. Use on govt websites grows
3. Publicly-funded CDN used for said govt site assets
4. Other, non-govt sites use said font(s)
5. Govt becomes asset host for web basics across thousands of non-govt sites
This may be another step in CDN lifecycle of startup --> megacorp --> commoditization --> govt service.