Email providers typically provide an email address, a place to store your email and also a program you can use to access it.
For example, Google, the biggest corporate email providers on the planet, offers everyone an @gmail.com address that can be used to reach you. However, Gmail also allows you to come with your own domain name if you’d like.
In addition, Google provides a place to store your email. This services comes with storage limits that vary depending on whether you are on an individual plan or a corporate plan. In addition it comes with their spam filters and other tools for filtering and automatically categorizing your email.
Lastly, Google offers access to their web-based program (gmail.com) and their phone apps. These programs provide an intuitive and familiar way to access your email as well as access to their searching technologies for finding emails in your various mail folders.
While some people may wish to leave Google completely, others may find it easier to leave in stages, with each stage providing an important element of independence that is useful it its own right.
Domain Name independence: Regardless of which email provider you use, everyone can register their own domain name for around $15/year (e.g. instead of being abc@gmail.com, you could register the domain name “example.org” and then use the email address abc@example.org). You can even continue using Google to handle all other aspects of your email while just changing your address. This step means you will no longer be advertising for Google when you hand out your email address and also, if you later move off of Google, you can simply re-point your domain name to a new provider and you don’t have to notify anyone of an email address change. This option costs a bit of extra money that goes directly to Google, so you should be aware of this too.
Email application Change: Even if you keep using Google to store your email, you do not have to use gmail.com or the Google app to access your email. You can use desktop programs like Thunderbird or phone apps (like K9 mail) and point them to your Google account. This step allows you to familiarize yourself with what it will be like to leave Google before making any commitments. Please note for some time now Google is making using your own email clients difficult to enable, and hides it under the “security” settings.
Making the move: When you are ready to make the move, be sure to assess your disk usage and develop a plan with your future host on how to move your existing email from Google. This might be a good time to do some purging of old email and consider new data practices. How long do you want to keep old email?
Calendars
Unlike email, calendars are relatively simple, easy to move and there are many options for calendar hosting. However, since many people rely on calendar invites being sent via email and then automatically being inserted into our calendars, it’s important to consider this move at the same time you are considering your email options to ensure they can work together.
Like email, calendars depend on a server to host the data plus a program (often a web site, but also you can use a desktop application and/or a phone app). Most of the programs and servers speak the same language (an Internet standard protocol called CalDav) that can be used to keep them in sync. For example, you might have a web-based calendar, a desktop calendar and a phone calendar – and all of them can synchronize with the same providerserver.
Check with your email provider to find out what Calendar hosting and integration options are available.
Cloud Storage and Collaborative Document Editing
There are a lot of features associated with Cloud storage and collaborative editing, so it’s important to consider the ones you prioritize so you can find replacements that will work the best for you. Some of the features to consider:
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Do you need documents to be synchronize with your desktop or phone so you can open a Word Document in Microsoft Word on your computer? Or it is enough to simply access your documents via a web browser?
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Do you need to have the ability for multiple people to edit a document at the same time? If so, more than 2 or 3?
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How much disk storage do you need for your documents?
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Do you regularly share documents with people outside of your organization or immediately organizing circle?
Cloud storage is a difficult service to move because it is hard to realize exactly what features are critical to your work. For this reason, it’s advisable to experiment with a new cloud storage service using it for just a small number of documents to get started and test the waters before making a full switch.
Also, as with email, it’s a good idea to purge your cloud document store before you start. If you have a large folders of obsolete documents, start by getting rid of those and tightening up your document retention policies.
There are several popular open source programs used for Cloud storage, including Nextcloud and Cryptpad.
Online Meetings
Online meetings are often the easiest to move to a new provider since the critical feature set is fairly standard and most alternatives have a similar enough interface to Zoom, the dominant corporate player, that making the switch is smooth. However, never under-estimate the frustration of people who join a meeting and cannot be heard! Running a one-on-one test with any members of your team who may have difficulty is a good step.
Common open source alternatives to Zoom include Jitsi Meet and Big Blue Button, that work really well and have been around for many years..
Individual and Group Chat
Many of us use the corporate tools WhatsApp or Telegram for individual or group chats and messaging. There are excellent and easy to use non-corporate alternatives.
Signal is one of the best known alternatives and has a very similar user interface. It can be installed on mobile phones and computers, supports one-on-one chats and group chats. One downside to Signal is that it's centralized service, so if the organization running Signal is shut down, so is the service.
In contrast, there are other chat services that are federated. The downside to federated services is that they are harder start (because you need to find a provider) and often are harder to use. An example of an encrypted, federated and independent messaging systems is Delta Chat. Other federated alternatives include XMPP and Matrix.
Slack is another class of chat that is more designed for corporate environments – it allows administrators to design chat rooms, retain history and offers other features useful for creating a more curated experience. Alternatives to Slack include MatterMost and Zulip.
Please note as of late, many open source chat and messaging systems, specially those providing encryption, have been marketing themselves to the police, military and other such government agencies. [I've read about this but can't find any references - anyone have links for this?]
Websites
Unlike email and other services, web sites are not as centralized to a single corporate provider and have less of an impact on our ecosystem. However, there are still corporate players in this field that are deploy lock-in tactics that make it hard to move providers, or profit from hidden visitor analytics. For example, Square Space and Wix offer easy to use interfaces for designing web sites, but these tools are proprietary making it hard to move if you decide to host else where. Wix in particular, is under boycott by its ties to Israeli military.
In contrast, open source tools like WordPress, Drupal or a whole range of Static Site Generators can be moved to any host, making them more flexible. Static Site Generators provide safer websites, especially to organizations.
Databases
We store some of our most sensitive personal information in our organizing databases, yet many of the most popular corporate database services, such as EveryAction and Salsa, are owned by a venture capital firm while others (like Sales Force and Nation Builder) are owned by companies with questionable politics.
However, going with a free software tool like CiviCRM allows you to have more control over your data and provides an option to choose where to host it.
Social Media
[talk about fediverse here? i think it’s important ~f]