Posts like these always give me a moment of pause to reflect just how expansive the global internet is.

Via <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=47827716">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=47827716</a>

Switserland is a true confederation. It consists of 26 cantons and in most ways each canton is sovereign.As an example, swiss cantons are considerably more independent from the Swiss Confederacy (i.e. what most people know and call &#x27;Switserland&#x27; the entity) than the states of the USA are.As an example of how far that goes: Switzerland essentially does not have a capital. The cantons usually do, though. Bern is the seat of the Federal Assembly and is usually considered the capital, more because social norms and systems are based on the notion that all countries must have one.Swiss cantons can work together and often do, but evidently, not on this.

They also (at the cantonal level) have disparate education systems, with classes and grade levels mismatching between neighboring cantons. Yet, if you check what typical Swiss high school students are actually leaning (say at College de Candolle in Geneva), they are learning 3–5 languages, real literary analysis, and set theory. So somehow it’s working despite not having some perfect plan handed down by central authority. Hmm.

&gt; Switzerland is apparently a federation of federations.And three republics! Geneva, Ticino, and Neuchâte.

Well, without advocating that municipalities would be compelled to use it, isn&#x27;t there at least some national service that they could opt into? I am sure that most of the red on this map is because it&#x27;s a cinch to get Microsoft or Google to host your email. Of course in California we consider GSuite itself to be the green choice.

Switzerland is apparently a federation of federations. Local self-determination. Amazing place if you ask me would move back there in a heartbeat.

&gt; TBQH it&#x27;s crazy to have 2,100 distinct choices.It&#x27;s crazy to have 2100 distinct municipalities? The site isn&#x27;t showing &quot;here are 2100 different email hosts that municipalities in Switzerland use,&quot; but rather &quot;here are the 2100 municipalities in Switzerland, and if you click you can see what host each one uses.&quot;There&#x27;s plenty of overlap, just from a cursory look.

TBQH it&#x27;s crazy to have 2,100 distinct choices. Why isn&#x27;t there a national-level host that frees municipalities from having to think about it?

2,100 Swiss municipalities showing which provider handles their official email