[ukulele]

What if the progression ends up being:

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.

[nathan_long]

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.

[yellowapple]

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.

[alvalentini]

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.