Here’s some of the reasons I think this might be a good idea. Let’s look at the functions of the United States Postal Service:

• delivery of mail (connecting people)
• delivery of packages
• official endorsement of dated materials (think tax returns being postmarked)
• official government documents (issuing of passports, etc.)
• economic exchange (delivery of paychecks, tax returns, invoices)

These are the basic functions that I believe are provided by the postal service. As I stated in my earlier post, thinking about the Internet being considered more of a utility, what would the impact of the USPS being the entity responsible for the management and protection of that infrastructure.

• delivery of mail ultimate function is to connect to people. The functionality of the Internet in this capacity is obvious.
• delivery of packages is more of a challenge. I think this could easily be completely taken over by FedEx, UPS, DHL and other delivery companies
• official endorsement of documents could be enabled with more development on digital signatures
• the issuance of official government documents could either be continued to be down by the USPS, or perhaps distributed out to local BMV’s
• economic exchange could be pushed more to electronic distribution with more development and enforcement of secure transactions

Post from: EveryJoe

USPS Should Ditch Mail and Manage Internet

I’ve always considered Internet access more of a luxury item than something like a utility. If you didn’t have Internet access you could still get by with life.

My decision may have changed though as I started to think about another government service that has been visibly getting replaced by the Internet, and specifically e-mail. That’s right, the United States Postal Service.

Similar to my last post about phone books and yellow pages, I begin to question why we still need and keep the post office around all of our towns and communities. Although we don’t always think about the other services and functions that the United States Postal Service provides to us and our communities, they do a lot more than just deliver envelopes and junk mail to our doors.

Stay tuned as I’ll share more of my thoughts on exactly what the USPS does and how I think the standardization and infrastructure responsibility of the Internet could potentially become the postal service’s next life efforts.

Later we’ll talk about how I really think the infrastructure of the Internet could be a good effort for government involvement.

Image: Gregory Jordan on flickr

Post from: EveryJoe

Internet Access as Government Utility

You might ask yourself, why? Why hydrogen? Why now? A $600 Million increase in fuel costs might be one reason. We can’t look past the fact that they are testing new vehicles out, either. It may be a sham to appease the public for now, but what they learn may make a real difference.

Of course, ask them and they say they’ve been testing alternatives since the battery-run cars of the early 20th Century. They’ll also say they have 43,000 autos “capable” of using alternative fuels. Capable, shmapable. I hope they figure out a plan to switch to different trucks, because using nearly $2 Billion in fuel results in a heck of a lot of pollution.

Source: U.S. Postal Service

Post from: EveryJoe

US Post Office Gives Hydrogen a Try