

Why hasn't the U.S.P.S. developed a federal email strategy? - winternett

Its been ages since the advent of email. Why hasn't the US government transitioned postal service into the Internet age?<p>It would make spoofing accounts, e-mail scams, and possibly most spam a federal offense.<p>Social Networking and other sites would be required to operate more ethically to prevent being cited for misuse.<p>A "Do Not Mail" registry could possibly more easily established.<p>It would create a stable/easier means of paying bills.<p>It would allow mail to be more organized both for Gov services and US residents.<p>It would make your email more attributable to an address, increasing credibility for vital email messages.<p>More systems admins would be hired by the USPS.<p>The government could shift its focus from heavy machinery to server architecture.<p>Locations could be set up to print out email into official and/or notarized copies, eliminating the need for physical mail delivery (eventually).<p>We wouldn't have to rely on private services (Like HotMail, Gmail, AOL, Yahoo etc.) monopolizing our mail service and then shutting it down if they decide to end the service, of if they fail.<p>Federal email can be tied to each user's physical address or mobile device, solving problems of identity. (No less private than the current mail system and still protected by Federal Law).<p>Other email services would still be able to flourish and fail despite Feds providing email service, so that you can transfer legal pron without being tracked, don't panic, I'm not talking about the USPS being the only e-mail carrier service here.<p>I can't believe this hasn't happened yet, would like to hear what the HN community thinks about this.
======
duck
Although the USPS is the only government service that actually makes money, it
only does so because it is a monopoly. Some of your points seem like they
would work and/or nice to have, but in the end, I think it would be a failure
because of how inefficient they are. Plus at least half of the people want
private services because they trust them more.

One recent example that I have to share - my wife and I just got back a
Christmas card last week that we sent out this past December. The
address/postage were correct, but it seems like the previous owner of our
friends house had a forwarding address setup and it somehow screwed up
delivery. My wife was angry that we just got it back and I was amazed that
they hadn't lost it in the last nine month.

~~~
winternett
Haha, nice one. I think the USPS could provide a point-to point printing
service where users would go to post offices and run their letters through a
secure, encrypted scanning device, their mail could be emailed to the location
their mail is addressed to and then printed out onto official stationary or
special stock for cards etc... The email could then be locally distributed
from regional offices, reducing delivery time, and paper; mail could be
tracked easily because it could be linked to the sender's email address, and
it could be re-routed easily if errors occur (as in your Christmas card
example) There are so many ways the USPS could win by implementing email, and
we, as mail senders would benefit immensely from the change also.

Easy to use scan/print devices could easily be made to link users to the USPS
to allow faxes via email or point-to-point mail delivery without going to post
offices, your local post office would have a lot more space for an Internet
Cafe.

The mail system is unreliable now because its technically bankrupt, but I
firmly believe if this kind of reorganization should have happened years ago,
if someone there had that kind of vision earlier the USPS would be thriving
today instead of talking about closing on Saturdays...

Sounds like a solidly "untapped" start-up opportunity, no?

~~~
zapmail
Already been tried, and failed: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapmail>

