Speaking of antiquated ways of doing things, I’ve often wondered if the U.S. Postal Service might be better off transitioning to more of an IT role. Perhaps it could rebrand itself as a Information Delivery or Information Directory service and deliver both hardcopy (i.e., mail) and softcopy (i.e., email,fax,etc.) materials to Americans. I’ve often wondered if it should play the role similar to IANA in routing traffic on the Internet.
I’ve also thought before that the postal service missed an opportunity to take on the directory role by providing each American with a free .us email address.
The postal service has long been an information delivery service, it’s just that now an increasing amount of this delivery is taking place on the Internet. Could the USPS one day deliver packets the way it now delivers packages?
It would be nice. I fear that the USPS has a long established monopoly entitlement mindset. I can’t believe that they’d be ready to compete with Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and the CableCo’s.