Post Office Future Redux

In late 2009 at a “Tea” discussion of the D.C. Chapter of the Internet Society, Michael Nelson, others, and I discussed what the “’Net” was likely to be in the year 2020.  One of the specific areas was what was to become of the U.S. Postal Service.  Following-up, I wrote this blog entry in October of 2009:

http://kaplowtech.blogspot.com/2009/10/net-2020-and-whither-post-office.html

What I tried to point out was that the Postal Service has specific and unique capabilities that can map to problems that appear in the electronic frontier.  With imagination the Postal Service could still be relevant.

With the looming partial shutdown of the Postal system without additional Federal dollars, the system continues to fail to grasp new opportunities that do not necessarily revolve around Saturday delivery of mail (or the clearly below cost delivery of bulk mail enabling enterprises such as NetFlix to flourish).

Let’s try on a 20^th century idea for the Postal Service:

Create a by-law recognized official and legal communication mechanism by electronic mail.  Legal documents delivered by Certified mail are just that.  Current email does not have the non-repudiation, and other characteristics necessary for Certified delivery.  The Postal Service could setup a “Certified” mailbox upon request by anyone.  There are several technical approaches, but the Postal Service accrediting one or more approaches is the point .

So, how are you sure that you have the right person?  There are hundreds of thousands of letter carriers that visit every home and business multiple times every week.  This is the workforce necessary to perform Public Key exchanges (or another form of validation).  The Postal Service could provide and deliver USB-type keys to be used to sign official documents to the government, financial institutions, and businesses.  For over 200 years we trusted the Postal Department (and not the Postal Service) to handle our most critical and personal matters.

And there is more.  Today, fraud in email is handled by local law enforcement and the FBI.  However, with a Postal Service provided capability – whether hosted by the Postal Service, a public service provider, or local to a business – we could start enforcing Postal regulations for the use of these services.  Interfering with this type of email delivery, either by spammers or by hackers, would immediately be a Federal crime with the enforcement starting with the Postal Inspector.

The government has a Constitutional responsibility for providing for the Post.  This purpose was to ensure the operation of Commerce and Law.  The only future for the Postal Service is for it to leverage its unique legal position and explore ways to improve commerce.

Currently, the only talk is about reducing delivery schedules and closing post offices.  Is there anyone out there that has any imagination?