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Thursday, July 20, 2000
It's not unusual for me to receive questions like, "Who needs e-mail, when I can pick up the phone or put a letter in the real mail- box?" and "Why doesn't the United States Postal Service catch up with the Internet world?"
These questions suggest that some people see the U.S. Postal Service as behind in technology, while others view it as the real game in town. A few days ago, I had the opportunity to speak with the deputy postmaster general of the United States, John Nolan, and he helped put some perspective on the way the Postal Service sees itself relating to the Internet. (For full disclosure, my clients at the USPS arranged the meeting.)
The first revelation that came from our discussion is that the Postal Service sees the Internet as a terrific tool to control the delivery of traditional paper mail, and it is working on Internet services that will allow citizens to track the path of mail en route, and perhaps even allow mailers and recipients to reroute a first-class letter or package in transit using a Web interface. We probably won't see this capability for several years, but when we do, there will be obvious far-reaching effects.
In the meantime, the organization will continue to develop and market electronic products such as the Electronic Postmark, eBill Pay, and other products that can be added to standard e-mail through the e-mail provider to enhance the service, and, we may hope, make it more secure.
Have a question for David Radin? Contact him at his Web site
Nolan also dissolved a misconception that I had about the electronic postmark, in that I thought that e-mail tamperers who mess with electronically postmarked messages would be considered mail-fraud artists. Instead, I found his position to be that every piece of e-mail sent over the Internet should be subject to the same laws related to tampering and fraud, whether or not the USPS is involved in the delivery -- that tamperers should be investigated and, if appropriate, prosecuted. The added incentives of using the electronic postmark are simply that the message is traceable, the date of delivery can be confirmed beyond reproach, and if there are discrepancies related to the direct delivery of the message, the USPS is involved in the investigation.
The financial backdrop of the USPS means that electronic delivery and other electronic services will continue to evolve as partnerships between the USPS and corporations. The USPS cannot offer stock option packages to attract technical gurus. Nor can it act as a venture capital organization to fund esoteric technologies. Its charter doesn't allow for either. But it must market products that pay their way and contribute to the burden of the USPS work force -- 85,000, including your local carrier. Otherwise, their primary mission to provide universal service to U.S. citizens will break down.
My conversation with Nolan reinforced my preconception that the U.S. Postal Service will rarely be the first out of the blocks with a new electronic technology; but means that when it does release electronic services, we can expect universal reach and applicability, and support that is based not on haste but on thoroughness.
Q: Is there a shortcut to reach my compose window?
A: Your e-mail composition window is a simple key combination away. If you use Microsoft Outlook, concurrently press Control and N to pop up the window in which you compose your e-mail messages. If you use America Online or Netscape Communicator, press the Control and M combination. What happens if you mistakenly press Control and N in these two programs? In AOL, you'll pop up a notepad window. In Netscape Communicator, you'll pop up a Netscape Navigator Web browser.
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