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E-mail and Snail Mail United

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the thinkin-with-your-noggin dept.

bahree writes "The BBC has an interesting story about how some people living in some of the most inaccessible areas of India are enjoying an improved postal service - thanks to the combining of e-mail with traditional 'snail mail'."

12 of 101 comments (clear)

  1. Speaking of the post office by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Email and online bill paying must some day put them out of business. I know they had financial difficulties for a while. I bet they will have to adapt in the coming years or die off.

    1. Re:Speaking of the post office by Blackneto · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The USPS is adapting.
      Tracking is offered for packages now.
      It's still cheaper than UPS, Fed Ex.
      And offers everything the primary commercial transfer companies do except for next day.
      Plus they deliver on saturday for no extra charge. Something that fed ex and UPS have comparatively recently offered.
      Any letter up to 1 ounce is frequently delivered across town in one business day for the current rate of 37 cents. (at least if moves that fast where i live)
      The USPS and the IRS are some of the most adaptive entities of the US government.

      --
      Ursula Andress, Catherine Deneuve, and Charo, twice...
  2. Not just in India... by pubjames · · Score: 4, Interesting


    I live in Spain, but do a lot of business in the UK. Important snail mail that arrives to our UK offices is scanned and emailed to me.

  3. Feh. by shumacher · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Clever thing, using the computers that way. I've offered to do the same thing for a friend in Iraq. Cuts a few days off. News? Barely.

  4. Old story - or I'm Psyhic by craznar · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Precognication Here

    --
    EMail: 0110001101100010010000000110001101110010 0110000101111010011011100110000101110010 0010111001100011011011110110
  5. V-Mail by iCharles · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The concept (handwritten letter->intermediary format->printed copy) reminds me of V-Mail in World War Two. People states-side would write a letter to their man in uniform on a special form. This form would be printed on microfilm, and carried over to Europe or the Pacific. The letters would be printed and handed out to the troops.

    The advantage was that the mail took up significantly less weight. 150,000 letters could be reduced from 2,500 lbs to around 45 lbs. The space savings could be used for war material.

  6. The future of the post office by tanguyr · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Email and online bill paying must some day put them out of business. I know they had financial difficulties for a while. I bet they will have to adapt in the coming years or die off.

    Certification Authorities. Think about registered mail: i can send you a letter from anywhere in the world and get a proof that it was delivered to you and only you. The post office is a federal governmental entity with offices all over the country, and they know who you are (well, at least your address).

    In the near future, you might go down to the post office, show some form of accepted identification and they would generate a personal certificate for you, free or for some nominal charge. The problem with current commercial CAs is that they are basically about certifying businesses. They will issue personal certificates to individuals, but their main interest in that area is selling certification infrastructure to corporations for use on their networks. When it comes to the idea of standardized "electronic identification cards" (optional or mandatory...) the PTOs look like a very good candidate. /t

    --
    #!/usr/bin/english
  7. Been done. By FedEx Zapmail by netringer · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The US Post Office (as it was called then) looked into doing this very thing - Faxing snail mail to the post office nearest the addressee. Luckily for them the usual government bureaucracy held them up from getting in place in time.

    Federal Express CEO Fred Smith made a huge investment in FAX over a private satellite network called Zapmail. The idea being they could do better than next day delivery by getting documents there in the next few hours.

    Unfortunately for them high-speed FAX machines using dial-up phone lines became cheap and common and ZapMail was abandoned in a year.

    --
    Ever dream you could fly? Get up from the Flight Sim. I Fly
  8. FAX? by Flamesplash · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How is this different than a fax machine exactly?

    --
    "Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door." - Emily Dickinson
  9. lets go to x.400! by yulek · · Score: 2, Interesting
    x.400 already has postal address elements built in. and as an added bonus, Microsoft Exchange already supports x.400 (in fact, the MTA is built on x.400 routing, SMTP is just a connector (read gateway)).

    just email me @ x.400:G=William; S=Gates; CN=bgates; O=microsoft; OU=xstaff; PD-PN=Bill Gates; PD-S=1 Redmond Way; PD-A1=building 8; PD-CODE=98052; PD-C=USA...

    --
    in this age of communication i'm just not getting through
  10. Re:Western Union Did It First by antielectron · · Score: 2, Interesting
    >> Guys, this is just a modest update of an already existing technology: the telegram.

    The news here is not the technology (which is pretty straightforward in this case) but the delivery of a workable application of it at a price point the market will bear.

    Try to covince Western Union to go into the business of connecting people living in the higher inaccessible reaches of the Himalayas (many for whom the price of a 37c US first class postage stamp will pay their living costs for a day) with their family and friends in the rest of the country.

    >> No news here. Couldn't system resources be better used watching for SCO's latest folly?

    Wait till you see SCO going after the email operators over there ...

  11. Same system launched in China late 2000 by grainofsand · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Exactly the same system was launched in China in late 2000. At the time, the Chinese postal service "promised" that it would not read any of the emails.

    The system has not been an overwhelming success.

    --
    A dream is good. A plan is better.