Nov 17, 2009
Some serious and painfully dumb (though, hopefully, not harmful) wheel re-invention
Like this post?
Minneapolis now communicates with citizens via “paperless mail,” claiming it’s “the first practical alternative to traditional postal systems”
Ever heard of “email”?
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Heh. Good stuff. Seems like something the Onion would have written.
It looks like the idea is that they can send “paperless mail” to your physical address without having to obtain your email addresses. I can see why they would be excited. This would greatly benefit my church’s newsletter distribution. But you’re right; it’s a bit overhyped.
Actually that is pretty cool — with email, they have no way of knowing who exactly it goes to. If they can match email to a physical address, then that is a lot more useful to them.
Yeah, it’s still an email mechanism, but it’s also a little different.
PS: http://twentytwowords.com/2009/11/05/being-finicky-is-crying-wolf/ ;)
I’m not saying it doesn’t have some nifty functionality, but there’s no way it’s going to work.
Instead of using a proven (albeit limited) technology that everybody is accustomed to and already using, they’re bringing in a brand new, seemingly unnecessary technology that will require people to add one more thing to track.
Not gonna happen.
P.S. Ouch. Though I’d say I’m being observant more than finicky, but I’ll take the critique… :)
You may be right. Perhaps they could just have had an email form and then have the person enter the postal address.
But they need a system that makes sure the person will receive the mail. Email won’t do this, because you’re not sure if their email has changed, if they’ve moved, and what their physical address is. Also someone could just put any email in, fake the postal address, and you’ve potentially screwed someone over or made it so they can’t sign up.
This system probably solves most of those disadvantages from a logistical point of view.
But if no one uses it or wants to use it, then it doesn’t really matter what problems it solves.
Am I assuming correctly that there would be some kind of “postage” to be bought?
When I read that the Postal Service was in the red this year in the billions – it can only be a short time before there is a way to fix postage meters to e-mail accounts.
No, I’m not conspiracy oriented. However, I’ve been around long enough to have a reasonable guess about bureaucratic, smoke-filled room. Besides, as the psychiatrist said to his patient, “Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t meant they’re not out to get you.”
Now, if I could sign up to have my Zumbox forwarded to email – then that would be something nice.
…or like Facebook, which sends you an email (optionally) that you have a message…
I’m launching a new business to help let all my friends know what’s going on in my life. It’s called Phitter. Basically, I record a brief message and then have an automated system robocall all my friends’ cell phones.
The city of Minneapolis actually asked me to consult with them on their paperless mail initiative. I told them I’d think through some feedback and put it on my Phitter feed.
Seems like someone pulled a fast one on the city, and probably way over charged them for it. Pretty smart, actually.
This will not happen when Joey is finally elected Mayor!
http://joeyformayor.com/
I tried out Zumbox—mainly because I couldn’t figure out what in the world it was, and I thought that by signing up I might figure it out a little more. They need to do a much better job of explaining what the concept is. It is distinct from email, in that its based on physical address—thus mostly useful for cities, neighborhoods, etc. But it seems to have a ton of drawbacks. I completely agree with the premise, but the execution and explanation doesn’t make sense.
It’s a great idea if everyone in the city has access to the internet. I’m guessing though that we haven’t reached the 100% threshold yet, so all those people without access to the internet won’t get these “paperless mail” notifications from the city.