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EMAIL And Its Opportunities For USPS

By V. A. SHIVA     VASHIVA@MIT.EDU

For 20 years, as the Infographic shows, the US Postal Service (USPS) did not recognize EMAIL as a contender to their organization. In their focus in delivering physical mail, which they performed commendably, they lost track of another part of their mission: to be a communications organization processing and delivering MAIL. As the format of MAIL was explosively changing from paper to electronic, they remained silent and content, holding its highly respectable status as a $50 billion organization and viewing themselves as any other highly successful business such as Walmart. Proactive change from USPS could have diverted the current disaster of having to lay off 120,000 workers, which is initiated by the Congress. The leadership was slow in reconnecting themselves with the innovative roots of an organization started by Benjamin Franklin, an epitome of American innovation and resourcefulness.

It is not that hard to conclude that had Franklin been running the USPS, he surely would have taken advantage of the emerging new format of “Electronic” MAIL, EMAIL, given that it resembled much of the paper MAIL processes he had setup: delivering a document to a particular “To:” address, ensuring proper routing across a network of failure points, verifying that the originator or the “From:” address was real, and among other things providing security and trust from point to point. Franklin’s innovation including the precise systems he developed created a creed and the USPS‘ trusted brand, “neither snow nor rain…”

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