An Open Source Congress? Digg that!!

Fascinating - I read this Digg and article. The proposition compelled me to Mr. Lessig's movement.

All who read this post should definitely go to Change Congress and sign up! The basic notion here is to explore "open source" dynamics when applied to our legislative process.

My goodness this could become infectious when combined with our connectedness. Check it all out and get a new badge for your site to boot!

Much more to blogitate on this in the future.

Standard Mail and the USPS - a rant and some thoughts on options

A while back - or should I say - a long time ago in a dotcom bubble far far away - I started a company focused on privacy preferencing and identity management. Privaseek (later renamed to Persona) was a grand experiment in building reusable protected identities that could easily express preferences for marketing communications, interests, needs, desires, etc. Back then, P3P was new and young, Microsoft's Passport enterprise referred to us as their competitor (nice but scary compliment), the liberty project which Sun founded became a descendant to our efforts and now OpenID seems to be truly catching on to address the identity persistence portion of Persona model. I am interested in revisiting preference practices in an open standard linked to OpenID and emergent semantic models. More to come on this in the future.

Meanwhile, I read the Washington Post Digg recently regarding the USPS "non-lobbying" efforts to thwart any discussion of preference management for our POMs (plain old mailboxes). Seems odd in an age of focus on our carbon choked environment that we don't have the mechanism in place to CHOOSE what we want to have stuffed in our POMS.

The UK Royal Mail seems to have some of it right:

"Welcome to MPS Online

Mailing Preference Service supports your right to choose the mail you want.

With UK consumers generating over £25 billion worth of postal sales per year, it's fair to say the majority welcome the information and special offers they receive by post. However, it's also understandable why some people might take a different view. The MPS is here to make your choice known - so you get the mail you want and need.

Unwanted, unread Direct Mail has no place in anyone's home. And if you're not interested in receiving it, we will update our records for Direct Mail companies to see and adjust their lists as you request."

So what's the problem here in the colonies? Clearly it centers on USPS revenue and postmaster references to "job loss". See this graphic in the related Washington Post article - truly says it all. USPS fears mass opt-out thereby threatening more than half the volume in the US postal system!

Ok I guess if I were a USPS postmaster or employee I would try to perpetuate mailbox stuffing for survival. However, a broader view needs to occur methinks.

To all my data marketing and direct mail friends - please don't get me wrong - I love my paper catalogs and those 3 inch thick phone books are great for my parrot's litter tray. However, the rest of the trees and our environment need a break.

The Post graphic shows that USPS actually handled 103.5 billion pieces of what they refer to as "standard mail" - their term for junk mail. Wow! Hope someone does the green math on these figures. How much carbon waste could be reduced by a reduction in these volumes? Think about the downstream costs on our waste management and recycling systems.....

Alternatives:
Perhaps its finally time for our USPS to truly enter the digital age. One thought on an approach for our Postmasters to consider is to fully embrace OpenID as a form of digital address space. Imagine what would happen if the USPS essentially granted identities to all addressees in the USA. Essentially bonafide digital identities truly come of age. I could see a scenario in which we are then given choice to receive our "standard" mail via these USPS issued OpenIDs which, in turn, route to the mailboxes of our choice and/or to USPS provided email boxes.

Perhaps USPS is already considering such moves. I haven't heard of such scenarios to date. However, it seems that in the quest for revenue to sustain Ben Franklin's glorious institution new forms of engagement should be pursued.

I can see scenarios in which USPS issued OpenIDs constitute real and authenticated identities that, when wrapped with appropriate mail and communications preferences, could be powerful marketing tools with their own economic dynamics.

Recalling a conversation I had almost 15 years ago with Jim Clark - when Mosaic Communications (Netscape) was weeks young, J.C.'s belief was that the USPS ultimately needed a play in email and identity management. Well here we are J.C. - bureaucracies move slow but perhaps they can still move forward. Seems to me the time has come for this discussion to pick up speed.

Perhaps one day the ageless statement will be modified to:

"neither portals nor social networks nor the scourge of spam stays this modern institution from the swift completion of its appointed rounds"


Blogitate on this as will I further -

"The Client and The Veep"

Well that was a fun Monday wasn't it:

The Client:

Number 9 that is.

Have you lost your pre-frontal cortex dude? What were you thinking?

Next time Elliott - take it to Amsterdam. Atleast its legal there.

By the way - I think he's more worried about that really ticked off look on momma's face than he is the resignation.

Seriously - I fail to understand how guys get themselves in this position.

Then there's this whole $5,000 an hour thing. Geez - no wonder taxes are so high in New York!

So long sheriff.



and now The VEEP

Observations of the on-going campaign dialogue - you gotta love it:

Clinton position Number 1 - You're not experienced enough to be President

Obama position Number 1 - Yes I am

Retort - Not at 3am

Then Donkey John weighs in - neither of you are as "experienced" as I and you sure as hell weren't POWs for 7 years.

Then Bill the spouse (atleast I didn't pay for it Elliott) said - way back when he was elected that - a VP has to be selected based purely on his / her experience and ability to step into the job

The lady and her ex-Prez spouse say: Maybe you can be my VEEP

O(my)bama - I'm in first place why would I do that?

Besides, I thought you said I wasn't experienced enough for Pres so why would I be experienced enough for the Vice post.


The only truly qualified one to be the second as of yesterday is Elliott - he's going to suddenly be available and he is an expert in the "vice".

Happy Blogitating

Welcome Back Woody!!

I first experienced Woody's cook-in sauce when I moved to Texas some 20 years ago. Brisket lovers, burger lovers, Texas T-Bone lovers - they all smeared this stuff on the red-meat preparation of the day. Truly addictive in its flavoring, I soon realized that this is why I moved here.

In late 2006 a crisis in cooking surfaced. Suddenly we couldn't find Woody's anywhere. Kroger shelves were bare and all sources seemed to be indicating that indeed the impossible had happened - Woody's was gone!

Gone? How could this be? In Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and I'm sure a few other regions nearby, Woody's was truly a staple of outdoor living. Extensive online research yielded little - just forlorn and lost souls gathering together on message boards. About the only bright spot was a few marketeers on E-Bay selling the last remaining Woody's jars at upwards of $20 a bottle!! Seriously folks - the boards were so desperate that people were exchanging recipes that would attempt to nearly duplicate the mysteries of this sauce delicacy.

Apparently the owner of the sauce had determined that the market no longer existed for Woody's. How they came to this conclusion is beyond me and practically every other Woody's lover on the planet.

Well, life goes on. One adjusts to the change and loss. Chalk it up with all the other woes of the world $4/gallon gas, mortgage crisis, market shocks, crappy companies that can't hold their market caps because they're idiots - oh I digress - back to Woody's.

This past Saturday, on the usual Kroger grocery run we were suddenly shocked to discover that Woody's had re-appeared on the shelf and in abundance - we jumped for joy, high-fived and scarfed up three bottles of our long lost friend.

Yes it seems to be true - Woody's is back!! Go to Woodyscookin.com to discover or get re-acquainted with this old friend of ours.

Footnote - I am still trying to determine how Woody's made a come-back. Rumor has it that the old company sold the recipe and rights. Their loss but congratulations - if true - to the enlightened buyer and new owner of a cookin treasure.