Re: An Internet Kiosk for Postage

[Al Gilman <asgilman@iamdigex.net>]

Post offices with people will most likely survive, but almost certainly the
person at the post office window will be handling a declining share of the
transaction volume.

One upside potential of the postal automaton is, if you can make your
personal digital assistant, Braille-n-speak or Parrot, talk to it, you can
travel a shorter distance to one of these than you otherwise would have to,
to chat with the friendly person at the window.  

In other words, this make a great demonstration case for the argument for
an alternative interface access protocol (AIAP) concept as being pursued by
the National Committee for Information Technology Standards Study Group On
Information Technology Accomodation.  But in these parts you can call it
"Son of URCC."  You may even be able to get your AIAP-compliant kitchen
scale (I use a home-office postal scale for weighing food in cooking) to do
the weighing for you and the server will return the correct postage to your
printer.

Al

At 07:38 PM 2000-03-07 -0600, Kelly Pierce wrote:
>is this the end of post offices with people?  I wonder if accessibility has
>been explored with these guys?
>
>kelly 
>
>The New York times 
>   
>March 6, 2000
>
>COMPRESSED DATA
>
>Mailing Supplier and IBM Try Postage Sales on Net
>
>By CLAUDIA H. DEUTSCH
>
>     So it has come to this. The latest convenience, brought to you by
>     the Internet economy, will be the ability to go out and buy stamps?
>     
>     That is the selling point for the latest offering from Neopost
>     Online, the Internet arm of the mail-room equipment company
>     Neopost. Until now, Neopost Online concentrated on persuading
>     people to download postage from their computers. Now it has formed
>     a partnership with IBM to dot the landscape with kiosks that can
>     dispense postage to those not tethered to a mouse.
>     
>     The self-service kiosks, envisioned for college campuses, grocery
>     stores and post-office lobbies, would enable customers to weigh
>     packages and select a postage category -- say, first class or
>     priority mail. The kiosk would calculate the postage needed, print
>     a digital stamp on a self-adhesive label, and charge the customer's
>     credit card.
>     
>     David Crisp, Neopost Online's chief executive, bridles at the
>     suggestion that the kiosks are digitally gussied-up versions of
>     conventional stamp machines. "All you can do at those is buy a book
>     of stamps," he said. "The kiosks let you weigh packages, get exact
>     postage, do all those things you had to stand on line at the post
>     office for."
>     
>     Actually, the U.S. Postal Service may have the most to gain. The
>     kiosks will save on labor costs, since the Postal Service can
>     automatically replenish the postage levels by computer via the
>     Internet. Moreover, each stamp will contain a two-dimensional bar
>     code that will identify the kiosk where it was issued, a feature
>     that Crisp says will enable the Postal Service to quickly spot
>     bogus stamps.
>     
>     Crisp said 15 kiosks had been in operation in a Florida test for
>     three months, and "they've vended hundreds of thousands of stamps,
>     far exceeding our expectations."
>     
>     He said that Neopost, IBM and the Postal Service had yet to decide
>     on the exact financial arrangements, and even on a schedule for
>     putting kiosks in other states. "But I'd really love to see this
>     rolling out nationally this year," he said.
>       ______________________________________________________________
>     
>