How about organizing a summit to disrupt the USPS?
I got involved in the question of the future of postal, oddly, because of my book, What Would Google Do? [sorry for the plug], when postal execs asked what the USPS would be if Google ran it. Hmmm. You guys could help answer that.
A consultant in the industry organized an event in DC, PostalVision 2020, and we had Vint Cerf come keynote. I'd like the next phase to focus on how to disrupt postal entirely.
First class will die and with it its subsidy for media and other mail. Parcels will take off but the private sector can handle that. (If we need to guarantee universal service, that can be done with subsidies -- a la, phones -- better than by owning the infrastructure). There are entrepreneurial ventures such as Manilla aiming to disrupt physical bill delivery..... It's an area ripe for innovation and investment.
But I think the scale enabled by the net creates such profound efficiency and disintermediation. craig newmark sees himself as a philanthropist of classifieds; his (estimated) $100m business helped disrupt more than $13b in classified revenue. The funds are a dividend for the transactors so the value is not gone, but jobs are.
Look, too, to Clay Shirky's cognitive surplus. In the comments on this post at Google+, Eric Reasons brought up entertainment as an example. They get a double whammy. The people formerly known as the audience (TM Jay Rosen) now have more ways to entertain/distract themselves and can "consume" less entertainment. They also can make more entertainment, ending the scarcity and providing no end of free competition to the industry. There will be much more entertainment, but fewer jobs from it.
Look at retail. Practical necessity required there to be brick-and-mortar stores with much inventory and sales staff across the country as a channel of fulfillment. No more. RIP Borders. Now it is much more efficient, of course, to consolidate and fulfill commodity goods at a distance. Thank you, Amazon. Again, fewer jobs, which won't be replaced.
Transparent pricing in the market will lower prices and reduce the ability of retailers to benefit from pricing opacity. More efficiency. Less profit. Fewer jobs.
Even in my "trade," education, we know what's coming: open courseware will replace third-rate lectures.
Yes, I'm well aware that say, in the shift from agrarian to industrial economies, efficiency shifted jobs from farms (greater efficiency) to factories (greater wealth). The factory equivalents today -- startups -- create great wealth but with fewer jobs.
I say none of this to criticize technology. It's just reality. I will argue as I explore this topic that we must look at policy alternatives for more investment in entrepreneurial ventures and education (of both youth and displaced workers).
I got involved in the question of the future of postal, oddly, because of my book, What Would Google Do? [sorry for the plug], when postal execs asked what the USPS would be if Google ran it. Hmmm. You guys could help answer that.
A consultant in the industry organized an event in DC, PostalVision 2020, and we had Vint Cerf come keynote. I'd like the next phase to focus on how to disrupt postal entirely.
First class will die and with it its subsidy for media and other mail. Parcels will take off but the private sector can handle that. (If we need to guarantee universal service, that can be done with subsidies -- a la, phones -- better than by owning the infrastructure). There are entrepreneurial ventures such as Manilla aiming to disrupt physical bill delivery..... It's an area ripe for innovation and investment.
A few of my earlier posts: http://www.buzzmachine.com/2011/05/18/why-do-we-need-a-posta... http://www.buzzmachine.com/2010/03/23/post-postal/