E-COM: The $40M USPS project to send email on paper

Email, for just under three years, came in a blue-and-white envelope from the United States Postal Service. Every new technology, it seemed—telegrams, telephones, faxes, and faster delivery services alike—had threatened the Postal Service’s monopoly on delivering the mail. This time, the threat seemed existential. A 1982 Congressional report predicted that “Two-thirds or more of the mailstream could be handled electronically,” and “the volume of mail is likely to peak in the next 10 years.” Good thing the mailmen were ready. The Post Office had landed on a plan to co-opt the email revolution. How do you get email to the folks without computers? What if the Post Office printed out email, stamped it, dropped it in folks’ mailboxes along with the rest of their mail, and saved the USPS once and for all? And so in 1982 E-COM was born—and, inadvertently, helped coin the term “e-mail.” Mail on the wire The original study that recommended the USPS start sending email, for everyone. It ... Read full article.