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Open Source Post Office Redux

Submitted by John Geraci on 11 December 2008 - 4:35pm to Discussions.

Wanted to repost this comment that got lost in the shuffle last week. From user baniak:

In Portland, OR ~5 years ago I remember an "Anarchist Post Office" - a DIY bike messenger service that would deliver packages within the city of Portland for free. I moved shortly after that, so I don't know if anything became of it. (And I cannot find any mention of it online.)

The idea stuck with me, and when I stumbled on DIYCity a few days ago, I instantly thought of how technology could make this idea more feasible, and even expand it. Here is a proposal:

A very basic method would be to create a Twitter user for our Open Source Post Office (i.e. OpenPostOffice) service. Users post to @OpenPostOffice with a start zip code, an end zip code, a brief description (size/shape, not contents) of what they want delivered and when they want it delivered:

@OpenPostOffice 60610 to 60660 20 lb. box 12/5/2008

People who read the tweet who will be travelling a similar route (in this example near or through zip code 60610 to or through 60660) can respond with "I will be willing to deliver your package"

Details can be worked out by the two parties outside of Twitter.

(Read baniak's full proposal here).

This idea seems really interesting, though difficult to make work. Seems like it might work best in a small town somewhere with a college campus, like Santa Cruz CA or Eugene OR.

Also, does it need to be bikes? What about just an "I'll pick up your stuff if I'm going your way" service?

If you can coordinate the people who are already in transit along a route with the goods that need to move along that route, you save everyone time and energy.

Possible? Or impossible?

11 Dec23:11

This would work well for

By Anonymous

This would work well for universities with multiple campuses or corporates with many offices. I often need to shift a physical item between our two offices and sending out an email is a pain for everyone. Keeping it within a company/uni would help with the trust issue.

When someone leaves for another campus/office they could twitter "@poffice going to building A" and it could reply with packages in the person's current location that need to go to building A.

.Paul M. Watson

15 Dec04:37

re: This would work well

By John Geraci

I think it could work in that situation too. In general this would work best for small-ish, tightly-knit communities, so college campuses seem ideal in that regard.

This idea reminds me of a phrase from Clay Shirky's book Here Comes Everybody, about how free systems can succeed by "being effective without worrying about being efficient". For an Open Source Post Office to work, you'd have to broadcast to lots and lots of people in order to find the one who would bring you your package. So the system would be inefficient in that regard. But the cost of that inefficiency would be basically zero, as it would just be messages sent out to lots of people and essentially ignored, except for that one person who was in the right place at the right time. So by capitalizing on that free inefficiency, you could actually build a system that was in another sense very efficient, in that it saves people from having to make unnecessary trips across campus or across town themselves.