From the San Francisco Chronicle
Online services let cities bypass the mailbox
Alejandro Martínez-Cabrera
Last week, the city of San Francisco sent its first letter to residents using Zumbox, a secure e-mail service that allows senders to contact people online using their street address, which regular e-mail doesn't do....
Adoption of these services would depend a lot on filling a real need and having a good pitch, said Yale Braunstein, UC Berkeley professor of economics of information and communication.
"All they really are are integrated visual enhanced e-mail boxes," he said. "There are two questions for all of them: Do they have the right characteristics to attract users and do they have a financial model that makes sense?"
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