Re: Vint Cerf Says Government Needs To Encourage Internet Competition

Chuck Lewis wrote:

Interesting read:

http://tinyurl.com/4nrjeb

Not much new in there, but I really liked the closing paragraph:

>> The Internet is also the place to go for tax forms, Social Security forms, immigration forms, and more, Weight wrote. "But if government agencies are going to balance their budgets by making access to their services, forms and information primarily available via electronic means, then there needs to be some sort of coordinated support for that access," Weight said. <<

I've always had a nervous feeling about the 'post roads/offices' clause of the Constitution here in the U.S.A.

"I can't say what art is, but I know it when I see it."

Can the same be said about 'post roads/offices'? How is sending info over the internet different in principle from sending info over post roads through post offices? We easily imagine e-"mail" as a concept. We worked up "Simple Mail Transport Protocol" and "Post Office Protocol". We have addresses that get delivered to; we send and receive. Delivery is over routes.

In the past decade, I've gone to regional IRS sites to pick up various forms, and the only way to get some of them were via the internet. (I've lived in a couple isolated areas where 'regional offices' aren't well stocked.)

_Should_ we expect a Federal effort to be involved in it somewhere?

Tom Liotta