EMFA: T4E4 - Public E-mail Booths? - Baird

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Theme:  Private and Public Roles
Author: Zoe Baird, President, Markle Foundation
E-mail: emfa@publicus.net 


[Host Note:  This appeared in today's Christian Science Monitor 
at: http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1998/05/14/fp19s2-csm.htm ]


Public E-Mail Booths? Democratizing Technology

By Zoe Baird

Although usually born of necessity, once in a while invention
springs to life spontaneously, creating a need where none existed
before. Over the years what first appeared as exotic, if only
marginally useful, technologies - radio, television, fax, even
the first computers - are exactly such phenomena, mushrooming
unexpectedly into central elements of our lives. Today e-mail
presents itself as the next potential candidate, but in order to
succeed, it must be two things: accessible and useful.

For e-mail to succeed, access has to be as simple as using the
phone. That the Internet currently uses phone lines suggests this
is possible, that with correct public policy we may achieve
universal access.

What remain to be implemented are the assurances, which we often
take for granted, provided by first-class mail: privacy,
authenticity, and integrity of the message. The good news is that
the technology that would allow these features to exist already
does. Nothing more need be invented. What is needed are the
proper "certifying authorities," a system, like the postal
service, to regulate and make it all happen, and the government
is already moving in this direction.

Perhaps the more important issue, however, is the second: whether
e-mail, and universal access to it, is truly useful. As was the
case with the radio in its early days, the issue isn't only how
well the technology works, but what you can actually do with it.
In its early days, radio languished as a curious but nonessential
bit of technology; It was not until radio dramas were used to
sell soap flakes, what later became "soap operas," that radio
began its rise to popularity.

The Internet has moved well beyond this point. In terms of
e-mail, however, more useful and more important functions can and
should be targeted. Though we are still in the early, awkward
"adolescence" of e-mail, it is possible to look beyond
technological bottlenecks and visualize some of the truly useful
paths this technology might take.

The US government spends $350 million annually, for example, to
notify its citizens of the results of their submissions to
Medicare.

According to a study underway at RAND, some 500 million of these
Explanations of Medical Benefits, (EOMBs) are sent by Medicare to
Americans every year. And with the newly passed Kennedy-Kassebaum
bill, there will be an increase in notification to 700 million a
year.

A MAJOR problem with EOMBs is that they can only be sent to "the
address of record" - so that for the many Americans whose lives
are in transit, delays in notification can occur. But e-mail
follows you wherever you are. Imagine the benefits of having
public e-mail kiosks as ubiquitous as public phone booths, where
a few key strokes would forward the EOMB to your Medigap
Insurance or other carrier for reimbursement of the balance.
Health information is only the tip of the iceberg; universal
e-mail would have similar effects on tax returns, Social Security
benefits, and student loans.

This year, the Federal Communications Commission is reviewing
Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 - which,
according to FCC Chairman William Kennard, "is intended to
promote the deployment of advanced telecommunications
infrastructure to all Americans," in what the legislation itself
calls "a reasonable and timely fashion." The FCC has a great
opportunity to be a catalyst for the evolution of powerful
applications of technology, including universal e-mail.

Zoe Baird is the president of the Markle Foundation, a
philanthropic organization that focuses on mass communication 
in a democratic society.




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