As much as it *pains* me, I’m going to pass this idea off. I really hope someone does it someday, but it is a big and hairy business plan that would be difficult to execute. Why? Well, because it involves working with the government and need I say more?
(For non-technical folks) IP addresses are like street addresses. They give you a specific location to route packets (think packages) to. Domain names are just easy names for us to remember, because most of us are not equipped to remember long strings of numbers. It is much easier to remember http://www.coke.com instead of 216.64.210.28. Maybe I did a bad job of explaining this, but it is important to how this idea came about.
I was sitting on my stoop thinking about a routing problem (aka package delivery!) I was working on and suddenly the idea appeared. I guess I need to explain how my mind works sometime, because literally, ideas “appear” and they are picture perfect. Its almost as if there’s another Cyan who’s thinking about cool things and decides to hijack me out of the blue by presenting images to me. The idea, that appeared was simply this:
Cyan
123 Cyan Street
Mars 94107
What if everyone could have their own vanity street? What if it was the only street address they ever needed to have for the rest of their lives?
The idea seemed simple. They all do, don’t they? *grin* Well, totally not simple. Hairy beast of an idea. I pitched it to all of my friends and everyone loved it, but pointed out how hard it would be to accomplish, because working with USPS would be impossible.
There are several ways to implement an idea like this. You can use a remailing service (which would make your mail very slow) or you could allow places like Mailboxes etc. to have their own zipcodes for delivery and they would sort out the mail on their end.
I had all of notes written down about how this could possibly work and I have no idea where they are anymore. I’ve moved so many times in the past 10 years that there’s no telling where that stuff ended up.
I feel so much better that the idea is out of my head. Whew. 
8 Comments
For all but physical goods, it already exists … I can’t remember the last time I got snail mail other than bills, junk, and packages … but no matter where I go, my email address follows me … if I change service providers, my email address still follows me.
But for true snail mail and packages, there’s just too many variables to keep it going … what if you spend equal time at two locations (for example … home and the office, or summer home in SF and winter home in Park City). Do you then carry multiple permaddresses? Do you constantly update the actual physical location associated with the permaddress?
How do you deal with the other things that can be associated with an address? If your mail goes to 1 Cyan Street, Cyan 94107; where do your friends go when invited to party … how do you give directions?
What about housemates? Would they use your permaddress, or would they have their own permadress to describe the exact same physical location?
You’d end up maintaining multiple addresses to describe the same location, creating a cumbersome system that would create more problems than it would resolve.
I think this may be one of those situations where the current system is actually the best one …
There is something inherently appealing to me about this for sure — particularly as someone who has a tendency to move every year or so… I have no idea how it could possibly work, but the concept is very appealing.
Maybe the true solution is to have my own personal robot keeping track of my stuff and helping to re-route things to whatever is my current address.
Oh man do I want my own personal robot…
mmmm. Personal robots! Would you share?
Flahute: Yeah, it is riddled with flaws. I’ll admit it. Keep in mind this idea came to me 10 years ago when snail mail mattered more. Now with electronic billing, it does matter less.
I STILL FEEL BETTER GETTING IT OUT OF MY HEAD!!
I give out my mailing address every day in the business world and if I had 42 Zivity Way, I’d be stoked. I mean, c’mon, think of how many companies would pay dearly for their own street names for billing situations etc. The physical address could also be published if you wanted people to come in.
To be honest, I think the whole zipcode thing was bogus. The idea was that you updated your address through a website with where the mail should actually go. Not much different than a change of address request and how that works today. The post office or remailer would just send it to a new destination.
Your house mates would use the real address. It would still work.
As to your friends and how they get to your house? Give them your real address.
This is for pure vanity only.
As soon as you start talking business app, I can TOTALLY see it! Also, it seems less difficult because there are fewer businesses who would take advantage of it than people, and it’s more relevant because most businesses still get loads of snail mail and packages. Not only would it be uber-useful to have a perma-forward type vanity address which catches everything when a company moves, but it would also be great for those companies, say, who would find it useful to have an address in the easy-to-remember San Francisco when they’re actually based in a relatively unknown place like San Bruno. Doesn’t mean you can’t use the real address, just gives you one that you can always use & forward. Would also help with the annoyingly high costs of changing things like business cards, stationery, directory listings, etc., anytime the business re-locates. Great for growing start-ups, eh?
And, yes, Cyan. As soon as I figure out how to get my hands on a personal robot, I’m getting one for you, too!
Cyan –
For business addresses, all you need to do is buy up some land and build the property.
Apple is 1 Infinite Loop, in Cupertino … and I don’t know if they still are, but Seagate used to be on Disc Drive in Scotts Valley.
So when Zivity goes big, buy some land, build an HQ, and name the street Zivity Way! Note I said “when” and not “if” …
Flahute: Very good point! Thanks for the props
Hooray for our most lively discussion!
I would have to claim the address that I grew up on:
Mager
66 Yellowwood Dr.
The Universe, *
3 Trackbacks
[...] read more [...]
[...] read more Posted by Filed in Admin [...]
[...] read more [...]