There was a Twitter conversation today which got my attention. It seems Australia Post is going to be releasing a new app, for iPhone and iPad, which allows you to do a few amazing things. I wanted to speak about the features, but also what this makes possible in the future. Can you imagine a world where the Post Office has an API that anybody can connect to? Anyways, I digress. They call it the Australia Post Digital Mailbox.
The Features
1) Have a digital inbox. I assume this allows you to opt to receive mail you select as important, such as a bill from phone or electricity company. We’ll see when it launched what this actually does.
2) Pay bills. Australia Post has done this for ages, but now it seems they’ve made that accessible through their new app.
3) Store files in one location. This is possibly the most powerful feature. It essentially allows you to store files in one place. I’m assuming, given point 1, that it will all be electronic and that your files will be accesible through requesting documents.
The API
This one is more speculation about what Australia Post might be up to. I doubt they’ll ever open up an API completely, but imagine the possibilities if they allowed people to create products on top of the services they offer – in a way that’s not to dissimilar to how Amazon’s Human Mechanical Turk or many Virtual PA services.
It’s exciting to see and I congratulate Australia Post on making this step. They must have made some large investments in their core services behind the scenes to make this possible, and it’s exciting to see what possibilities that now creates. I love an innovative ‘utility.’
The Squiggly Line 
steve, this isn’t making sense for me ” I doubt they’ll ever open up an API completely, but imagine the possibilities if they allowed people to create products on top of the services they offer – in a way that’s not to dissimilar to how Amazon’s Human Mechanical Turk or many Virtual PA services.” Does there need to be a word at the end of that sentence eg: Virtual PA services work/function/provide a solution?
I agree – I’m interested in seeing the uses and possibilities of the service – perhaps a way of using the API to even make auspost’s services easier to use. Linking in with something like sending out products and addresses crowdsourced through http://pozible.com.au would be wonderful!
Hi Kylie – yup, you’re right! There should be a ‘operate’ on the end of that sentence 🙂 That will teach me for writing the post in a hurry at the end of the night!
I love your idea, though. Imagine if Pozible could integrate with the Post Office to handle all of the sending of the goods, or managing that address list for you. Very powerful!