The open service packet service - idea.

The Open Packet Service (OPS), work just like the backbone of the Internet (the IP protocol) with a twist.

How it works:

I want to send  a packet to my friend living a 100 km from me. I go to the Internet website for OPS and I plots in where I live and where I want the packet to go. OPS then suggests how much I should "CHARGE" the packet with - lets say 50 bobs. I pay 50 bobs to OPS. Then OPS puts on the Internet that a packet is waiting at my house for pickup and that there is 50 bobs to be made if you deliver this packet. Now here comes the beautiful part. Someone sees this message (on the OPS site) and he is going by my house anyways so he picks up the packet. He would love to take the packet all the way to the receiver, but he can only take it half the way. Fortunately there is a small OPS trading post half way on route (It a small shop of any sort with Internet connection). He hands in the packet in at the OBS trading post - This is being registered at OBS and he gets his cut of the 50 bobs - Lets say he gets 23 bobs. Then the packet lays at the OBS trading post - Charged with 25 bobs (the shop-keeper gets 2 for his service). Another person sees the packet on the Internet an picks up the packet and deliver it to the receiver, earning him 25 bobs (when my friend tells OPS that the packet is being received).
That is Open Service Packet service!

As long as the packet gets nearer to its destination you can ear money.
A traveler can pick up several packets on the way earning more money on the way.
If a packet gets stock on its way (or you think it goes to slow) to the destination, it can be "overcharged" where it is (because you can see where its stuck on-line).

Most cars only travel with 1 passenger, this could be a way to make that car travel a bit more reasonable (and economic).

The infrastructure making OPS possible is all in place (Internet, VISA, mobile phones, people, cars, boats etc.).

There is one several obstacles that need to be worked out in order to make the system work.  

• Make it  possible for citizens to earn micro-money (there is a tax bureaucracy issue here).
• Get around the argument that OPS will be used to carry illegal substances eg. drugs. When I have discussed OPS with friends they all mention this - but I cant see how this differs from other postal-services. Maybe a solution is to carry OPS packets in transparent plastic wrap. 
• What if the packet is lost on the way? Who is responsible? Again I think there is a workaround to the problem. When the OPS-traveler picks up the packet he gets liable for a specified amount and if he loses the packet the sender is compensated.

You can say that OPS is just the file-sharing network of real-world packets. People do it all the time through friends (can you take this and give it to..), OPS is just a more organized way of doing it. This is to me what getting organized is all about.  

Background:
I live on an island in Sweden and this comes with mixed blessings, one of them being trying to get a packet from "overseas". Several times I have ordered items from Australia and Hong Kong. I can follow the packet via the wonders of the Internet a see how Its getting nearer and nearer - Until it gets to Sweden then it stops. Nothing happens. 3 days later I get a letter telling me that I can pick up my FEDEX/USB etc. packet at the local post-office (5 km from here and not the nearest post-office). Trying to SEND a packet from this place ANYWHERE, and that includes just across the island, is very expensive and slow or maybe impossible.

Why you ask am I so hung up on sending or getting a packet you may ask?
The answer is that the second I want a spare part or something that is not a consumer goods that is pre-chewed and forced-feed my through proper channels I'm in trouble.
If I try to get my friends on the other site of the island something they need, I don't think it should be cheaper and a lot easier to drive a 100 km in order to do this.
The postal service has gone from bad to worse the last 20 years. Service is gone and the postman can not as before deliver anything or pick anything up (still unemployment is rising..).
If we are to able to save energy, travel less, make things last longer, repair stuff - we must have a working postal service. Before the state thought is was vital to have a working postal service - I gees its why they chose to own it - now 5 to 12, 10 minutes before we really need it, its sold of and dismantled.

That made me think of the idea of the Open Packet Service (OPS).

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Small update (24/2-2010). Announcement; The Swedish postal service is to be cut by 2000 (more).