4 ms·

I definitely think phone numbers are the IP address of personal communications. Can you imagine if we had to type in http://74.125.224.72/ http://74.125.224.72

I definitely think phone numbers are the IP address of personal communications. Can you imagine if we had to type in http://74.125.224.72/ http://74.125.224.72/ to hit Google.com? However, I would argue that cell phones have provided a DNS-like solution for the phone number problem. It's not perfect; people can change phone numbers, and we still have to exchange numbers to be able to call each other, but this is somewhat by design. If there was a DNS for phone numbers, which this Sprint StarStar sounds like, it would be too easy for people you don't want calling you to call you (it's already fairly easy... I'm sure Justin Beiber could testify to this). A phone number is like a crappy, public password for people to call a number that may or may not be associated with you. Just a few thoughts I had based on the last paragraph: the problem is that phone numbers are arbitrary--nothing connects people and the numbers they hold temporarily. However, a DNS system for individual phone numbers is also suboptimal because it allows everyone access to everyone. What about a password protected DNS system? Everyone gets a phone number/ip address and is able to password protect access to it? Snowball with me here people.

r00fus 14y ago
> A phone number is like a crappy, public password for people to call a number that may or may not be associated with you. A phone number is just an address. That most numbers don't have ingress filtering due to standard operating procedure (and our public commons being owned by private ad-spewing corporations) doesn't change this fact. You can try all you want to call my GV number, it will route all callers to voicemail except for whitelested numbers.
DavidBloom 14y ago
There is exactly such a "DNS" that is working WW (not just on one network...) - look at the CallmyName application - registration there is absolutely free!

r00fus 14y ago

> A phone number is like a crappy, public password for people to call a number that may or may not be associated with you. A phone number is just an address. That most numbers don't have ingress filtering due to standard operating procedure (and our public commons being owned by private ad-spewing corporations) doesn't change this fact. You can try all you want to call my GV number, it will route all callers to voicemail except for whitelested numbers.

DavidBloom 14y ago

There is exactly such a "DNS" that is working WW (not just on one network...) - look at the CallmyName application - registration there is absolutely free!