Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is PIRP?
A: PIRP stands for Public Information Retrieval Protocol. It is a protocol designed to let people communicate with other by a single universal address. In particular, it is intended to make telephone numbers and postal addresses obsolete.

Q: What is a star-address
A: Is a single address that if our proposal gains acceptation would be used for any communication channel such as telephone calls, postal mail and internet chat. Its format reminds the format of e-mail addresses: nick#key*host.com.

Q: Why a star?
A: The star symbol was choosen because mos of the mobile telephone terminals have it easily accesible. On the other side it looks nice and allows us to distingish between e-mail addresses and universal star-addresses.

Q: How does it work?
A: The protocol is based on the interchange of small XML documents (queries and replies) between a client and a server. The usual way for this interchange is directly through port 2310, but HTTP and other gateways can also be used.

Q: Should I have a special mobile terminal to use PIRP
A: In principle, no. A WAP gateway has been already designed and most mobile devices can access WAP. But at some point, it would be much easier to use if it is directly hard-wired into the device.