Mashing VoIP with Flash

I really hope the mashup of VoIP technology with Flash will become a killer application. The awareness among the general public may not grow to something like E-Mail or Text Messages via cell phone, but I predict flash and VoIP will be the required catalyst to solving the biggest technical problem with telephony today: Telephone Numbers.

Telephone Numbers were designed when locality mattered. Area codes, prefixes, etc. all revolve around physical location. In some sense, they've been virtualized in that you can port your number a short distance away and you can route calls for a number over a different number somewhere else. Regardless, at the end of the day a telephone number is generally tied to a physical location. Here's the crux of the problem though; people don't communicate with physical locations. People communicate with people. A cell phone is a partial step in the right direction, but why have a number at all? We have e-mail addresses and Domain Name Resolution (DNS), why in the world do I have to remember or lookup a phone number when I know who it is I want to communicate with? I think the first stage in moving from phone numbers to calling an "Identity" is VoIP and Flash. Bear with me here as I walk through my reasoning:

1. Flash allows the mass market to make phone calls with a click of the mouse. All the other requirements are already met (computer w/ Internet and flash enabled browser).
2. The method of contacting an identity is irrelevant once the interface for that communication is a mouse click. All the end-user knows (or cares) is that you click the person's name and then talk. You might be calling a POTS line, you might be talking over a cell phone or even a computer. To the end-user, the Medium is irrelevant (but not the UI), the content is all that matters.
3. When the Medium is abstracted to irrelevance, it becomes fluid depending on the situation.
   

I've been working in the telephony space for almost 10 years now and I've seen several attempts at or ideas for a ubiquitous communications revolution. The problem is always shoehorning it into the existing telephone network with the inherent concept of telephone numbers tied to locations. A new user interface for phone calls can make a phone number obsolete. Doing away with phone numbers and switching to some form of DNS addressbook will enable a whole new universe of communication possibilities. I look forward to it and I really hope that Flash will be the catalyst for the revolution.