The Enum Innovation.

Finding it burdensome to keep adding information to your business card, with your phone, cell phone, and fax numbers as well as your e-mail address? A simpler form of identification may be on the horizon as the Internet continues to evolve.

Web engineers are working on a new system called Enum that translates your phone number into an Internet address, thereby creating a single universal address and greatly simplifying e-mail communication, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article. The innovation promises to further blur the line between the Internet and the global telephone system.

Making the system a reality, however, will not be a quick fix as its development involves "tapping into the domain-name service for the Internet" Some contend that Enum would cripple the Internet while others dismiss such a scenario.

The system recently got a boost, though, when Telcordia Technologies and VeriSign launched a pilot program that will build a test directory at www.enumworld.com, where anyone can register to participate. Telcordia designs telephone network systems, and VeriSign recently bought Network Solutions, the dominant provider of dot-com addresses.