Paper Less
Michael Schaffner at Forbes on the paperless office:
One of the great unfulfilled promises of technology is the paperless office. Computers were to rid us of all that clutter and paper-shuffling. To be sure, we have seen a significant reduction in paper, but it is certainly not the nirvana we were led to expect.
To be fair, that “promise” was made by pundits with a deadline and the knowledge that any future-gazing “in the year 2000″ articles will get attention.
When was the last time you got a real interoffice memo on paper? It’s been a long time, hasn’t it? E-mail has made the interoffice memo extinct. However, there are days when I look at the number of e-mails in my inbox and can’t help but wonder if this is a good thing or not.
Why wouldn’t it be?
A recent post by tech consultant Vinnie Mirchandani, outlining about his attempts to go paperless, illustrates that going paperless is certainly not easy–nor is it for the faint-hearted. As Mirchandani illustrates, there are just some situations when having paper is the right solution.
Sometimes paper makes more sense. Sometimes it doesn’t. I can already smell the Pulitzer.
The biggest advantage paper has is the usability factor. I can quickly scan the entire page, add notes to it, highlight important sections, hand it across the table and say “take a look at this,” or fold it and put in my pocket and take it with me. Yes, I know there are technological answers to all of these, but none of them are as easy as the old methods.
Perhaps not as easy for you, old guy. Everyone else knows how to turn their laptop around or put their Blackberry in their pocket.
The reality is that although technology promised a paperless world, most of the technology effort was directed elsewhere. Technology just wasn’t that focused on usability.
Stop saying “technology”.
We have a monitor tethered to a computer and interface via a keyboard and mouse, and we’ve had that arrangement for a long time. Voice recognition and touch screens have continued to evolve and improve, but these alone aren’t enough to solve the paperless usability issue.
Please explain how voice recognition will replace paper. Use the back of the Internet if you need more space.
Instead of usability, the emphasis in computer technology has been in two areas. First, the focus was on efficiently and inexpensively increasing computer power, and that has been done very successfully.
But paper is still cheaper, amiright? Okay, you’ve totally won me over. Death to technology!
The second area of emphasis is in improving the capability of computer applications. Again, we’ve been very successful. We now have the ability to do utterly amazing things with computers–and we can do them quickly and inexpensively.
Don’t leave out the innovations in paper. There’s origami. And papercraft. And those hats at Burger King.
There are some signs, however, that give me hope, as I now see more emphasis being placed on usability.
He goes on to mention the iPhone, Kindle, Wii, and Microsoft Touch Interface Table Computer Professional Edition 2009. Who needs paper when you have Mario Kart?
They are in various stages of their lifecycles and applications. The great thing about technology is that it continually evolves and adapts. Technology morphs and combines with other technologies in ways that were never imagined when first developed.
Just like paper!
It will be interesting to see whether their evolutionary paths lead to even more reduction in the use of paper in the workplace.
Let’s hope not!
I’m not naive enough to believe that we will ever be absolutely paperless, but further reductions might be possible. Let’s keep our fingers crossed!
Yay! Exclamation points are exciting!