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The Myth of the Paperless Office
AdamBa writes: "The New Yorker is running an
interesting review
of the book
'The Myth of the Paperless Office', also discussing
'Scrolling Forward'. Read
it and the ever-informative
Malcolm Gladwell will
explain why paper enables collaborative work much better than computers do, why a messy desk is a sign of productivity, and give a little background on the inventor of the Dewey Decimal System to boot."
When I'm at my desk, I prefer electronic copies by far. I abhor killing trees needlessly. I also like that I can reproduce and transmit information instantly.
.paper format can be read by anyone anytime, provided they know the language, sans a particular out dated electronic drive or reader. I also don't need power to read paper, just light.
However - paper is the lowest common denominator. All it takes is a pair of eyes and a marking device to use it. When I need reliable backups, they get printed and stored in a fire safe. Sure CDROMS and tape last a long time, and I can mirror disks - but the
Sure, eventually 99% of info will be contained in an electronic format, and rightly so, paper will be around forever.
My boss had me write, rewrite, change, edit and perfect an online project request system. After all that work I had to add a "Print Document" button to the bottom of every page. Not only did they want a fully functional advanced online system, they wanted the paper trail too. And not only that, but with everyone printing out each page, the paper trail is about 10 times as big as the one sheet handed around the office.
They never gave me a clear reason for this. All I can think of is that the big bosses don't trust computers. But this is a web design company. Go figure.
I have to admit that sometimes I really want to sit down with a red pen and a paper draft. When I have to send my comments to somebody else electronically, however, I'd rather work on the computer than have to retype all my scribbled comments.
There are tools for this, but they just aren't that commonly used. The best one I've found is the full version of adobe acrobat. You can print just about anything to a PDF, and then use Acrobat to draw on it (circle things, draw arrows, highlight, etc) and include comments on anything you draw. There is even an option to create a second document with all of your comments that makes a great checklist for the next revision. PDFs are also common enough that I can send these marked up documents to just about anybody and expect them to be able to see and read my comments.
Again, I don't think we'll get to the paperless office in my lifetime, but we could get a lot closer using the tools that are available.
** The opinions expressed here are my own, and do not reflect those of my employers - past, present, or future**
Paper also gets lost and is a pain to make 100 copies for everyone in the division. Further there are the problems of joint-editing, getting confused about what version is which (unless you remember to time-stamp every page) and so forth.
Paper is generally much better for reading, due to resolution and "handling" but not for much else. Often when composing I print out my documents, grab a couple of pens and edit that way. (Even with source code) But for everything else it is all electronic.
Yes it would seem to be obvious, but I keep running into people who have this "geek lifestyle" hang-up that means you have to be a slob to be a geek. The fact that I watch them spend 15 minutes looking for something on there desk annoys the living crap out of me.
;)
When I casuall remark about this I always get the "a messy desk is a sign of productivity" crap.
So to those people, my post could have been insight full. Although Informative, or +1 slobs please read may have been better
truth be told I consider my post a 2, but hey they won't even let me moderate for some reason.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
A paperless office will never happen, but not because it wouldn't be possible, or even better. I think up little things all the time, that I start doing electroncically, instead of scribbled on this note or that napkin, or whatever. But I'm one of the guys that makes computers work, that understands them. In corporate america, I'm 1 in 100, or even 1000. The rest are still stuck in the 15th century, and if you don't believe me, duck into the helpdesk call center. The sad thing is, by the time computers are smart enough to do the thinking for these retards, they'll also be able to do the job for them.
But maybe I'm being too cynical. Maybe M$ makes it too hard for people, hell, if I had to run Word every time I wanted to scribble a note, I'd want to chop down a tree and felt some paper too. Would be easier. When I was a winslave, I remember numerous times, where I wanted a simple spreadsheet, just some columns with numbers, etc. And they only option was tabbing over in notepad(preferred) or opening Excel (to be avoided). Sc takes care of that stuff now.
Disclaimer: I work for a large paper company, but I don't purport to speak for them.
My job here is to create paper and electronic forms for our internal use. It's well known in the industry that whenever you add printers or computers to an office, cut sheet paper usage increases. In the US, there's been a decline in roll-stock paper usage over the last 10 years, but cut sheet paper (the kind you buy 500 per ream and stick in your printer) has been nothing but growth.
As much as I'd like to make all of our forms electronic, it doesn't make sense to. It's easier for the guys driving the logging trucks and forklifts to have paper checklists, it's sensible to buy large quantities of pads of paper (instead of having the users order them 10 at a time, which they WILL do if we don't), and it's a real pain to have to open up an electronic version of the "while you were out" slip compared to the ease of using a paper version.
Add name tags, envelopes, certificates, and calendars to the mix, and it's pretty obvious that paper's here to stay for a long, long, long time.
Maybe paper is good for collaboration, but not for archival. I don't collaborate at home, so I don't use paper.
... 449 files right now. And it all fits on one CD. Why do I even need a monthly paper statement? Just send it in email please and I'll save the file on disk.
I hate paper enough that I am almost done scanning years worth of pay stubs, credit card statements, statements, time sheets, repairs, orders, taxes,
I had this question asked to me in a job interview for an IS manager of a small city. I can only go by the look on the interviewer's faces, an obvious look to me of "that's not what we wanted to hear" and the following questions that my answer of "No, I believe computer only allow you to make more paper", that it's a good reason that the other finialist got the job. I still think I answered it correctly and have no regrets in doing so.
Besides everything you need to know or do is on a post-it anyway. You just can't find where you stuck it.
Important documents in those days were always "engrossed" on long-lasting parchment once the final version of the text was hammered out.
And the brethren went away edified.
Laugh if you like, but there are people PAID to re-assemble shredded documents.
They test the effectiveness of paper shredders.
The ones you get in office supply stores suck. Only 1/4 inch wide cuts. The real shredders cut about 1/2 millimeter, and cross shred 4 millimeters. You end up with big dust....
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I am a programmer. I am paid to produce syntax not grammar. Deal with it.
was in the throws of a paper reduction campaign, one of the poor MIS guys who sits beside me was tasked with determining which paper reports were no longer needed. He ran across a report that had been custom crafted for one of our CFO's 14 years ago. Even though this particular CFO retired 9 years ago, his report was still being printed. Here's the kicker, the report was an item by item sales summary for the company. No problem when we only stocked 8000 items in 50 stores. We've grown to 750 stores stocking 50,000 items, and the report had grown to +/-3000 pages. At least it was being recycled.....
On paperless offices, well, heck I was just discussing how well a client would work to view action forms by the helpdesk when another super said, they prefer them on paper. So be it. Paper it is.
Several years ago I was up to my eyeballs in a project of charting trends every which way to Sunday, 800 different charts and 12 copies of each. Gad. I worked with a buddy and we modified the in-house terminal program to show graphs. It blew them away. No more mountains of paper, right? Well, the first question they had was, "how can we print this?" It still reduced paper, but the irony was
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
60%-80% of all a company's information are stored in documents.
Paper documents have no automated way to enforce document retention standards (just ask Enron and Arthur Anderson)
Paper documents have no way to search the documents to enter the data in the "corporate memory". Infinitely valuable information is never cataloged and reviewed
The reason organizations don't manage this better is most document management syetems are very difficult and expensive to own.
This article takes a reactionary stance to try to promote (another useless) management philosphy and sell a book.
I want to write a book entitled "The Myth of the Management Book That's Not Full Of Crap".
But no one would read it.
Now the truly modern approach would be a wall of ready entrees behind glass doors, where you insert coinage (or perhaps an electronic coinage) and retrieve your entree. Like a cafeteria, only better... less waiter-like intermediaries!
Or instead of a wall of compartments, the food can be on a conveyor belt -- popular in Sushi restaurants, no?
Of course, the more primitive Country Buffet has some powerful ideas as well -- self-service feeding! Sure, our grocer used to pick out our food for us too, and someone used to pump our gas, and someone still fetches our food... so inefficient.
A more exotic system might use a push-button, juke-box style menu at each table, and the entree is delivered via vacuum ducts beneath the floor! Or maybe we can pack the whole entree in a single pill! Reconstituted it would be just as good as the original, but in its original form provide an easy-to-pack dinner or lunch. More federal research dollars for this long-overdue idea, please!
Or wouldn't it be great to go to a restaurant where you picked your recipe and it was delivered in pretty little glass bowls all pre-measured and you cooked it yourself and the bowls were whisked away, just like on TV! Even better would be if, after placing the meal in the oven you could immediately remove it from another oven, using time-warping technology that apparently is prevalent in television studios across the world. I can be my own Julia Childs!
Retro schmetro... ambience is for luddites. This is the kind of innovation I want to invest in!
It's also the number of monitors. It wont ever get completely paperless until the desk surface itself is made of 4 or 6 hi res touch screen monitors.
And they must be run by separate PC(s) so you can reboot, BSOD , whatever without losing the ability to use the information.
I'll think of a funny sig later on