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What Is Holding Back the Paperless Office?
Drethon writes "CNN has an article (are we up to the millionth article on this topic?) asking if the paperless office has arrived. This got me wondering, what are the main things holding back the paperless office? Just off the top of my head, the main thing keeping me printing out documents is the ability to spread a dozen pages of a document under review out on my table and marking it up by hand. PDF and Word markups are not too bad but they still lack the ability to spread many pages out to look over at the same time and could be improved to make markup a bit less restrictive. I do find myself printing out less with the use of dual monitors to have source documents and work under progress up at the same time, perhaps something like Microsoft's tabletop computer used as a desk will let me have at least a paperless desk. I know there are other reasons why offices are not becoming paperless. What are your reasons?"
I know there are other reasons why offices are not becoming paperless. What are your reasons?
I don't use paper at my home office. I have a printer for rare occasions, like when I want to print a backup set of driving directions for a long trip (the primary set being the GPS.) Some say they don't trust Windows (or any other OS, I guess) with their data. That's what backups are for. When was the last time you did a backup of all your papers, by the way? Papers are easy to lose and nearly impossible to find when you need them.
I have a scanner next to me, if I have a paper (like a manual on something I bought) I scan it and save. The paper manual may then be recycled. Less stuff to lay around and produce dust.
Even when I worked at a larger company (last year) the office was mostly paperless. All communication was done through email and IM and phone. I wasn't involved with code reviews, but meetings were done without papers - using a projector connected to presenter's notebook. The only paper I handled there was time cards, and that was only because of certain accounting regulations (it must be a physical document with a signature.)
I've had flatbed scanners for a long time, auto-feeding, etc. Way back, scanning was very manual and OCR took a Really Long Time. That was a turnoff for many years.
These days, there are really good scanners out there (we just picked up a Fujitsu ScanSnap S1400) and the OCR isn't too painful on a modern box. The ScanSnap is color and double-sided with a large ADF - and blazing fast. I cannot picture too many improvements, except maybe a scanner that would unfold paper and remove staples... but the sticking point is still document management and access.
We're part of the way there. The largest remaining problems are software and people.
The upside? A banker's box of papers can be consolidated onto a quarter of a DVD - all searchable. I want that. :-)
A whole desk computer is what you need, with easy ways of sending someone a document.
Imagine if you had a meeting room and the whole desk was a computer, but you could effectively bring your own computer display over to the desk? No need to bring your laptop, no need to bring a notepad with you.
Ok, we will need to move away from WIMP to make this possible perhaps?
Just having tons and tons of paper sitting in a warehouse was was much cheaper, I heard later.
I basically agree with your points, but there is a difference between a well managed document control system, and one implemented by bunglers. Plus electronic documents have the advantage that they can be backed up offsite somewhere: that warehouse full of paper may indeed be cheaper but it's not necessarily safer.
I've been involved in document control projects (primarily used for pulling manufacturing production prints) and you're right: paper is damned useful, for all the reasons you outlined. Consequently, I never made any attempt to develop or promote a paperless system because it a. wouldn't have served the purpose and b. would never have been accepted anyway.
All the software did was provide a convenient, searchable interface to servers full of untold thousands of engineering drawings (both Autocad DWGs and scans of paper drawings) so that they could be viewed on-screen and printed if desired. That offered the best of both worlds: quick and easy viewability for those that don't need a hardcopy, with a printout only a mouse-click away. No expensive content manager (the software didn't require any proprietary server-side component of any kind, and rendered all drawings locally), and no DBAs competent or otherwise.
The first version of that app was DOS-based and ran over dial-up, with about a dozen plants around the world using it, pulling files from a big Solaris server. That was back in the late eighties, and it ran for years without much need for maintenance (other than the occasional hardware upgrade or repair.) I eventually wrote a Windows version of the application, and they're still running it. They've gone through several major server and connectivity upgrades over the years, I've heard, but I didn't even have to be involved in that. They also have a disaster recovery plan in place, so even if the server room burns through the floor they won't lose their drawings. That's something you can't easily do with tons of paper.
Sometimes you have to think things through and realize what it is you don't need. Big-ass proprietary software vendors have a vested interest in locking you into hypercomplex, overbuilt systems that may or may not do what you want, but are virtually guaranteed to cost more than they're worth.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
I made the switch to whiteboard, which I keep on the wall next to my desk. I find that it is better than paper, because paper is almost always too small, and it lets me discuss ideas with other employees a bit easier.
I tried "virtual whiteboard" with pen input recently at my CS department, and I found it very difficult to use, partly because the pen input device I was looking at was not the same thing I was drawing on.
Some of the reasons I still use paper:
There is nothing magical about a signature. It is just one possible form of evidence that an agreement has been reached. Very few contracts require signatures, and all of those that do provide non-mechanical means of meeting that signature.
Even so, it's nice to have a signature than to have to provide other evidence. And it's a lot cheaper, typically.
I am a math teacher and use a tablet wirelessly connected to a projector to teach using OneNote. It has all the advantages of a chalkboard or pen and paper plus:
I always have all of my notes. Always.
My notes are in color. I have a large selection of colors and sizes. (and my highlighters dont get messed up or run out)
If I didnt leave myself enough room, I can make more room.
If I want to take an idea in another direction, I can copy what I have to another page and fork off in the direction I want.
Using OneNote, I can search through my handwritten notes as if they were text. Very useful for quickly finding old notes that are buried amidst lots of notes.
I can resize diagrams.
I can print pages to OneNote and use OCR to get the text from it or write all over it.
I can quickly copy any part of my screen to it.
I can publish my notes as PDF's or print copies.
I have not found one draw back. In fact, I would like you to try to think of one (perhaps I have over looked it).
Make sure you turn on pressure sensitive ink (obviously buy a tablet that is pressure sensitive) and select an ink thick enough so you can see the changes in width with the changes in pressure. This makes it look just like a hand written diagram.
The only word of caution to teachers is if you are copying and pasting something - give your students time to recopy it in their notes.
Also, get a tablet that is convertible. Then it is your laptop when you are doing regular stuff and yet when you need to draw a diagram - you can!
The real motto for tablet computers needs to be "Use but not over use" (just like the motion stuff for wii)
Dont write a paper in tablet mode - type it, it's faster. etc.
I am a mathematician who, like yourself, "thinks on paper". The tablet is the computer you need.
Get one with a dual digitizer. Active and passive. Get a convertible. Get OneNote. Resist the urge to do everything in tablet mode. I would bet most people with your sensibilities would not be disappointed. I know I am not.
Plus, I've heard there are OneNote like apps which also do math stuff, like evaluate determinants for you, draw graphs, take derivatives etc.. I have not looked into those yet.
I have used this set up for four years.
One last thing: Sometimes I wonder; "Is that someone's signature? Or do they type that at the end of each post?"
I think another reason is because things like paper-clips and scribbled notes haven't (or cant easily) been simulated on the desktop. I would love to be able to scribble notes on a virtual document and virtually paper-clip different document formats (this is another major issue ie no single reader) together. I still find searching for files in some ways more efficient on a computer but getting all the related documents and sales notes easily together on the fly seems to be an a bridge to far.