6620-week xii-the myth of the paperless office

8/6/2019 6620-Week XII-The Myth of the Paperless Office

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Records and Community

11/18/2010


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Was a Cognitive Psychologist at Hewlett-Packard Laboratoriesin Bristol, UK before 2004.

Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research Cambridge in theUK and co-manager of Socio-Digital Systems, an

interdisciplinary group with a focus on the human perspective incomputing.

Has a Doctorate in Cognitive Science from the University ofCalifornia, San Diego.

She also has an M.A.Sc. in Industrial Engineering from theUniversity of Toronto.

Her only other book is Video-Mediated Communication.

She holds 23 patents and was recently elected a Fellow of theBritish Computer Society.


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Principal Researcher in Socio-Digital Systems at Microsoft

Research.

Just recently published his 10th book, Texture:Human Expression

in the Age of Communication Overload.

Explored/researched user-focused technical innovation in

academic, corporate, and small company settings.

Completed his PhD at Manchester in 1989.

His work is not only theoretical or sociological, but also includesthe design of real and functioning systems, for work and for

home settings, for mobile devices and for social networking

sites. Numerous patents have derived from his work.


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The paperless office was a publicist's slogan, meant to describe the office ofthe future. An early prediction of the paperless office was made in aBusiness Week article in 1975.

The basic idea was that office automation would make paper redundant forroutine tasks such as record-keeping and bookkeeping. The idea came toprominence with the introduction of the personal computer. While theprediction of a PC on every desk was remarkably prophetic, the 'paperlessoffice' was not. Improvements in printers and photocopiers have made itmuch easier to reproduce documents in bulk, with worldwide use of officepaper more than doubling from 1980 to 2000. This has been attributed tothe increased ease of document productionrather than needing to type adocument up, one may easily print out multiple copies, email it to someone

who then prints out a copy, print out a web page, and so forth. However, since about 2000, global use of office paper has leveled off and

is now decreasing, which has been attributed to a generation shift, youngerpeople being less inclined to print out documents, and more inclined to readthem on a screen. Modern screens make reading less exhausting for the eyes,a laptop can be used on a coach or in bed.


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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pyjRj3UMR

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Three Main Types According to the Book:

Symbolic

Cost

Interactional
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Old-Fashioned

83 % of all business documentsforms

In the U.S., over 1 billion dollars a year spent on printing and

designing forms An additional 23 to 35 billion on filing, storing and retrieving

A simple examplethe cost of a stamp as compared to

email

A far more complex exampleUniversities keeping papercopies of past students transcripts


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Paper must be used locally

Occupies physical space/requires space then for use andstorage

Requires physical delivery

A single paper document can only be used by one person at atime

Cannot be easily revised, reformatted or incorporated intoother documents

Cannot be easily replicated without the help of copiers orscanners

Can only display static charactersnot any sort of audio or

video content


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Dan Tech Not paperless BUT to restrict the amount of paper stored

Completely remodeled office space to meet this need/goal (the goal wasnever about paper really but on changing the overall work process)

More going away from the traditional office model (even traditionaltelephones were used less and less)

More project based system overall as well

UKCom Paperless office was considered a motivator (the primary goal)

Bids & Sales department targeted first because of its importance (hub)

Fewer technical problems than expected BUT more resistance from staff

Account managers had personal info of their clients that they felt could notshare on a database

Paper was not the problem BUT the very nature of the work practices


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What is knowledge work?

How is it different than what our fathers and grandfathers did

in the past?

How does paper support knowledge work? Supports authoring

Knowledge workers use paper for review (esp colleagues work)

Paper is used for brainstorming and planning

It supports collaboration (such as a report being passed around in a

conference room)

Helps grease the wheel of organized communication (hand deliver to

your boss when you want to make a point/sell your ideas)


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Technology-Rich (Most Up-To-Date Equipment for

Staff)

Spending 18,000 a year per employee on technology

Studied 25 Employees over 5 Consecutive WorkingDays

97 Percent of Time involved Documents of some kind

86 Involved Paper

89 Percent for Administrators

81 for Knowledge Workers


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15 People of Variety of Professions (p. 80):

Mobility (Variety of Locations)

Location (Variety of Settings)

Collaboration (Variety of Interactions)

82 Percent of Activities Involved Documents

Reading Occurred in over 70 Percent of these Activities

Paper is still the medium of choice for reading (even when

technology is close at hand)


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Reading to Identify

Skimming

Reading to Remind

Reading to Search for Answers to Questions Reading to Self-Inform

Reading to Learn

Reading for Cross-Referencing

Reading to Edit or Critically Review

Reading to Support Listening

Reading to Support Discussion


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Kindle (now on third generation) - Amazon

Nook (color model coming out for holidays)Barnes & Noble

Kobo eReader - Borders

Apple iPad Microsoft

Formats???

Advantages/Disadvantages???


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Air Traffic Control

Flight Progress Strip

Flexibility in Spatial Layout

Ease of Manipulation Easy, Direct Marking

Information at a Glance

Rendering Actions Visible to Others


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How is paper used in police work from a collaboration

point-of-view?

Why did the project to issue laptops to police officers

fail? Why is a different situation in the chocolate factory?

What are the difference between hot, warm and cold

documents?


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Using Paper as an Analytic Resource for Design (specifically ofnew technologies) Reading Technologies

Document Management Systems

Advantages/Problems with LCD Screens

Four Key Items for Reading that Need to be Considered: Quick & Flexible Navigation

The Ability to Mark Up a Document

Reading Across More than One Document at a Time

Interweaving Reading & Writing

Not mentioned specifically BUT always in the background -COST


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PDF, DOC, TXT, etc.

eBooks (various file formats)

Desktop, laptops, tablets, eReaders, smart phones, iPods

What are the advantages/disadvantages? Storage Issues:

Floppy Disk (whats that?)

Hard Drive

Tape Flash Drive

Cloud Storage


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Some places disappear??? Some places become more

important???

Three Reasons People Still Stick with Paper:

The co-evolution of paper and work practices

The need for better design of digital alternatives

The affordances of paper (still the best choice for some tasks)

The idea that there is always benefits to going paperless is a

myth

What is an Office??? How does how a business or organization

define this determine the importance of paper?


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Look at the Big Picture

Focus on the REAL underlying problems like Dan Tech

Be willing to REVISE VISIONS & REASSESS SOLUTIONS

Always Manage EXPECTATIONS!!! Remember Paper has its advantages

Light and Physically Flexible

Is Mark able

Is Tangible and Physical Is Direct and Local

It is staticit does not change over time


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The authors write that the future offices will not use less paperbut will keep less paper. Why? How will this be accomplished?Will the filing cabinet be permanently replaced by the harddrive? What about the price of change? Why use paper if

we will not keep it? The authors spend a great deal of time talking about ebooks,

laptops, various tablet technologies and possibly the end ofbooks (the bookless library for example). Sellen and Harperalso discuss the comfort level we traditionally have from

reading from paper. Who will win out? Can technology reachthe same comfort level as paper? If you had a crystal ball,could you look 20 years in the future and see no more booksbut everyone getting all their information from a computerscreen or ereader?