The Myth of the Paperless Office

The Myth of the Paperless Office
Author: Abigail J. Sellen
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2003-02-28
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 0262250497

An examination of why paper continues to fill our offices and a proposal for better coordination of the paper and digital worlds. Over the past thirty years, many people have proclaimed the imminent arrival of the paperless office. Yet even the World Wide Web, which allows almost any computer to read and display another computer's documents, has increased the amount of printing done. The use of e-mail in an organization causes an average 40 percent increase in paper consumption. In The Myth of the Paperless Office, Abigail Sellen and Richard Harper use the study of paper as a way to understand the work that people do and the reasons they do it the way they do. Using the tools of ethnography and cognitive psychology, they look at paper use from the level of the individual up to that of organizational culture. Central to Sellen and Harper's investigation is the concept of "affordances"—the activities that an object allows, or affords. The physical properties of paper (its being thin, light, porous, opaque, and flexible) afford the human actions of grasping, carrying, folding, writing, and so on. The concept of affordance allows them to compare the affordances of paper with those of existing digital devices. They can then ask what kinds of devices or systems would make new kinds of activities possible or better support current activities. The authors argue that paper will continue to play an important role in office life. Rather than pursue the ideal of the paperless office, we should work toward a future in which paper and electronic document tools work in concert and organizational processes make optimal use of both.

Small Pieces Loosely Joined

Small Pieces Loosely Joined
Author: David Weinberger
Publisher: Basic Books
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2008-11-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 0786730455

The Web has not been hyped enough. That's the startling thesis of this one-of-a-kind book that's sure to become a classic work of social commentary. Just as Marshall McLuhan forever altered our view of broadcast media, Weinberger shows that the new medium of the Web is not only altering social institutions such as business and government but, more important, is transforming bedrock concepts of our culture such as space, time, the public, and even reality itself. Weinberger introduces us to denizens of this new world, among them Zannah, whose online diary turns self-revelation into play; Tim Bray, whose map of the Web reveals what's at the heart of the new Web space; and Danny Yee and Claudiu Popa, part of the new breed of Web experts we trust despite their lack of qualifications. Through stories of life on the Web, an insightful take on some familiar (and some unfamiliar) Web sites, and a wicked sense of humor, Weinberger puts the Web into the social and intellectual context we need to begin assessing its true impact on our lives. The irony, according to Weinberger, is that this new technology is more in tune with our authentic selves than is the modern world. Funny, provocative, and ultimately hopeful, Small Pieces Loosely Joined makes us look at the Web -- and at life -- in a new light. From Small Pieces Loosely Joined: The Web has sent a jolt through our culture, zapping our economy, our ideas about the sharing of creative works, and possibly even institutions such as religion and government. Why? How do we explain the lightning charge of the Web? If it has fallen short of our initial hopes and fears about its transformational powers, why did it excite those hopes and fears in the first place? Why did this technology hit our culture like a bolt from Zeus? Suppose -- just suppose -- that the Web is a new world we're just beginning to inhabit . . . If the Web is changing bedrock concepts such as space, matter, time, perfection, public, knowledge, and morality -- each a chapter of this book -- no wonder we're so damn confused. That's as it should be. The Web is enabling us to rediscover what we've always known about being human: we are connected creatures in a connected world about which we care passionately . . . If this is true, then for all of the over-heated, exaggerated, manic-depressive coverage of the Web, we'd have to conclude that the Web in fact has not been hyped enough.

Take Control of Your Paperless Office, 4th Edition

Take Control of Your Paperless Office, 4th Edition
Author: Joe Kissell
Publisher: alt concepts
Total Pages: 97
Release: 2024-02-02
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1990783333

Digitize your documents and reduce paper clutter! Version 4.0.1, updated February 2, 2024 The paperless office doesn't have to be a myth! Turn paper into usable digital files, reducing clutter and increasing convenience. This book helps you assess your situation, develop a strategy, and learn clever techniques for keeping more paper at bay—with detailed discussion of the hardware, software, and processes needed to get the job done. Join Joe Kissell as he helps you clear the chaos of an office overflowing with paper. With Joe's guidance you can develop a personal clean-up strategy and choose your tools, including a scanner and the software you need to perform OCR (optical character recognition). You'll also learn about devices and services for storing your digitized documents and document management apps that help you categorize, locate, and view your digital document collections. Once you have your gear in hand, Joe shows you how to convert your paper documents to digitized files and gives you ideas for how to organize your office workflow, explaining how to develop day-to-day techniques that reduce the amount of time you spend pressing buttons, launching software, and managing documents. You’ll also master paper-reducing skills such as: • Scanning or photographing documents you find while out and about—business cards, receipts, menus, flyers, and more—so you keep only digitized versions. Joe discusses a variety of mobile scanning options for iOS/iPadOS and Android. • Creating a digitized image of your signature so you can sign and share documents digitally, rather than printing them for the sole purpose of signing them with a pen. • Using paperless options for bills, invoices, bank statements, and the like. • Cutting down on unwanted catalogs and junk mail. • Switching to (mostly) paperless postal mail. • Using your computer to send and receive faxes without a fax machine, fax modem, or separate phone line. (Amazingly, some people still need to do this even in the 21st century!) The book contains answers to numerous questions, including: • What is a searchable PDF, and why is it key to a paperless office? • What differentiates document scanners from other types of scanners? • What’s a book scanner? • What if I need a mobile, portable scanner? • What does TWAIN stand for, and should my scanner support it? • Why do I need OCR software, and what features should I look for? • How do I choose a good scanner and OCR software? • How should I name and file my digitized documents? • What are my options if I need to edit a scanned PDF? • How can I automate my workflow for scanning documents? • What paper documents should I keep in physical form? • How do I use common tools to add a signature to a PDF? • How can I access my digital documents remotely? • How should I back up my important digital documents?

The Science of Managing Our Digital Stuff

The Science of Managing Our Digital Stuff
Author: Ofer Bergman
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 291
Release: 2016-11-04
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0262336286

Why we organize our personal digital data the way we do and how design of new PIM systems can help us manage our information more efficiently. Each of us has an ever-growing collection of personal digital data: documents, photographs, PowerPoint presentations, videos, music, emails and texts sent and received. To access any of this, we have to find it. The ease (or difficulty) of finding something depends on how we organize our digital stuff. In this book, personal information management (PIM) experts Ofer Bergman and Steve Whittaker explain why we organize our personal digital data the way we do and how the design of new PIM systems can help us manage our collections more efficiently. Bergman and Whittaker report that many of us use hierarchical folders for our personal digital organizing. Critics of this method point out that information is hidden from sight in folders that are often within other folders so that we have to remember the exact location of information to access it. Because of this, information scientists suggest other methods: search, more flexible than navigating folders; tags, which allow multiple categorizations; and group information management. Yet Bergman and Whittaker have found in their pioneering PIM research that these other methods that work best for public information management don't work as well for personal information management. Bergman and Whittaker describe personal information collection as curation: we preserve and organize this data to ensure our future access to it. Unlike other information management fields, in PIM the same user organizes and retrieves the information. After explaining the cognitive and psychological reasons that so many prefer folders, Bergman and Whittaker propose the user-subjective approach to PIM, which does not replace folder hierarchies but exploits these unique characteristics of PIM.

Reclaiming Conversation

Reclaiming Conversation
Author: Sherry Turkle
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 434
Release: 2015-10-06
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 110161739X

“In a time in which the ways we communicate and connect are constantly changing, and not always for the better, Sherry Turkle provides a much needed voice of caution and reason to help explain what the f*** is going on.” —Aziz Ansari, author of Modern Romance Renowned media scholar Sherry Turkle investigates how a flight from conversation undermines our relationships, creativity, and productivity—and why reclaiming face-to-face conversation can help us regain lost ground. We live in a technological universe in which we are always communicating. And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection. Preeminent author and researcher Sherry Turkle has been studying digital culture for over thirty years. Long an enthusiast for its possibilities, here she investigates a troubling consequence: at work, at home, in politics, and in love, we find ways around conversation, tempted by the possibilities of a text or an email in which we don’t have to look, listen, or reveal ourselves. We develop a taste for what mere connection offers. The dinner table falls silent as children compete with phones for their parents’ attention. Friends learn strategies to keep conversations going when only a few people are looking up from their phones. At work, we retreat to our screens although it is conversation at the water cooler that increases not only productivity but commitment to work. Online, we only want to share opinions that our followers will agree with – a politics that shies away from the real conflicts and solutions of the public square. The case for conversation begins with the necessary conversations of solitude and self-reflection. They are endangered: these days, always connected, we see loneliness as a problem that technology should solve. Afraid of being alone, we rely on other people to give us a sense of ourselves, and our capacity for empathy and relationship suffers. We see the costs of the flight from conversation everywhere: conversation is the cornerstone for democracy and in business it is good for the bottom line. In the private sphere, it builds empathy, friendship, love, learning, and productivity. But there is good news: we are resilient. Conversation cures. Based on five years of research and interviews in homes, schools, and the workplace, Turkle argues that we have come to a better understanding of where our technology can and cannot take us and that the time is right to reclaim conversation. The most human—and humanizing—thing that we do. The virtues of person-to-person conversation are timeless, and our most basic technology, talk, responds to our modern challenges. We have everything we need to start, we have each other. Turkle's latest book, The Empathy Diaries (3/2/21) is available now.

The Demon of Writing

The Demon of Writing
Author: Ben Kafka
Publisher: Zone Books
Total Pages: 185
Release: 2020-03-10
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 194213035X

A history and theory of the powers, the failures, and even the pleasures of paperwork. Since the middle of the eighteenth century, political thinkers of all kinds—radical and reactionary, professional and amateur—have been complaining about “bureaucracy.” But what, exactly, are they complaining about? In The Demon of Writing, Ben Kafka offers a critical history and theory of one of the most ubiquitous, least understood forms of media: paperwork. States rely on records to tax and spend, protect and serve, discipline and punish. But time and again, this paperwork proves to be unreliable. Examining episodes that range from the story of a clerk who lost his job and then his mind in the French Revolution to an account of Roland Barthes's brief stint as a university administrator, Kafka reveals the powers, the failures, and even the pleasures of paperwork. Many of its complexities, he argues, have been obscured by the comic-paranoid style that characterizes much of our criticism of bureaucracy. Kafka proposes a new theory of what Karl Marx called the “bureaucratic medium.” Moving from Marx to Freud, he argues that this theory of paperwork must include both a theory of praxis and of parapraxis.

Paper Knowledge

Paper Knowledge
Author: Lisa Gitelman
Publisher: Duke University Press Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2014-03-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780822356578

Paper Knowledge is a remarkable book about the mundane: the library card, the promissory note, the movie ticket, the PDF (Portable Document Format). It is a media history of the document. Drawing examples from the 1870s, the 1930s, the 1960s, and today, Lisa Gitelman thinks across the media that the document form has come to inhabit over the last 150 years, including letterpress printing, typing and carbon paper, mimeograph, microfilm, offset printing, photocopying, and scanning. Whether examining late nineteenth century commercial, or "job" printing, or the Xerox machine and the role of reproduction in our understanding of the document, Gitelman reveals a keen eye for vernacular uses of technology. She tells nuanced, anecdote-filled stories of the waning of old technologies and the emergence of new. Along the way, she discusses documentary matters such as the relation between twentieth-century technological innovation and the management of paper, and the interdependence of computer programming and documentation. Paper Knowledge is destined to set a new agenda for media studies.

The E-Myth Accountant

The E-Myth Accountant
Author: Michael E. Gerber
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 213
Release: 2011-01-31
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1118007832

Distilled small business advice for accounting practices Many accountants in small and mid-size practices are experts when it comes to their professional knowledge, but may not have considered their practice as much from a business perspective. Michael Gerber's The E-Myth Accountant fills this void, giving you powerful advice on everything you need to run your practice as a successful business, allowing you to achieve your goals and grow your practice. Featuring Gerber's signature easy-to-understand, easy-to-implement style, The E-Myth Accountant features Gerber's universal appeal as a recognized expert on small businesses who has coached, taught, and trained over 60,000 small businesses A recognized and widely respected co-author and leader in the accounting field The E-Myth Accountant is the last guide you'll ever need to make the difference in building or developing your successful accounting practice.

Toward Paperless Information Systems

Toward Paperless Information Systems
Author: Frederick Wilfrid Lancaster
Publisher: New York : Academic Press
Total Pages: 200
Release: 1978
Genre: Computers
ISBN:

Monograph forecasting computerization of information processing of scientific and technical information - reviews the trends in computerized information retrieval since 1963, deals with the evolution of electronic publishing and feasibility of electronic information systems, and discusses future paperless communication, the role of librarys in a paperless society, etc. Bibliography pp. 167 to 174, diagrams, graphs and statistical tables.