Reading Practises among Workers

Harper, Richard H.R, and Abigail J. Sellen. The Myth of the Paperless Office. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2002.

The future of the e-book?

Harper, Richard H.R, and Abigail J. Sellen. The Myth of the Paperless Office. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2002.

The Problems of Paper

Paper:

• requires physical delivery
  
• requires photocopying if mass access is the goal
  
• occupies more physical space than digital documents
  
• takes more time to revise and incorporate with other documents
  
• can't display moving images or sounds

Harper, Richard H.R, and Abigail J. Sellen. The Myth of the Paperless Office. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2002.

Melvil Dewey

• Revolutionized library organization; he was obsessed with saving time and space.
  
• Promoted the use of both shorthand and the metric system.
  
• Shortened his name from "Melville" to "Melvil"
  
• Had an anxiety about the disorder an abundance of paper documents might cause; managers at Xerox’s European research building seemed to share Dewey’s anxiety – a researcher at the building had superfluous stacks of paper on his desk, and though he was very good at navigating his way through the documents, he was asked to hide his papers when senior colleagues visited the office because of paper’s image of inefficiency
  
• Created filing cabinets, attributed to his anxiety, that were basically large versions of card catalogues; paper "hung vertically in long drawers."

Gladwell, Malcolm. “The Social Life of Paper.” The New Yorker 78.5 (2002): 92.

Air-Traffic Control Strips

• Are 1.5 x 6.5-inch strips of paper used to record the types, radar ID numbers, speeds, altitudes, destinations, and other information of up to 25 planes simultaneously
  
• Are governed by the planning controller, who is responsible for radar; his/her partner annotates the data about incoming traffic on the strips
  
• Aid situation awareness; the strips are used as cognitive clues to keep clear the mental picture of where planes will be; the controller keeps strips out of the partner’s view until partner needs it, or if there’s an urgent problem

Gladwell, Malcolm. “The Social Life of Paper.” The New Yorker 78.5 (2002): 92.

Paper Production

• Increased significantly in the Western world over the last ten years; although the computer was supposed to replace paper, all Western countries used more paper in 2002 than in 1992
  
• Increased significantly in the United States between 1995 and 2000; uncoated, free-sheet office paper consumption increased by 15%
  
• Produced a significant increase in total revenues in Canada between 1993, when revenues were 4.3 billion dollars, and 2003, when revenues were 6.4 billion dollars (Statistics Canada, Annual Survey of Manufactures)

Gladwell, Malcolm. “The Social Life of Paper.” The New Yorker 78.5 (2002): 92.

Advancements in Paper-Use During the 1800s

• As part of the move towards systemic management, managers created policies that required employers to get frequent updates from employees
  
• Out of the demand for updates from employees grew sales reports, office manuals, company newsletters
  
• In the 1880s, the invention of the typewriter brought with it speedy document production, and the invention of carbon paper meant multiple copies of documents, such as train schedules, could be made instantly, and then get distributed
  

Gladwell, Malcolm. “The Social Life of Paper.” The New Yorker 78.5 (2002): 92.