[LINK] Environment department used 30 sheets of paper per person per day

[Marghanita da Cruz]

Mike Shearer wrote:
> Ivan Trundle wrote:
> 
> "In my experience, an ideal meeting would involve everyone present (or  
> virtually present) having two laptops (not notebooks - screens not big  
> enough) each, and using one for the meeting system, and the other for  
> reference material - and a system which would allow them all to share  
> either screen with others, or to at least share the reference screen  
> with whoever they choose. Each laptop would need to have a screen of  
> A4 size, and as sharp and as bright as an A4 sheet of paper, and each  
> would be touch-assisted, and with an external keyboard for typing."
> 
> If you are not familiar with Stafford Beer's concept for the cabinet office in Chile for Allende's government then chase up a copy of his book "Platform for change".  If it's the paperback edition then it must still have its dust jacket because that has the only illustrations of the office printed on the jacket verso.  Published over 30 years ago, it anticipated what telecommunications and digitised information could achieve for real-time decision making in a paperless environment.

Ahh...the paperless office!
> The paperless office was a publicist's slogan, meant to describe the office of the future. The basic idea was that office automation would make paper redundant for routine tasks such as record-keeping and bookkeeping. The idea came to prominence with the introduction of the personal computer. While the prediction of a PC on every desk was remarkably prescient, the 'paperless office' was less prophetic. Improvements in printers and photocopiers have made it much easier to produce documents in bulk, word-processing has deskilled secretarial work involved in writing those documents, and paper proliferates.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paperless_office>

Marghanita
-- 
Marghanita da Cruz
http://www.ramin.com.au
Phone: (+61)0414 869202