One of our friends at NCTT, Gordon Snyder, is working on reducing his paperness. Reading his blog reminded me of the history of this endeavor so I thought I’d do a quick reality check to see if my recollection of the quest for reduced paper content in our lives matches the historical record.

The saga is much longer than I remembered, starting in the 1940’s (a bit before I started) with the concept of Memex. My recollection starts in the office of the 1970’s and later in the 80’s with the spread of the personal computer. The prophecy of a PC on every desk has pretty much come true. The prediction that these devices would lead to a reduction in paper usage has been quite a bit less accurate.

One parallel technology development that may have interfered with the PC’s promise in this area was the rise of the plain paper copier. I can hear the younger readers saying, “Plain paper copier? Don’t all copiers use plain paper?” Not before the mid 1970’s. Prior to that the only copiers economically available to small offices were wet process photocopiers or, if you needed more than a few copies, printing presses. In the mid to late 1970’s there was rapid advancement in copier technology that made it feasible for a small office to have a copy machine on site. When this technology was applied to computer printing (laser printers) the possible gains in paperlessness were erased.

What value is there to paper that makes it so hard to abandon?

I came across an interesting article about the value of paper in my rummaging for information. It is actually a book review in The New Yorker magazine of the book, “The Myth of the Paperless Office” from 2002. The article, and the book, makes the point that paper has certain characteristics that make it very difficult to emulate. I won’t go into the details, or into the disturbing proposition regarding jumbled piles of paper on desks representing a method of thought organization. You’ll have to read the article.

Maybe this is one of those cases of finding the best mix of technologies for the job at hand. I’ll be curious to see how Gordon’s experiment progresses. I’m sure he’ll find the right mix of digital and pulp based media for his activities.