Those fortunate folks who have ready access to broadband report that videoconferencing can be great. But too many of us spend too much time trudging through airports and stuck on long flights. Pundits have pontificated about the arrival of the paperless office for decades. And of course, many people now write on their computers rather than on yellow pads. E-mail now both supplements and often supplants traditional paper mail in many contexts.
Many companies now use digital forms for a wide range of operational activities.
More of us are sending documents in digital formats, as attachments to e-mail as opposed to inserts in envelopes. And yet, as I survey the tattered ruins of my personal workspace, I see paper. And I see piles of paper in almost every home, campus and corporate office I visit. We are slowly learning that technology often supplements, rather than supplants, established habits. I think back to the days when a typewriter was my sole writing tool, save for pen and paper.