The New Push to Get Rid of Paper
Three decades after "paperless office" entered the business lexicon, the financial and environmental need to reduce paper is greater than ever
This article is for subscribers only.
Thirty-three years ago this month the phrase "paperless office" entered the business lexicon in a article titled "The Office of the Future." In the article, George Pake, the legendary head of the Xerox (XRX) Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), foresaw technology that by 1995 would let computer users summon on-screen documents "by pressing a button," eliminating the need for much if not all the printed paper cluttering workspaces.
Pake's vision was half-right. Offices brim with network-linked computers, loaded with software that lets users create, read, duplicate, and distribute digital documents. But the dream of a workplace where all that technology would eliminate the need for printed documents remains just that—a dream.