Papers, Please?
January 2, 2015 7:34 PM Subscribe
The dream and the myth of the paperless city
Since "Paper consumption peaked in the late 1990s and has fallen sharply since 2005," mills are switching to cellulose for clothing.
Previously: The Price of the Paperless Revolution
Since "Paper consumption peaked in the late 1990s and has fallen sharply since 2005," mills are switching to cellulose for clothing.
Previously: The Price of the Paperless Revolution
The study referenced in the article is still available.
posted by Darwina at 11:12 PM on January 2, 2015
posted by Darwina at 11:12 PM on January 2, 2015
A completely paperless office is just as likely as a completely paperless toilet...
posted by DreamerFi at 4:37 AM on January 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by DreamerFi at 4:37 AM on January 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
God, I wish my city government would got toward paperless. You still need to fill out paper forms and pay for everything with a check to do any business with the city.
posted by octothorpe at 4:51 AM on January 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by octothorpe at 4:51 AM on January 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
A completely paperless office is just as likely as a completely paperless toilet...
Just learn to use the three seashells.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 4:53 AM on January 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
Just learn to use the three seashells.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 4:53 AM on January 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
"pay for everything with a check to do any business with the city."
City governments are typically prohibited by law from rolling the credit card processing fee into the statutory amount you pay for some service ... Its a constitutional equal protection violation, believe it or not. Credit card companies do now allow municipal governments to charge a "convenience fee" on top of the base amount (their merchant agreement typically forbids that) but not all states may allow it and a lot of governments hate doing it because they get far more complaints about the "convenience fee" than about paying with checks.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 5:17 AM on January 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
City governments are typically prohibited by law from rolling the credit card processing fee into the statutory amount you pay for some service ... Its a constitutional equal protection violation, believe it or not. Credit card companies do now allow municipal governments to charge a "convenience fee" on top of the base amount (their merchant agreement typically forbids that) but not all states may allow it and a lot of governments hate doing it because they get far more complaints about the "convenience fee" than about paying with checks.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 5:17 AM on January 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
A completely paperless office is just as likely as a completely paperless toilet...
You do realize that about half the world happily uses water instead of paper, yes?
I can still remember the first "paperless offices are almost here!" article in Times or Newsweek (remember them?) back in the late 1980s. I recall the author saying that the changeover was imminent, but I have yet to see that in any office I've worked in yet.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:37 AM on January 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
You do realize that about half the world happily uses water instead of paper, yes?
I can still remember the first "paperless offices are almost here!" article in Times or Newsweek (remember them?) back in the late 1980s. I recall the author saying that the changeover was imminent, but I have yet to see that in any office I've worked in yet.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:37 AM on January 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
The offices that I've worked in for the last decade have probably been 95% paperless. We have a couple of printers at my current workplace but they're seldom used and the only paper that I've really had to deal with have been some HR and government forms that I filled out in the first week.
posted by octothorpe at 6:01 AM on January 3, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by octothorpe at 6:01 AM on January 3, 2015 [3 favorites]
When I think about it, it's actually interesting how little traditional paper-centric office paraphernalia I have at work now compared to what I've had in the past. I have no folders, file cabinet, stapler, paper clips or even business cards. I have a little steno notebook and some post-its but that's about it. I don't even have a desk drawer where all that stuff could go.
Also, no phone.
posted by octothorpe at 6:10 AM on January 3, 2015 [2 favorites]
Also, no phone.
posted by octothorpe at 6:10 AM on January 3, 2015 [2 favorites]
My desk at my office has all of one drawer, which is mostly used to store a couple of seldom-used implements (scissors, stapler) and a spare short in case I spill something at lunch. My home office, where I am typing at this moment, has a table and nothing more.
My insurance company (which takes my claims online and reimburses me by direct deposit) overpaid me last year on a medical claim and wrote me a letter laying out how the onus was on me to rectify their error by mailing a cheque to their offices. Apparently they are headquartered in 1982.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:14 AM on January 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
My insurance company (which takes my claims online and reimburses me by direct deposit) overpaid me last year on a medical claim and wrote me a letter laying out how the onus was on me to rectify their error by mailing a cheque to their offices. Apparently they are headquartered in 1982.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:14 AM on January 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
We're getting there in my office. I can tell how long an employee has been there by looking at the mailboxes: everyone who started before 2003 or so still gets tons of printed catalogues, and the rest of us don't. Our phone system is 20 years old and has no caller ID, but no one complains because it's never used. A few bosses insist on getting hard copies of documents, and everyone gripes about them. Everyone stops by to use my stapler, because I'm the only one on the floor who has one (it was there when I started).
Happy for all the un-wasted trees.
posted by Melismata at 10:03 AM on January 3, 2015
Happy for all the un-wasted trees.
posted by Melismata at 10:03 AM on January 3, 2015
The only paper I ever use at work is for taking notes.
posted by oceanjesse at 11:25 AM on January 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by oceanjesse at 11:25 AM on January 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
You do realize that about half the world happily uses water instead of paper, yes?
Would be interesting to see a comparison of water use for manufacturing and flushing toilet paper vs amount we'd use if we all had bidets.
store...spare short in case I spill something at lunch.
I'm hoping your typo was an i, unless you meant to add an s?
If the latter, you might rethink the paper roll.
posted by BlueHorse at 11:48 AM on January 3, 2015
Would be interesting to see a comparison of water use for manufacturing and flushing toilet paper vs amount we'd use if we all had bidets.
store...spare short in case I spill something at lunch.
I'm hoping your typo was an i, unless you meant to add an s?
If the latter, you might rethink the paper roll.
posted by BlueHorse at 11:48 AM on January 3, 2015
Papers, Please is also the name of a very interesting game about manning a border crossing in glorious Arstotzka. (previously)
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 12:38 PM on January 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 12:38 PM on January 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
A completely paperless office is just as likely as a completely paperless toilet...
When I was a lad, my father would regale me with tale of the two corn cob method in use for the outhouse. "We had a red one and a white one" said he, "You did your business with the red one."
I was fool enough to inquire as to the usefulness of the white one.
"To make another red one." I was told.
posted by scottymac at 6:17 PM on January 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
When I was a lad, my father would regale me with tale of the two corn cob method in use for the outhouse. "We had a red one and a white one" said he, "You did your business with the red one."
I was fool enough to inquire as to the usefulness of the white one.
"To make another red one." I was told.
posted by scottymac at 6:17 PM on January 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
You'd imagine city governments could actually compute the real costs involved in handling cash or checks if they wanted to accept credit cards. Just consider all that money spent on handling individual transactions and security. Now obviously if credit card company makes processing cost the city too much personnel time too then the city cannot use credit cards, but that's fair.
posted by jeffburdges at 7:34 PM on January 3, 2015
posted by jeffburdges at 7:34 PM on January 3, 2015
I'm hoping your typo was an i, unless you meant to add an s?
Spare shirt, yes.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:07 AM on January 5, 2015
Spare shirt, yes.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:07 AM on January 5, 2015
In IT/Healthcare operations I've heard "paperlessness is not possible." So I coined the term "lesspaperness" which I think Voltaire might approve. The perfect is the enemy of the good. I've worked at places that would print things before scanning them, sometimes even things originating from the same system they're being scanned back into!
PDFs including "print to PDF" are drastically helping. Anything you can print, you can turn into a PDF if you need that "paper like, easy to reproduce" experience. Hence the "P" in portable.
In 2005 I told a health care startup that they should have "print to EHR" functionality. Discrete data is the end game but you'd be surprised by how much is printed or imported from external systems like hospitals. I told them it should be possible to "print" from any system using PDF functionality, and then the custom printer driver presents a dialog box to link the document to a patient, because the work flow to import a PDF sometimes is harder than printing and scanning. They gave me some condescending remark and went on to suck. Meanwhile I see this functionality all over the place now, particularly in accounting systems.
posted by aydeejones at 12:19 PM on January 5, 2015
PDFs including "print to PDF" are drastically helping. Anything you can print, you can turn into a PDF if you need that "paper like, easy to reproduce" experience. Hence the "P" in portable.
In 2005 I told a health care startup that they should have "print to EHR" functionality. Discrete data is the end game but you'd be surprised by how much is printed or imported from external systems like hospitals. I told them it should be possible to "print" from any system using PDF functionality, and then the custom printer driver presents a dialog box to link the document to a patient, because the work flow to import a PDF sometimes is harder than printing and scanning. They gave me some condescending remark and went on to suck. Meanwhile I see this functionality all over the place now, particularly in accounting systems.
posted by aydeejones at 12:19 PM on January 5, 2015
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posted by oneswellfoop at 7:48 PM on January 2, 2015