About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherMIT Press

ISBN-10026269283X

ISBN-139780262692830

eBay Product ID (ePID)10038909107

Product Key Features

Number of Pages245 Pages

Publication NameMyth of the Paperless Office

LanguageEnglish

Publication Year2003

SubjectOffice Automation, Materials Science / General, Information Theory, Office Equipment & Supplies

FeaturesReprint

TypeTextbook

Subject AreaComputers, Technology & Engineering, Business & Economics

AuthorAbigail J. Sellen, Richard H. R. Harper

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height0.6 in

Item Weight12.2 Oz

Item Length9 in

Item Width6.1 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

TitleLeadingThe

Reviews"The authors approach their subject with academic rigour, observing realorganisations to find out how people like to work." Financial Times, The authors approach their subject with academic rigour, observing real organisations to find out how people like to work., "The case for paper is made most eloquently in The Myth of the PaperlessOffice ...." Malcolm Gladwell The New Yorker, "The authors approach their subject with academic rigour, observing real organisations to find out how people like to work." Financial Times, "The case for paper is made most eloquently in The Myth of the Paperless Office ...." Malcolm Gladwell The New Yorker, "The authors approach their subject with academic rigour, observing real organisations to find out how people like to work." - Financial Times

Dewey Edition21

Grade FromCollege Graduate Student

IllustratedYes

Dewey Decimal651.5

Edition DescriptionReprint

SynopsisThe authors explains why paper will continue to play an important role in office life, and shows how paper and computers can better complement on another., An examination of why paper continues to fill our offices and a proposal for better coordination of the paper and digital worlds. Over the past thirty years, many people have proclaimed the imminent arrival of the paperless office. Yet even the World Wide Web, which allows almost any computer to read and display another computer's documents, has increased the amount of printing done. The use of e-mail in an organization causes an average 40 percent increase in paper consumption. In The Myth of the Paperless Office , Abigail Sellen and Richard Harper use the study of paper as a way to understand the work that people do and the reasons they do it the way they do. Using the tools of ethnography and cognitive psychology, they look at paper use from the level of the individual up to that of organizational culture. Central to Sellen and Harper's investigation is the concept of "affordances"--the activities that an object allows, or affords. The physical properties of paper (its being thin, light, porous, opaque, and flexible) afford the human actions of grasping, carrying, folding, writing, and so on. The concept of affordance allows them to compare the affordances of paper with those of existing digital devices. They can then ask what kinds of devices or systems would make new kinds of activities possible or better support current activities. The authors argue that paper will continue to play an important role in office life. Rather than pursue the ideal of the paperless office, we should work toward a future in which paper and electronic document tools work in concert and organizational processes make optimal use of both., An examination of why paper continues to fill our offices and a proposal for better coordination of the paper and digital worlds.

LC Classification NumberHF5521.S43 2003