The “Less Paper” office

One of the immediate draws to Tablet PCs is the benefit to take and store your paper notes on the computer. Once people begin taking handwritten notes on a Tablet PC, the idea of going paperless becomes more real to them. It is like the fog lifts a little. Since using a Tablet PC the past 3 1/2, I know that I have consumed a lot less paper. However, I don’t think the term “paperless office” is a reality. I prefer the term “less-paper office”.

Along those lines, The St. Petersburgh Times has a good write up on the state of the “paperless office”

Grandon Gill’s paper diet once consumed 10,000 sheets a year when he made his lecture notes available to his students. Now, Gill is down to less than 1,000.

Less than half of Gill’s students get paper copies; others access the notes online. Gill, an associate professor in the information systems and decision sciences department at the University of South Florida in Tampa, changed some of his other paper-devouring habits, too.

“The Tablet PC has many of the same advantages of a pad of paper,” Gill said. “It’s relatively easy to use. It’s shaped the way a sheet of paper is. It has plenty of capacity to hold all documents, and you can write on it.”

While technology helped curb Gill’s appetite for paper, it has not eliminated it. Nor does he expect paper to disappear any time soon, even as technology advances.