Frank’s Rise and Fall of the Paper-Based Office

Frank talks about office communication and shows some of the vintage machines that helped offices run on paper. There was the Mimeograph, Gestetner, and Ditto machines. He then shows a clip from a speech he gave at the XPLOR event in 1993 that predicted today’s work-at-home world, the decline of the office per se, and perhaps the decline of the need for paper.

Published on November 13, 2020

Discussion

By Jim Hamilton on Nov 13, 2020

This begs the question: Is your home office paperless? Mine sure isn't. I use my all-in-one extensively to scan and print, and I love it. I edit better on paper. I actually put letters in the mail. I sometimes scan documents that I want to send as JPGs or PDFs. I use it for art projects. So I'm saying it works for me, an aging Boomer, but I wonder if the pandemic has spurred an increase in sales of home printers? I'm not so sure. I suspect that many younger folks can do without a printer.

By Marc Johnson on Nov 17, 2020

Jim- no, it's not just us aging boomers (and GenX'ers) ;)

https://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/technology-media-and-telecommunications/covid-19/gx-covid-19-printers-charming-tmt-predictions.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/if-2020-werent-strange-enough-printers-are-staging-a-comeback/2020/06/30/1e800ad0-bada-11ea-97c1-6cf116ffe26c_story.html

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/covid-19-home-printer-wireless