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Papyrus News
A tale of two books

I finished my new book manuscript, Technology and Social Inclusion: Rethinking the Digital Divide. A lot of PN readers helped me along the way--in Hawaii, California, India, Egypt, Brazil, and China--and I'd like to thank everybody for your assistance. I've written several other books, but this one was particularly exhausting, since the research was quite wide in scope, both geographically and topically. Those of you who want to see a short blurb on that book (and my prior books) can take a look at <http://www.gse.uci.edu/markw/books.html>. I'll send out more info on the book when it's available for order.

I can breathe a bit easier now. If anybody has any major new projects to propose, it's a good time to contact me. I do have a window of opportunity--for about 45 minutes or so :-). On the other hand, I might just take a few breaths and enjoy the weather. I hate to say this, but it's been a gorgeous 75 degrees Fahrenheit (24 degrees Celsius) all week. (Anyway, I assume the weather is the same where you all are too :-)).

The book is being published by MIT Press. I've been really happy with their professionalism and support--and they have a great list of titles on the social aspects of computing. Here's an announcement below for another one coming out shortly.

Cheers,
Mark

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I thought readers of the Papyrus News might be interested in this book. For more information please visit
http://mitpress.mit.edu/0262194643

The Myth of the Paperless Office
Abigail J. Sellen and Richard H. R. Harper

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 -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 us to compare the affordances of paper with those of existing digital devices. We 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.

Abigail J. Sellen is a cognitive psychologist at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories in Bristol, UK. Richard H. R. Harper is Director of the Digital World Research Centre at the University of Surrey, UK.

6 x 9, 242 pp., 30 illus.
cloth ISBN 0-262-19464-3

Jud Wolfskill
Associate Publicist
MIT Press
5 Cambridge Center, 4th Floor
Cambridge, MA 02142
617.253.2079
617.253.1709 fax
wolfskil@mit.edu

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Last updated: January 11, 2002 in Hot Metal Pro 6.0