Re: Slightly OT: The paperless office: How far can we go?


Joerg wrote:

b. Document retention: Are there any "cast-in-concrete" rules over what
constitutes proper records after they are scanned in? Can you really,
really toss the paper copy afterwards?

One "cast in concrete" rule about paper retention is how IMPORTANT are
the documents?

Never forget the "Jacoby rule": "If it's on magnetic media it AIN'T
backed up!"

The real question about "tossing paper copies" is how stable is your
archival storage media. In case you didn't notice paper has EXCELLENT
archival properties. Acid-free paper even more so. Magnetic media
just plain sucks which means data must be constantly regenerated to be
archival. Optical media has promise but lifetimes are unknown. All
digital media have the obsolescence problem where after so many years
hardware for reading media can no longer be obtained. These are all
VERY serious questions of importance to the "paperless" office and
many have not yet be effectively solved or answered.

Early in the days of computing I came up with a system of "bar codes"
that could put relatively high density data (for the period) on paper
to utilize the archival properties of paper while still retaining
machine-readable copies. Today the system is pitifully primitive.
However, the same kind of idea using oxide-covered silicon wafers
would seem to provide truly excellent archival storage capability.
The technology, however, has not been developed.

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