2020 vision on print

Office World News, Nov 1999 by Lallier, Carol

Over 200 journalists from around the world gathered in Boston last month for Lexmark International's fourth annual 20/20 Vision on Print international press conference. The conference focused on the relevance of print in our technology and human environments, today and in the future.

Tapping into the knowledge of some of today's most talented and forwardthinking experts, Lexmark presented a comprehensive look at the products, technologies, and issues that continue to redefine the way we live and work. "The more you look at the future of technology and how it may evolve," said Tom Lamb, executive vice president, Lexmark, "the more complex and uncertain things appear."

Lamb noted, however, that several points are clear:

digital information is being shared in unprecedented rates and will continue to grow;

distributed printing is displacing centralized printing;

the development of information applications is being fueled by technologies that are moving printing away from the originator and closer to the end user;

ease of use is a key factor in digital appliances; and

printing is here to stay.

With these points in mind, 20/20 Vision on Print explored the needs and expectations of our "Digital Civilization," from the tangibles such as office equipment and furniture design to such intangibles as information ownership.

Lexmark teamed up with the University of Kentucky College of Fine Arts on a collaborative project to create a model showing both the environment and the equipment expected to be used by people working at home and people working in open-plan, team-based groups within an office building in around 20 years' time. The team's thorough examination of the current trends in telecommuting, the home office, the shared, team office, and alternative work issues, as well as its consideration of environmental issues, pressures on city space, and the growing demands of the information society led to the development of a futuristic fullsize concept for both the shared office and the home office.

"We looked at trends which were affecting the sociological climate of the office, particularly demographic changes which were bringing more women into the workplace," said Pete Mendel, chief designer for Lexmark. "We took these trends and tried to extrapolate them 20 years into the future."

The resulting designs are environmentally safe, incorporating molded plywood made from sunflower seeds, flooring made from discarded car tires, and components made from other recycled, renewable, and low-chemicalcontent materials. The designs are also compact, adjustable, and mobile. They feature such technologies as voice recognition, wireless distribution, and multifunction capabilities. (See our front cover for a peek at the future: a monitor that opaques for privacy as needed; a large format color printer for project team use; a letter-sized, portable printer for full mobility, and a workstation that folds up and disappears when not in use.)

Lexmark's 20/20 Vision on Print also focused on the expanding universe of digital information-the technology as well as the human factors that influence our Digital Civilization. The "paperless office," which incidentally made it to Time magazine's list of the 100 worst ideas of the 20th century, was acknowledged as perhaps not a bad concept, but certainly an unrealistic one. Lexmark assigned one of its strategists to "go paperless" for 30 days. While the engineer was well able to maneuver his information through the digital world, it put him out of synch with the rest of the world-who continued to send and to request hard copy. By the end of the experiment, a three-foot stack of paper had accumulated.

Further supporting the fact that hard copy will remain the medium of choice for years to come, Tom Lamb pointed out that in 1982, when the personal computer was in its infancy and the Internet was just a tool for scientists, a mere one trillion sheets of paper were used in the of fi ce . Today, e-mail and Net surfing is commonplace, yet paper shipments have increased to three trillion sheets. Additionally, research has shown that hard copy is about 30 percent faster to read than electronic text. One problem is that on-screen resolution is poor compared to printed text. Another is that on-screen, the reader must scroll and is unable to view an entire pageor even two-at one time. Aside from the comfort and convenience of hard copy, people "trust" paper and it is often the only form that is legally acceptable and binding.

Also addressed at 20/20 Vision on Print was the issue of "intellectual property," or copyright. Richard Sharpe, an author and freelance journalist who specializes in the IT sector and also a trainer and presenter on IT issues, editorial craft, and management subjects, spoke about the complicated issues surrounding the ownership of information.

Advances in the way we distribute information call for changes in the laws that protect the information provider. Current laws become gray as the Digital Civilization marches forward. "The puzzle is simple," said Sharpe. "Copying information neither destroys it nor deprives the 'owner' of its continued use as information-yet copyright is all about who can and cannot copy."