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The Paperless Office |
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This is George Dimopoulos' paperless office. Yes - it's
100% paperless, and paper documents that end up on his desk will
rapidly be scanned, digitized and then shredded into the
recycling bin. The office has been highlighted as the
greenest office at Johns Hopkins. |
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A clutter-free and clean work environment
can help you stay focused on tasks, find the files you need
fast. The best of all may be that you can clone the office onto
your home computer and laptop, and in that way be able to get
work done from any other location. See pictures below on the
mobile paperless office. |
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This is what the Paperless Office is: 1. A powerfull PC.
2. Three monitors for large viewing area. 3. An external hard drive for back-up and storage.
4. A scanner with aoutoloader for easy digitization of paper documents.
5. A headset.
6. A webcam.
7. A gyroscopic mouse for desk-free operation.
8. A USB flash drive memory.
9. A printer to print documents on paper when that is required by regulations.
10. A telephone for communications.
11. A tablet-PC / laptop.
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Do something creative with all the space
you'll free up when the file cabinets and shelves are gone. Once
you have got rid (by digitizing) your paper books you'll realize
that there is a decorative value in having books. |
It's a pleasure to unleash creativity and
productivity in a clutter-free environment. |
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The paperless home office consists
of: 1. A desktop replacement portable computer.
2. A Second monitor to provide more viewing area. 3. An external keyboard with
mouse for more comfortable and efficient typing and drawing. 4.
An external mobile hard drive.
5. A wireless modem for connectivity to the world wide web throughput the house.
6. A book scanner for scanning of paper books into eBook format.
8. A headset.
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This is a flatbed scanner that has been
specifically designed to scan books. The edge of this scanner allows for scanning close to the book page edge and without bending the book spine too much.
The conversion of a 300 pages book into a PDF file
will take about 1 hour.
Once you have scanned your library into electronic format, you'll be able to take and access it anywhere.
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A handheld portable scanner that can scan in typed text from books, magazines or newspapers into its memory or directly into a word processor. This is the perfect tool – or electronic highlighter - if you need to need to copy selected text sections from printed material. It is lightweight, battery driven and can also be used as a translators when any of the 11 different languages have been loaded into its memory. |
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An first geberation electronic ink eBook
reader. The main advantages of this device are: its low weight,
small size and very low energy consumption. Electricity from the battery is only consumed when the page is turned, and
thousands of books can be stored on it with a high capacity
memory card. The device can also play MP3 music files while reading. The eBook reader can be used to read books or documents in the manufacturer's eBook format, and also PDF and the regular word format. The technology
has evolve rapidly and similar devices exist with color screens,
wireless connectivity and highlighting and note taking capabilities. |
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The Mobile Paperless Office |
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One of the great advantages of going
paperless is the freedom and mobility it provides. Once your
office (all your documents) have been cloned (or copied) on your
laptop, you're free to go and do your work from wherever you
want. See an inspiring example of Paperless Office mobility
here. |
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The tablet laptop PC will take care of all computing and internet based communication tasks.
The PDA phone is the communications center and will do email , SMS and wireless telephony communications. It will also be useful for downloading files from emails when internet is unavailable.
The eBook reader provide an entire library of books for the trip. The webcam
can be used for face-to-face communications and video conferencing.
A portable media player is loaded with music, pictures, a movie
and can also be used to watch digital broadcasting TV in case such media would be available. Note the earplug type headphones; very useful when flying since they will effectively reduce the jet engine noise. A video camera for HD footage is always a good thing to have when traveling to exotic places. Note that no paper except of
the passport is used on this trip.
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Before departing one can update the
library by browsing among thousands of titles wirelessly and
buy/download some new ebooks instantly. |
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Most airports have unfortunately not been designed for mobile workers and finding an electricity source for
charging a laptop battery for the flight may sometimes be complicated. Airports should be better designed in the future for mobile workers; they should have plenty of power outlets and free wireless internet connections.
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This s really the last chance to check
email and make cheap phone calls. The PDA phone can still be
used during the flight as a media and video player. |
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As long as you have energy, much work can
be done on flights. Extra batteries may be a good idea. A
standard feature of future airplanes should be electricity
outlets. |
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Typing on the laptop keyboard can become complicated when in economy class and the passenger sitting in front of you has decided to lean back. This is where the tablet PC works better. It's also great for editing manuscripts through direct hand writing on the typed text.
Use the tablet as an ebook and read, read, read... |
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At the destination you can connect to the
internet from your hotel room and catch up with business. Talk
to some people - face-to-face, and get some work done. |
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A light laptop in a small backpack is a must for spontaneous creative work while on the go.
Don't try to adapt your biological clock to your work schedule,
but do the opposite; work when it feels best to do so. This is
one of the many flexibilities that the paperless office
provides. |
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The tablet PC is the ideal computer when
attending meetings and conferences. You can take notes, read
background information, browse the internet for more
information, communicate through emails with colleagues, or work
on something else when the meeting becomes boring. The other
great thing is that you can send the meeting notes to your
colleagues or boss immediately, and you'll always have them
accessible at any place. |
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Access to the Internet with a wireless modem is provided by the Zambian cell phone company. With this service one can stay connected in a location-independent manner.
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Waiting for your next connection? Use this "dead" time
productively with your mobile paperless office, to make free
time when you're in more interesting places. |
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The ebook reader becomes handy and a pleasant escape every once
in a while when on the road. |
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Because mobile telephony is much cheaper
than landline installations, it is becoming widely available in
the lesser developed parts of the world. This provides for
communications and Internet capabilities for your paperless
office almost anywhere. |
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Sending a text message - saying I'm on my way. Text messages are
a much cheaper way to instantly communicate compared to
telephony when abroad on roaming services. |
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High-speed internet is provided through satellite services, even
in the bush. |
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You'd be amazed over the penetration of cellular telephony
networks world-wide. This is good news if your phone would break
down. |
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The impact of information technology on the poorer parts of the
world will e immense - as information and education can spread
freely across borders to everyone. |
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The paperless office can be taken anywhere - and can be made
available to everyone. |
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Business as usual; Stay connected and communicate with your
colleagues and friends. The use of an external microphone and
earphones can improve the communication significantly. You can
also make the experience more exciting by choosing an outdoor
location for your conference "room". |
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Whatever the critics of the paperless office and library will
say, this is simply impossible to do with your paper book
library. |
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A
portable media player becomes handy to watch movies or listen to
music wherever you'd be. |
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Here is a trick on how to download documents (files) through
internet (i.e. an email) to your laptop when wireless computer
connectivity is unavailable. 1. Download the email attachment on your PDA-phone by synchronizing with the email server (you need the international roaming capabilities here).
2. save the file on your PDA-phone's flash memory card (i.e. micro MMC).
3. Transfer the flash memory card to the laptop (it must have a slot for it) and save the file on your hard drive.
4. Continue enjoying paperless flexibilities and work.
This transfer between the PDA phone and laptop could alternatively have been done through wireless IR or Bluetooth connections. In the worst case scenario I could have worked on the MSW documents directly on the PDA phone but it is a bit tedious with the tiny display and keyboard.
Having a flash memory card slot on your PDA- or smartphone is a good thing for file transfer and storage of multimedia. |
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This is all you need for your travel paperless office. A laptop,
a PDA phone and an ebook reader. |
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