I’ve been having a week of serendipidity - you know, you see a new word for the first time and then see it three times in seperate places in quick succession. Last night I was reading ‘Making Knowledge Visible’ by Liz Orna and making notes about the difference between electronic and paper environments. This morning I open the Guardian while I’m eating porridge and see the latest from Bill Gates.

Is this the future? . I find some of this stuff mind boggling, but I suspect for all the wrong reasons.

There are many reasons to be suspicious of this scenario, not least because once the consumer gets caught in this particular technical web, I bet they’ll find it very hard to escape. I can’t see how any this won’t require ever more upgrades. There’s surely also an issue about energy, given the ever increasing demands on world energy supplies and their corresponding dwindling availability.

Here’s the notes I made (in my paper notebook) last night in ‘praise of paper’. Some of the points are from Orna, some I’ve developed from her ideas, and some of them are my own tuppence worth. In no particular heirarchy:

1. Authoring is dependent upon paper resources. I tend to write formal documents using this PC (or laptop sometimes) -but if I’m working at home I am surrounded by paper as I write. It’s the ability to spread it out - over a desk, table and on the floor if necessary. At the moment I have a small notebook for jotting things down on, two thick paper reports I’m reading, a diary, several post it notes and a wall calendar. The latter is very useful - I don’t have to switch anything on or switch applications - I simply look up.

2. ‘Reviewing is easier because it is easier to annotate’ - yep, I find writing all over documents and joining bits up with long arrows does work.

3. ‘Pen and paper as the primary medium for planning and recording thoughts’

4. ‘Paper supports collaborative activities’ - for example, the use of hard copies during meetings (use of flipcharts) (making notes - for self - and for passing to others - ever been in a meeting and watched people write comments to each other?)

5. It’s cheaper. It’s amazing how much cheaper a paper notebook, pencil and penknife are to an electronic notebook. And you will never need an upgrade or (expensive) batteries OR a source of power.

6. Flexible - I sometimes take a paper notebook out when it’s raining to write a note down. No fear of water creating a short circuit. Wet paper soon dries.

7. There is an aesthetic pleasure in taking a book - say a 1920 first edition of Morgan Phillip Price’s ‘Reminiscences of the Russian Revolution’ and reading it, knowing it was published while the events were still going on. The sense of history is greater.

8. A book is it’s own medium (I can’t remember the exact way to describe this - a book is its own container?) - it is also much easier to navigate and to see the beginning, middle and end. The ability to flick through a book is a good way to get a sense of it.

9. Paper still has more authority - I find a lot of interesting stuff on the internet, but I don’t trust it as much as paper books and magazines.

10. To date, books have lasted much better than electronic content. The oldest book I have is from the 1680s and is a monarchist account of the English Civil War. It is over 300 years old and is just as easy to read as it was when published (there is some work needed by the reader to penetrate the arcane language).

300 years from now - will language have changed more or less than in the previous three centuries? Will my CDs of photos, or this blog even, be in any format that anyone will be able to read? What might the cost of energy be? How powerful or not will Microsoft have become? What sort of networks?