Pushing New Frontiers: Examining the Future of Paper and Electronic Documents

Abstract

INTRODUCTIONRapid socio-technical change is underway in the world of work. Mobile technology and access to broadband internet have evolved enough that they now provide the opportunity to work anytime, from almost anywhere. Many companies are using these capabilities to send some of their employees home to work, effectively lowering real estate and commuting costs, and attracting a diverse set of workers. Workers are often members of globally distributed teams, who collaborate to create complex, interconnected webs of dynamic information. Video, audio, and databases of images are entering the world of work, along with Web 2.0 applications like wikis, podcasts, blogs, and social networking sites. The convergence of these trends is creating significant changes in the workplace.The Xerox Future of Work team conducted studies in 2008 to explore the impact of these changes on the nature of work. Using an ethnographic approach, the team conducted interviews and observations of people who work at home or on the go. The people studied were already working at the forefront of these trends, participating in alternative work scenarios that didn't include office cubicles, and using new tools and technology to support these new kinds of work. The team studied how participants used technology to coordinate their work, how they balanced and/or integrated work and personal life, and how the nature EPIC 2009, pp. 197-208, ISBN 0-9799094-2-4.

Business Ethnography: Inducing Liminality in Pursuit of Innovation

“…Board member interests influenced the questions posed by the project, and in turn, the study resonated with board members, who brought findings back to their respective organizations and activities. The advisory board provided the opportunity for the project to influence many levels of the corporation in parallel, while providing an environment for the board members to make unanticipated connections and synergies among themselves (Watts-Perotti et al 2009). …”

“…Establishing the advisory board and inviting SME participation in the fieldwork resulted in many benefits as well as unanticipated synergies (Watts-Perotti et al 2009. The Future of Work team was invited to participate in discussions with other Xerox organizations to share findings and implications.…”

“…The team, including interested members of the advisory board, worked with designers to create sketches of concepts to describe these opportunities. Some of the concepts were developed as patents, and others were summarized in a design directions document, which explained the concepts in the context of the fieldwork themes and findings (Watts-Perotti et al 2009. The design directions document provided a concrete way for ethnographers to translate the findings into a format that was usable for the development community.…”

“…The project evolved over the course of five years, each year building on the results of the previous year, while adjusting the research questions to include emerging areas of interest (Watts-Perotti et al 2009;Perotti et al 2011). However, some of the study topics were explored each year, including:…”

Back to the Future of Work: Informing corporate renewal

“…In looking back at our 2009EPIC paper (Watts-Perotti et al, 2009, we find that many of the trends noted from 2008 have continued. For example, the mobile worker population (defined as those who worked outside a static office for more than 30% of their time) continues to increase.…”