Paper Rises to the Fore in Clever New Xerox Software

If Xerox is smart, lucky--and extremely persuasive--this newspaper could turn into the cheapest, most cost-effective computer interface you can carry. Simply pencil in a couple of boxes, pop the desired page into a fax machine, and send any story, graphic or stock quotes you’d like into the appropriate file of your personal computer.

Similarly, your credit card bills, your grocery receipts, your direct mail, your expense forms, home remodeling sketches--any piece of paper that really matters to you--could all be seamlessly blended, stored, retrieved and distributed via your PC and any fax machine. Instead of being that vestigial tree byproduct that attracts ink, paper becomes a full media partner in the web of digital technologies.

Of course, it only makes sense for Xerox to create a computer interface you can photocopy. The irresistible rise of desktop publishing has proven that the idea of “the paperless office” was a rather silly sales myth dreamed up by technologists with a far better grasp of microprocessors than of human behavior.

Paper is as vital, versatile and powerful a medium today as it was when the microprocessor was etched into existence 20 years ago. The challenge is how to intelligently integrate paper into the digital world at both low cost and high value.

Xerox’s first answer to that question is a $250 IBM-Windows-compatible software package called PaperWorks. PaperWorks, which requires a fax modem to operate, is a clever bit of work that lets its users store, retrieve and distribute personal computer-based information by sending special “forms” to their computers from any fax machine. These forms contain special fields of cross-hatched lines called “glyphs,” which effectively tell the computer what functions to perform.

The product allows you to use your PC as a “mailbox” to retrieve faxes sent to your machine, and then forward them to others. A PaperWorks “template” lets you build your own forms so that you can do anything from filing expense reports to updating price listings. Simply fill out the form, fax it to your PC and your PC does what you command. Forget your forms? Simply fax a blank sheet of paper and your PC will fax back the master form so you can get started.

It doesn’t take much imagination to envision useful extensions of PaperWorks and glyphs. What Gemstar has done for programming the VCR with VCR-Plus, Xerox could do for programming your PC with glyphs hidden in newspaper half-tone photos. Publishers could look at paper as a medium to communicate with computers as well as readers. Banks and insurance companies could use glyph-forms to help customers keep better track of their accounts and claims.

So what Xerox is slowly--and painfully--trying to do is transform paper from an input/output medium into a computational “glue”--a cheap, accessible medium that lets people easily communicate both with machines and other people.

“You need to think of (glyphs) as radical incrementalism,” says John Seely Brown, head of the Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center, which spawned this technology.

The key is to craft a technology that adds value to everything but makes nothing obsolete. That is a design approach that too few organizations now understand. Glyphs can fit comfortably within the world of portable media, mainframe computing and even voice mail.

However, even though fax modems are one of the hottest sellers in the personal computer marketplace today, PaperWorks has hardly taken the market by storm since its introduction six months ago. Part of the reason is the price. At $250, the software is far more expensive than Microsoft’s Windows. If the price doesn’t come down, PaperWorks runs the risk of becoming the punch card of the ‘90s.

Similarly, unless newspapers, magazines, insurance companies, financial services firms, utilities and other paper-intensive organizations begin to use glyph-like technologies, PaperWorks-like software will never achieve success in the mass market.

Indeed, Xerox has to recognize that it isn’t just selling a product--it’s trying to grow a new mass media infrastructure. Microsoft recognizes this, and that’s why Bill Gates is personally worth billions. How--and to whom--Xerox licenses its glyphs will reveal just what kind of chance the self-proclaimed “document company” has of creating a new industry standard--like VHS or Windows.

But let’s remember the important forces underlying this effort. Whether Xerox succeeds or fails, there’s no question that the most important issue facing computational technologies today isn’t high-speed, high-bandwidth functionality; it’s low-cost, easy-access integration. The future isn’t in building better devices; it’s in building better relationships between devices and people.