ReadWriteWeb

In 2008, a UK-based Adobe Acrobat engineer remarked, "I believe in striving to minimize the use of paper, but I do believe that we will probably never reach a position where paper is eliminated from our workplaces." This morning, his predictions were clearly confirmed by a study published by the information professionals organization AIIM.

The study shows that while the exchange of PDF files as e-mail attachments has reduced the volume of paperwork traded between IT professionals, that reduction is not only minimal, but quite possibly made up for. Over three-quarters of IT professionals surveyed say one of the first things they do with a PDF-based invoice... is print it out.

Back in the 1980s, one of my first publishers asked me for a quick biography paragraph to place at the end of a story. "Tell your readers about yourself," an editor said. "He fills infinite pieces of paper," I wrote. (It was the shortest piece I ever composed.)

Since that time, I've been presented with a countless number of form factors of strange components vying to replace my use of paper for keeping notes. Paper is wasteful, it gets lost, it reduces the number of trees, it consumes space. Think of how the environment would love me if I rid myself of the romance that I could record the passing parade of the world with a pencil.

New startup Pixily lets small businesses and individuals send paper documents by mail in a Netflix style envelope, then scans, uploads to Amazon S3 and lets you search them in 3 to 5 days. It's the kind of service that big companies spend a lot of money on, now made affordable enough for anyone.

Boston Globe writer Scott Kirsner tested the service last week and saw even faster turn around - his documents were available on the Pixily website in one day and returned to him in paper form in two days after sending them. That's pretty awesome.