It’s like the proverbial widget-maker whose job making widgets was eliminated by the industrial revolution – our obsession with productivity and output means that sometimes, our technological goals sometimes outpace our interests as humans. (Think of the controversy over inhumane conditions at Apple factories.) The key to success in this kind of environment is figuring out how technology can best augment the work we’re already doing, while considering the social costs.

Take the example of technology in higher ed. In distance learning, watching webcasts of a lecture probably isn’t going to do as much for you as sitting in an actual classroom. Practically, it’s just not as effective a teaching method; ethically, it doesn’t fulfill its obligations to the students (who we owe an education) or to the teacher (whose role we respect and want to retain). However, applications like Second Life for education, where students interact with a professor in real time in a digital classroom, have great potential in offering access to students who may not previously have been able to experience a university education, while still valuing and integrating the work teachers already do.

For lawyers, what that seems to mean is using technology in a way that help your employees work smarter, so they can spend more of their time using the best of their human skills: communication, intuition, and creativity. Paralegals who have technology that helps them complete repetitive tasks and paperwork can spend more time doing research and helping generate case strategy. Time-saving applications help everyone regain control of their workload, or simply go home earlier to spend time with their families. The best tech tools aren’t a replacement for good employees; they make good employees better. They help maximize both our practical and ethical ends: to do good work, while helping everyone reach their full potential.

What do you think? What are some of the best instances in which technology can change the work we do?

In other words, paper has a quality of presence. We can visualize it in real space; we can touch it with our hands. And that’s part of the reason, even with so much wonderful technology available to us, the conversion to a less paper-based practice can look and feel so hard. Conducting business online seems, for many, both dubious and impermanent. Even the language we use to talk about digital information makes it sound inconcrete: after all, where does information go when it’s stored in the vague abstraction we call “the cloud?”

So we find ourselves hanging on to paper: not only because it still dominates legal practice, but because of our intuitive assumptions about its stability.  To successfully make our businesses more digital, we need to change our thinking, and understand that even though paper seems permanent, it’s really one of the most ineffective tools we have to help get things done.

For instance, unlike digital information, which can frequently be recovered, paper can be irretrievably lost. It can be misplaced, left in a cab, or wiped out if your office’s basement floods. It can’t easily be shared. To access it, paper requires everyone’s presence in the same room, or (expensive, tedious and time-consuming) photocopies. It is the definition of insecure: paper can’t be password-protected or encrypted, and gives its information to anyone who can get her hands on it.

But it’s hard to change our conception of things, right? In the coming weeks, we’ll talk more about the eventual death of paper—and why you shouldn’t view it as a bad thing. Transitioning to a more technology-oriented workplace won’t be easy, but it’s worth doing, and can help you grow your business. Keep an eye on our blog and we’ll show you why.

 – Kat Stromquist