COMPUTEX 2010 Day 0: Too Much Paper!
You can practically hear the trees cry out for mercy as you survey journalists going through stacks of documents
The sheer amount of paper passed out to the media during the COMPUTEX 2010 International Press Conference is staggering. Journalists were handed booth maps, press releases, and booklets--all documents that the organizers could've passed out in digital form.
This is even before the expo officially kicks off. We'll probably end up with more PRs and brochures once the week kicks off as makers and vendors alike push to increase their products' visibility.
Nothing beats paper, in terms of easy access and reliability. You don't need to boot it up, it doesn't crash, and there's no LCD to break, but it probably ends up as garbage once the event ends and the stories are written. Segregated trash bins in Taiwan are kind of standard so if people really wanted to recycle all of their PR garbage, they probably could. That said, they'd have to actively go looking for a bin outside of the conference hall because we have yet to see any paper-only or recycling bins inside.
It's interesting to note that an official COMPUTEX 2010 launch PR focused on eBooks, projecting that 26 million eReaders would ship by 2013. Perhaps for 2011, media peeps will get preloaded eReaders instead of a thick folder full of papers? With everything from maps to product info immediately on hand and available through one device, there would be far less need for paper and a few trees could stay standing. At the same time, with the right organization, it would have been easy to provide the media with a way to go through the loads of information handed out. In other words, you don't have to invest in thousands of eReaders to save paper. Like we mentioned, USB keys would work just as well.
Stay tuned for all the top stories from COMPUTEX 2010!
- Classic Nintendo Games in Stop-Motion Animation
- Fantasy Maps Made in CryEngine Are Eye-Popping
- Gamer Beats Super Mario Bros. With Dance Pad
- Super Mario Bros. Crossover is Most Ingenious
- Unhappy AT&T Customer Shoots AT&T Employee
- Law Proposed to Track All Pre-paid Cell Phones
- Time Warner and NBC Serve Up a Slap for Apple
- Google Gets New Head of Experience from Palm
- Rock Band 3 Will Come with Keytar Support
- iPed: The Chinese Knock-off iPad Running Android
- Bangladesh Bans Facebook
- CTA's Inflatable Wii Racecar is Awesome
- Asus Announces Tablet Notepad, the Eee Tablet
- Woman Sues Google for Bad Directions, Accident
- Google Dumps Windows Due to China Hack?
- Biwin's USB Drive for Beer Drinkers
- VIDEO: Jobs Introduces iPad to Rebel Alliance
- The Asus Waveface Concept Devices
- MSFT Retaliates Against Google's Security Claims
Ok.. Way to give the "green" freaks a reason to cry.
Can't wait for computex! I'm going
I tend to prefer tangible objects for that type of thing over digital anyway though I do have to say a preloaded e-reader would be nice for journalists if they got to keep them afterwards.
If you want more trees, use more paper....otherwise the forests that the trees come from will turn into shopping malls.
People need to realize that paper (meaning trees) is a farmed commodity. Paper mills set up large acreage of trees that are cut down in cycles with new ones replanted. The cycle to the same area being cut down is ~15 to 20 years, giving the new trees time to regrow to usable size.
i thought we had "tree farms", but are we tearing down more trees than we are growing at the moment?
Ok.. Way to give the "green" freaks a reason to cry.
Since when are people who care about the environment "green freaks"? Dude, show some respect...
What about all of the toxic materials used in an electronic reader? What about the power? Everyone seems to think that electronic is just free of resources, when really, it is a lot more toxic than a few sheets of paper.
I bought my first computer in 1984. Shortly thereafter I read an editorial in "PC Magazine" predicting a "paperless society". It never happened.
that the organizers could've passed out in digital form.
I find most "journalists" actually just quote from the manufacturers' brochures anyway, so the idea of electronic formats would make FAR more sense. They can just cut and paste, then put " contributed to this article." One CD (or DVD) with all the info on it would work far better and faster at getting the info disseminated to the public than a small forest-worth of paper.
While I appreciate paper maps for my car, it's hard to beat Google maps or GPS for finding point-to-point routes.
I bought my first computer in 1984. Shortly thereafter I read an editorial in "PC Magazine" predicting a "paperless society". It never happened.
I dunno, credit cards a good testimony to how paperless society is progressing.
But, I will probably use paper as my design medium for a long time. One day, there hopefully will be a much more sustainable replacement.
I really wish they'd just legalize hemp so I wouldn't have to listen to tree-huggers whine anymore. That'd be way too inconvenient for all the manufacturers of products that would be replaced by superior hemp-derived versions of those products though.
Paper isn't that much of an environmental problem IF it's recycled. Use of toxic substances like chloride has been hugely reduced (thanks a lot, 'green freaks'!) and the wood pulp itself can be reused several times.
If we would recycle every bit of paper we use, I see little reason to stop using it. Too bad throwing pieces of paper in the right bin is so damn hard... (that's sarcasm in case you didn't notice).
To those concerned about the environment: stop whining about paper, whine about people being too lazy to recycle it.
Hmm... perhaps they should have passed out iPads with digital maps, documents, etc
/sarcasm
Since when are people who care about the environment "green freaks"? Dude, show some respect...
Good luck trying to convince people like this that they wrong about how they think.
There's a lot more to Paper, then just a tree.
Ya gotta have people or machines to cut down the tree and move it to a mill. At the mill ya gotta have more people and machines to process the tree into paper.
After you make the paper you then have to move it from: mill -> warehouse -> printer -> Computex.
To move the tons or paper used, you gotta have more people and more machines.
All these people and machines produce more then just CO2 that the tree is going to absorb... nature calls after all, and all that shit's gotta go somewhere.
Would an electronic version be more efficient then the paper version? I couldn't say... that's a whole lot of math.
One thing is for sure: There's a lot more to paper, then just a tree.
computex sucks
In the end, everything is about money. People will go green when there's money in it. For instance, many utilities try to get you to goto paperless billing to save THEM money. But I bet in the next year or two, they will start charging YOU for those paper bills -then you'll see another big shift to paperless. LOL.
As for the rest of it, eReaders are just about to break under the $100 price point, and now there's epub standards in place, so there will be greater adoption of paperless methods.
On the horizon are technologies for flexible displays, cheap electronics printed onto bio-degradable plastics. Within 5 years its very likely people will be getting adverts and perhaps even newspapers and magazines printed on plastic instead of paper and instead of simple pictures there will be short videos embedded - likely with small plastic batteries right in the bindings to power it all.
I'll just be happy when all magazines come standard with digital versions included for the eReaders.
@Headscracher7
"But I bet in the next year or two, they will start charging YOU for those paper bills -then you'll see another big shift to paperless. LOL."
I'm in Australia. They already charge you, here,for the paper bills now. But only if they have an electronic version available.
toms one of your contests to win something should be tickets (and plane tickets) to go see computex!!
Totally agree with 'lightbulbsocket' 1 day Hemp will save this planet. Lighter than steel yet 10x the impact strength, Higher quality clothes that actually last, 1 year growth cycle instead of 20. The list goes on and on So yes most current products will be crap in comparison.
This is such an irony for a digital-based trade show. The show organizer(s) surely do not see this coming. Tons of paper are wasted each day in Taiwan.
wow, for a technical event they sure dont know how to use technology.
i have determined to ban paper from my desk at work and home. if i dont have to have a piece of paper, i wont print it. it works. try it.
if i "print" something it is usually into a PDF. then i email it or send it through messenger or on a CD.
print is dead.
Valid point (waste of paper) and yet sad to see how many people (readers) really care. :-(
Ok, totally off topic... but WTF is with the little kid on the handouts? Freakin scary looking IMO.