Paper Chase.

Twenty years ago, I remember reading how technology was going to make my business paperless. I was fascinated how this was going to occur, especially when we had just started printing itineraries and tickets on the newest technology, dot matrix printers, integrated into airline reservation systems after many years of handwritten and typed documents. At least the bane of mothers and white shirts, the carbon copy was on its way out but paper continued to play a large role. I remember the shift in mindset from the original PDA, pen and paper to the first electronic PDA and tree huggers around the world started to rejoice.

That was many years ago and the rejoicing was pre emptive, especially if you look at the reems of paper for sale at Officeworks today. Yet it didn't stop people talking about the paperless office, so I love it when I hear about organisations and institutions looking to cut down on paper and find interest in their methods to save the trees and the huggers who have been in depression for the last two decades.

The town of Cornelius in North Carolina is one such tree hugger heaven, having decided to use the local government facilities as an experiment to cut paper out of the town forever. What are they using to replace paper, well iPads of course. According to the local Herald Weekly paper, the town passed out iPad 2s to commissioners at a recent board meeting, and plans to use the devices for sharing agenda packets, budget information, and everything else you need to run a small town, without printing any of it out. If small government institutions, who thrive on packets of paper to show their importance in documentation can achieve the unthinkable, how far away is my office?

Obviously not as far away as I think, if I look at another tree saving example. Commercial pilots for American Airlines who regularly carried 15 plus kilos of manuals, safety check lists, log books and the occasional Robert Ludlum tome into the cockpit are replacing all that paper with, of course, the iPad. This new computer flight bag enables pilots to access information on digital flight systems for preflight and in flight checks along with performance manuals always kept up to date automatically.

Alaska Airlines are also using the system and have named the operation " bye bye flight bag". As with other airlines looking to use the light weight iPad, they are petitioning the F.A.A. to get rid of all the paper used in the cockpit, which would account for close to 30 kilos of weight when taking into account both pilot and co pilot. Maybe the airlines will let me bring on an extra couple of kilos of onboard baggage?

At this stage both airlines need to send in proposals on the full benefits to efficiency and safety in using the iPad instead of the paper manuals but it surely must be only a matter of time before this trend gains global acceptance. With over 250 aviation apps on the pad from companies like Boeing and Garmin, plus the very expensive subscriptions to flight maps and manuals, pilots globally will leave those big black bags at home and stroll on board with the new iPads enclosed in some fancy airline casing to make them seem even more important and authoritative. Then when they are on auto pilot, everyone likes "Angry Birds".

So achieving that paperless state may be just around the corner for me, as long as I can carry a small pad. No not paper but aluminium and glass.