Cryptography Reference
In-Depth Information
adequacy of the model, inform its possible revision, or inspire altogether
new designs to emerge.
The case studies also provide evidence of the depth of our historical
engagement with paper. In The Myth of the Paperless Office, , Abigail Sellen
and Richard Harper, two human-computer interaction researchers, provide
an extensive argument for why this relationship matters. In a series of
ethnographic studies of office tasks, they demonstrate how “paper and
work practices have coevolved over the years, and changing these long-
standing work patterns with existing social, technological, and cultural
infrastructures is difficult.”13 13 There is thus something highly problematic
about the portrayal of the digital sublime as freedom from the tyranny of
paper. 14 Such a conceptualization effectively prevents us from devising
adequate strategies for managing this massive transition in how we go
about accomplishing administrative tasks, materially and cognitively. As
Sellen and Harper note, “There need to be clear-cut reasons for making
changes, based on a good understanding of the existing social, physical,
and technological infrastructure already in place in any given work setting.
Change for the sake of change is hugely problematic. Going paperless for
the sake of 'out with the old, in with the new' is destined to end in
failure.” 15
The three case studies that follow, each showcasing a different approach
to managing technological change, suggest that there is indeed much
wisdom in these remarks.
Dematerialized Notaries
In the fall of 1999, the Conseil supérieur du notariat, the governing body
of the French notarial profession, announced the grand opening of its secure
interface to cyberspace, the Réseau Electronique NotariAL , or REAL. The
timing of the official opening of the REAL network was not fortuitous but
came rather at the precise moment when the draft bill on electronic
signatures entered its first reading at the Senate. A full-fledged notarial
public-key infrastructure, REAL would provide incontrovertible proof of
the ability of the profession to reinvent itself and shed its medieval instru-
ments of pen and paper for the modern smart card—in short, to enter a
new age of electronic notarial authenticity (see figures 6.1 and 6.2). The
bringing about of such a new age would involve profound changes within
Search WWH ::




Custom Search