Xerox and the Old Way

Xerox announced some pretty interesting new technology yesterday, and it makes me sad to know that this will go nowhere.

Basically what they've got is an ink that disappears after a certain amount of time, giving paper the ability to be re-used. "How cool," I thought to myself, having long been a double-printer of documents (email on one side and fax coversheet on the other, for example).

But then it occurred to me that in order to realize any benefit from this technology people will have to 1) change the way they use paper and 2) adopt and purchase a new infrastructure. Getting companies to change their infrastructure and work practices is difficult at best - high-priced consultants get called in to do this all the time and fail as often as not.

So, without any evidence or statistics or anything to back myself up I hereby declare that Xerox, in pursuing this technology, has created something cool that nobody will ever use, ever.