Paper-mail in the Home of the 21st Century

Abstract

An ethnography of mail in 11 households, followed by a survey of n=200. they noticed women managed men by moving pieces of mail to significant location in the household and by monitoring how or if the men then used the paper mail. In this sense, paper was used as a workflow technology, by bein gplaced in specific locations. they call this a "workflow affordance" of paper. Handing over a piece of paper was a significant moment in broadcasting the information coming into the home. This is not as easily done with email. An email can be forwarded but it lacks the ceremony of the hand-off.