The Digital Office... Is paper disappearing? Many readers responded to the recent Dispatch, Full Disclosure: I Like Paper (May 6), about the value of paper in our digital world. You'll see the full range of opinions below (and next week).

Todd Clarke at NM Apartments, Inc. in Albuquerque, NM, writes: "We've been paperless now for 6 or 7 years, and we've trained and gained acceptance from 99% of our clients. They prefer e-mail (it keeps things organized), and they love our web site/CD-ROM productions. ... In the last year of some $45 million in sales and managing dozens of transactions with a pool of 207 super-qualified buyers (who have all made offers on at least one property), only 1 buyer/investor refused e-mail and requested print."

Steve Doran with First Weber, Madison, WI, writes: "The industry needs to come up with a digital signature that can be used for offers, leases, letters of intent, etc. Faxing, mailing and/or hand delivering legal documents is time consuming, delays the real estate process, and (in the case of faxing) botches documents. If these documents could be delivered via e-mail, all of this could be avoided."

Robert Gregory with Craig Davis Properties, Cary, NC, writes: "Paperless technology is becoming commonplace. Our new Canon copiers are also networked printers and scanners. Any user can walk up to the machine, scan a paper document directly to PDF format, and save it to a shared folder or e-mail it to anyone. [But paper will not disappear] because people love paper and don't trust machines. Paper is forever." ... (More reader comments next week.)

--Peter Pike