Technology

37724 readers

455 users here now

A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.

Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

137

German parliament will stop using fax machines (www.npr.org)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

39 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

🤖 I'm a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:

Click here to see the summary

Much as Germany's reputation for efficiency is regularly undermined by slow internet connections and a reliance on paper and rubber stamps, fax machines are at odds with a world embracing artificial intelligence.

But progress is on the horizon in the Bundestag — the lower house of parliament — where lawmakers have been instructed by the parliamentary budget committee to ditch their trusty fax machines by the end of June, and rely on email instead for official communication.

As a member of Germany's governing coalition, Herbst has been working on legislation to make email a legally binding form of communication.

Herbst says the fax machine's long-exalted legal position in Germany boils down to widespread distrust of anything that isn't written in pen and ink on actual paper.

In March, the International Monetary Fund warned that if Germany wants to boost economic growth, it must reduce red tape and finally get round to digitizing properly.

He shows off his vast collection of old typewriters, desk phones, floppy disks and fax machines which now adorn the shelves of his own office.

Saved 80% of original text.