This blog went public before I intended, but right away it produced one of my favorite quotes. Richard Rothaus (via facebook) wrote:
1 paperless field person = 1.5 papered field person
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Paperless Archaeology 
John,
That comment caused me to think a good bit as well! I keep trying to think of ways to factor in the true cost of digital archaeology. For example, while I agree that converting paper to digital is a hassle, it is nevertheless a hassle that can be accomplished back in the US by inexpensive labor (e.g. graduate students, spouses, faculty free time). Digital data capture in the field (and you know that I am a huge fan of a digital archaeological workflow) may take additional time in the field (Richard even admits to this). Time in country is expensive.
Moreover, technology is (compared to paper) expensive.
Person hours, from the perspective of an academic archaeology (and Richard has “gone pro”) are cheap.
So the equation is more complex (as you know).
I’m pretty excited to read your blog and learn how you came up with such clever processes!
Bill
[…] Caraher who blogs at The New Archaeology of the Mediterranean World posted a comment to my New Math post. Since the gist of the New Math post was a quote by Richard Rothaus, not me, I wasn’t […]