Telecommuting: Then and Now

Telecommuting is going to be big in the modern world, since technology has really made it possible for telecommuting to be a factor in many of the different economic sectors of the global economy.
It was not always so however. Just a few years ago in fact telecommuting was seen as a terrible way to do business. Unless the online business was the centralized way in which you were doing things, telecommuting was not a viable option. The lack of effective communication in non-text formats as well as the costs associated with high bandwidth use of the internet in many parts of the world ensured that telecommuting did not become a serious contender to conventional labour patterns.
However, modern technology has cancelled out most if not all of the downsides to telecommuting. Communication is a breeze in multiple media through the use of modern technology and of course high bandwidth internet connections have been installed in all major developed urban centres internationally. These two factors alone have catapulted telecommuting from something the rich do to something everyone can do. John McCain is fond of saying that tens of thousands of Americans make the majority of their living through the use of auction sites like eBay, so even a potential President understands how big this paradigm shift is going to be.



June 24th, 2008 at 11:29 am
I have been working on a broader approach to the use of telecommunications technologies. The multi-location model may be viewed on the pocketsnet.com website. I believe it may offer solutions to a greater number of employers and employees. There are a number of issues this model addresses with regard to the limitations of our current approaches. I believe there may be more methods available to us if we widen our vision. I am interested in feedeback.
Best regards,
Michael Shear
June 24th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Sounds interesting Michael, I will have a look at it. Perhaps other people curious about telecommuting should check it out.