From: kwang@zeus.calpoly.edu (<The Scarecrow>)
Subject: Re: Telecommuting doomed?
Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1991 05:22:15 GMT
Message-ID: <1991Nov26.052215.130128@zeus.calpoly.edu>
Organization: The Outland Riders


In sci.virtual-worlds mauah@warwick.ac.uk (Ian Bygrave) writes:

>A rather disenchanting conversation I had recently:
>
>   [ conversation deleted for brevity ]
>
>Obviously telecomuting isn't for everybody, but who IS it for? A common point
>of view is that telecommuting is the only way to stop the criminal misuse
>of resources of millions of people commuting into our comercial centres every
>day, without giving up our comercial life. But is telecomuting doomed by a
>cultural inability to change? What cultural conservitivism resists
>telecommuting? And is this conservativism otherwise valuable to our
>culture? Would telecommuting be more valuable in the short/middle/long
>term? How can our culture/telecommuting be changed to make it seem more
>atractive? Is only a slow change possible? Is ONLY a slow change desirable? Do
>we have the resources or the MOTIVE to try and make the change? What if we
>don't? Are we still stuck on the slippery slope towards environmental
>dissaster? I'm not talking about saving the planet, I'm talking about
>saving the species. But if we don't even have the stomach to make the first
>small sacrifice, a sacrifice of a way of life that many despise, but still
>seems to be worshiped, then we may as well give up now!

I wouldn't say that telecommuting is doomed.  There are those people
who are out there doing it right now, and there always will be.  There
are certain types of jobs that don't require meetings, face-to-face
interaction, and other similar things that require close proximity.
People are already doing round-the-world tele-conferencing, faxes are a
widely u{e medium for communications, modems have been used for many
years, and with household ISDN comming up soon, telecommuting will be
even easier.  I don't think it's going to die.

I currently know of one person who works at home, and just uses his fax
as his connection to the world.  He receives faxes, and then translates
them, and then re-faxes them back out.

There are, however, always those types of jobs that require
person-to-person interaction, certain types of deals that can't be done
over phones or any type of long-distance communication equipment.  Some
people just ARE people persons.  There will always be a need for
personal interaction, but Telecommuting will become more popular as
cities get more and more crowded.

   - Kevin Wang
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kwang@polyslo.csc.calpoly.edu, or kwang@hermes.calpoly.edu
   "Brevity is the soul of lingere."
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