This article about telecommuting (or "teleworking," a new one on me) talks only about pressure from rising gas prices and telecenters that allow people to do work closer to home, thus missing completely the real revolution: The ability of more people, because of technological advances, to do all their work without even leaving home. My brother lives in Hill Country, Texas, a good four-hour drive from his office in Houston. Except for a monthly two-day, on-site visit, he "goes to work" by having a cup of coffee in his kitchen, then walking into his den-computer room. Because newspapers are so computer-intensive these days, there is really nothing I do at the office that I couldn't do from home, except for that pesky part about my boss thinking someone who deals with the public should actually interact with people. Good thing, probably -- if I could work from home, I'd probably never leave the place.
One interesting part of the article is how hard the federal government is promoting telecommuting. It has gone from pushing us to spread out through the whole country -- homesteading, railroads, etc. -- to trying to keep us all off the highways.
