From: Emlyn O'Regan (emlyn@one.net.au)
Date: Mon Sep 11 2000 - 11:08:37 MDT
I've summed up the arguments for CBDs below, along with some commentary on
how teleworking could provide a viable alternative.
---
Spudboy wrote:
Ego. In a word, a hunger for a sense of control. Business people are not
just
in business to make a profit, any more then police are in business, merely,
to arrest criminals. Ego. Management by ego, where many business thrive in
spite of themselves.
---
I'm dodgy about this; ego is a strong force, to be sure, but setting up
business in a big city's CBD is very, very expensive. Surely there must be
actual financial gain, or else the ego-driven would go out of business,
unless ego brings other benefits even stronger that offset the
disadvantages, and then some
---
Randy Smith wrote:
Ha! Only an Extropian could ask this. The business world runs on *trust*.
The look in a person's eye, and their body language is important to the
people who control the money. Whether or not it really means anything is
another matter. But that is the way they operate.
They want to be able to schmooze, to be able to meet for lunch with
potential business partners. That is why all those tall power towers are so
close together.
That is why telecommuting is not practiced more. The money men never spent
all that much time reading books (unlike us Extropians); they read people
instead. Hard to read a person across an electronic link.
---
Don't I know it! When I talk about teleworking, I don't mean the day or two
a week working from home thing. I practice, and am most interested in,
teleworking where you have the following two conditions:
a) You don't have a working relationship developed prior to commencing
telework
b) You have little prospect of ever being on site; everything is done
remotely.
It is a real effort to develop working relationships, understanding of
organisational culture, and even a good understanding of the tasks you are
required to perform, when using only phone/internet communication
technologies (much kudos to my current clients, who are making a huge
effort; thanks!). I've found that a key to successful team building at a
distance is that everyone has an online component to their lives. For
instance, being users of (MSN Messenger/ICQ/other chat clients) is a big
advantage; it feels like you are in the same room with the person after a
while. Also, don't under-estimate netmeeting; that whiteboard is more useful
than it looks.
I think that as time progresses, and more people populate the work world who
are really comfortable with online living, teleworking will increase in
popularity. One of its problems now is that it is early days, and not many
people are doing it; it's fringy and weird, and not a safe bet as a career
direction. I think there'll be a positive feedback loop, growing it into a
real alternative, because of the long list of real advantages. Still, it'll
probably always be an alternative, not the main game.
---
Max wrote:
Emlyn, I found a lead to an answer on a really useful site:
www.manyworlds.com by putting "clustering" into the search box. Great site,
huh? ;-) One of the two results was this:
11/01/98 Clusters and the New Economics of Competition
Harvard Business Review by Michael Porter; This HBR article by Michael
Porter addresses the economics of clustering. Even in the new economy we
still see the power of clusters, with clusters such as Silicon Valley and
Hollywood providing advantages to resident technology and entertainment
businesses respectively. There are dozens of other examples as well. The
fact that clustering exists serves to emphatically answers the question: is
it better to locate where there are competitors for one's intellectual
capital (particularly people), but also enhanced access to the best
intellectual capital, or to attempt to remain more isolated? The answer in
general is that it is somewhat paradoxically better to be located where
there is greater danger of intellectual capital leakage, because the
positive feedback from the competitive ecologies tend to outweigh the
negatives.
---
(Apologies to everyone else who responded similarly to Max - I read your
posts too!)
I'm a bit of a tight arse, Max, and that article costs money to acquire; I
don't even have a credit card that will work over the net (stupid bankcard).
However, there are some other cool links from ManyWorlds if you pop in
"clustering". Check out this one titled "How companies have sex":
http://www.fastcompany.com/online/05/sex.html
I think this idea hits the nail on the head; positive feedback by employees
and employers mixing easily.
I wonder what this means for the internet-based teleworker? Could one begin
to regard the internet as a city-type cluster in the same league as the
large IT clusters? As remote collaboration tools improve, maybe the net will
come to have some of the same features. For instance, perhaps there will be
(is?) a class of workers who gear themselves so well to working remotely
that they wouldn't consider working offline (similar to the way that
standard employees usually restrict themselves to one city).
The key to making remote work feasible en-masse would seem to be to try to
duplicate the benefits of geographical clusters in the online environment.
Better communications ability will help; with full video+audio "phone
calls", will the priority of face-to-face communications start to drop?
Also, online universities, online business/technical resources. Most of all,
there need to be lots of businesses who primarily employ online "virtual"
employees, and lots of virtual employees to meet that demand. Then, these
businesses can cross-fertilize the way bricks&mortar businesses can;
employees can move around; all that good stuff.
Think it's feasible? I do, given a bit more time to build up (during which
the tech will get better too, of course).
---
Stirling Westrup wrote:
Lets see, why do I live in a city? 1) I don't have to own a car, since
there is adequate public transit. 2) There is a 24 hour restaurant down
the block, and several 24 hour convenience stores within a couple of
blocks. 3) There is, within walking distance, two cafes, 10 restarants, 4
fast-food joints, a major mall, and three different computer stores. 4)
There is a wide diversity of different people that I can end up
interacting with. 5) I can buy ingredients for greek, lebanese, chinese,
and Caribean food without leaving my home suburb. 6) High Bandwidth
internet service is readily available.
---
I already replied to this; basically I said "Me too".
Hopefully these benefits can decentralise. Groovy little small towns with
top notch comms infrastructure, excellent cafes, excellent facilities. They
might be able to attract well heeled teleworkers; either they will provide
the interesting people environment, or else the online world can continue to
do that more and more.
And of course, one would not require a car!
As for coolness factor of cities; well, I agree. It would be nice to have
cool alternatives; think of all those beautiful holiday places that you'd
like to live in, if only you could earn a crust...
Emlyn
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