After four years of writing Telework International it was great to take a few months away from writing articles and to reflect on the direction of remote work. My summer away from writing was not a summer away from telework. I have been catching up on my reading and tracking the latest developments which have been reported in the past few months. The following are a few of the interesting developments which I encountered over the past few months.
I spent the summer working with several out-of-town clients. I was pleased to see that a few hotels are now establishing work centres with private workstations, telephone and modem access, and a laser printers. I also noticed the improvements in business class lounges at airports where office type facilities are available for you to plug in your laptop and connect your PC to the Internet. This service is, of course, not available to all travelers so it is even more encouraging to now find office stations available at some departure gates. These developments certainly support the concepts of working anytime/anywhere.
The topic of alternative work arrangements was in the news virtually every week over the past few months. One of the more significant announcements was the release of Statistics Canada figures on the number of part-time workers. The statistics show a significant rise in the percentage of the workforce working part-time over the past 20 years. One might initially suspect that this increase is due to an inability of Canadians to find full-time employment. However, the statistics show that nearly 80% of part-time workers have chosen to work part-time. The press reports "industry experts" predicting the number of part-time workers growing from 16.4% of the working population today to 20-25% by the second decade of the next century.
Statistics Canada also released information on the number of Canadians working a "normal" work week (defined as Monday to Friday at regular starting times). The result was that only 39% of Canadians work a normal schedule. The rest are working schedules where the days vary, times vary, work weekends, short weeks, long weeks, and evenings. Again, more proof that the traditional ways of working are changing quickly.
A.C. Neilson surveyed Canadians in 1995 and found that 47 percent of households owned personal computers, up three percent from 1994 (an increase of more than 400,000 computers). The survey also found that 43 percent of owners purchased units with modems. The data certainly supports the growing penetration of technology into our homes, the continued growth of teleworking and home-based businesses and the explosive growth of the Internet.
The growth in the purchase of home computers may also be fueled by the latest trend in parenting. Many parents are finding that their children will reduce the number of hours they watch television if a PC is present in the home. Find/SVP Inc. and Grunwald Associates found that two-thirds of parents responding to "The American Learning Household Survey" report their children watch less TV as a direct result of owning a family computer; in households with a multimedia PC equipped with a CD-ROM drive, that figure rises to nearly three-quarters.
Unlike, Telework International, the Internet did not take the summer off. The Internet and the various on-line services have continued to grow. The August 26, 1996 Globe and Mail contained an interesting article on the shift from traditional news media (newspapers and magazines) to the new on-line services. The article suggests that some pundits say that in ten years reading a newspaper may be illegal. These pundits suggest that it will be an environmental crime to crush trees in order to publish traditional newsprint newspapers. Instead, they anticipate that readers will go to on-line services where the news can be customized to the specific needs of the user.
For many people the concept of going "newspaper-less" is hard to believe. However, I have noticed that I am personally starting to get more of my news information from the Internet (though you have to be very careful about ensuring that you are getting the most accurate information). For example, I while I was on vacation I heard the end of a news story on the radio which involved one of my clients. Unfortunately I heard enough to catch my attention but not enough to tell me what was really going on. A few minutes later I was able to use my notebook computer and portable modem to retrieve the complete news release by accessing my client's web site. I've also found that I have less time for reading many of the major publications but I can now view the table of contents on-line and decide if there is anything that interests me and in some cases I can view the articles on-line. The bottom-line is that the information highway is changing the way we exchange information -- whether this means the end of newsprint publications ... maybe? ... maybe not?
Another interesting development is the emergence of high-technology condominiums in the Vancouver marketplace. Over the past few years developers have been differentiating their projects by the degree of technology which is available. This technology is usually based on a fibre-optic infrastructure to deliver Internet, music, television, video games, movies, advanced security, etc. to the facility. The market place is certainly heating up in the attempts to create buildings with the best, fastest and most user friendly technology.
The trend to high-technology housing is still in the early days. The landmark ruling which has allowed Concorde Pacific Place in downtown Vancouver to provide cable TV services to up to 15,000 clients is the start of a series of major changes in this area. The marketing of technology in these developments has been primarily entertainment based but the infrastructure will also support teleworkers and home-based businesses. This is clearly an area to keep your eyes on.
I realize that this article has covered a broad range of topics. Though they may seem disjointed they all have a link to paradigm shift of moving to a new way of working and living.
CONTACT
Ken Robertson
KLR Consulting Inc.
voice: (604) 294-2292
fax: (604) 294-2694
e-mail: ken.robertson@klr.com
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