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The Ultimate telecommuters
I used to think I was a bit of a super telecommuter, but now I
know I'm only in the little league - a look at the ultimate
telecommuters who get their orders by satellite link up to
The White House. Computing life on board the US Navy's
Communications Vessel USS Blue Ridge.

Introduction to Telecommuting
A large part of the American Dream is to be in business for oneself. Now, thanks to telecommuting, more are leaving the classic workplace

Be a Visible Telecommuter
If you telecommute a few days a week, here are a few
ways to stay visible to your employer

Telecommuting links and Resources

DISAPPEARANCE OF PLACE    

by Phil Wiley

The new Superjumbo's, the next generation of airliners which will dwarf today's giants, put the frighteners on me. Call me a Luddite if you will, but I can imagine the headlines when the first one crashes. 1000 dead in one go.
Not that I'll be on the list. I've given up travel, even to the office.

I'm writing this from my veranda, just onshore from Australia's Great Barrier reef. It's in the high 80's, parrots and palm trees in the garden. It sure beats Central London and the crowded underground into Soho, the last place I worked.

I've become a long-distance drop out from the metropolis; separated by space, but united by communication. Using cellular phone, fax, and modem I can conduct most, if not all, of my research without leaving my comfy chair. With a
notebook computer and the latest wireless radio modems it's technically possible for me to do my work on the beach and sell it globally within minutes.

Even language barriers are vanishing. A Japanese newspaper recently used one of my articles. It's possible they used one of the latest innovations, a photo-copier which, using a
type of OCR, translates English/Japanese as it copies.
One day, and this is not science-fiction (perhaps nothing is), telephones will translate speech while we talk.

Communication technology, particularly the Internet, is shrinking the world. Combine the net with video telephones and virtual reality, and physical travel will no longer be as important. Using VR, which at the rate of technological
advance will be perfectly feasible at home in a few years, we'll be able to stay home and, if we cared to, work in a virtual reality office.

Perhaps the illusion of a busy virtual reality office would be good for me. Sometimes I feel it hard to motivate myself in such laid back surroundings.

But then again, I feel that telecommuting seems to encourage certain entrepreneurial qualities, including drive, self-discipline, self-reliance, and improved judgment. Perhaps a survival instinct kicks in.

Away from the office you know you've got to perform or your idyll could be shattered with an E-mailed redundancy notice. Or if you're self employed just the thought of no easy pay cheque and no paid holidays does the trick.

This telecommuting concept taps into our powerful nostalgia for village life, far from the hassles of city living or a demanding and expensive commute. Granted I've taken it to extremes. When most people talk about telecommuting they mean avoiding driving into the city. Not moving 14,000 miles to the other side of the world. Swopping snow for sun. Waterstone's and Dillons for amazon.com. Harrods and Oxford street for the local highway shopping strip.

I miss England sometimes. But the point is that with modern technology, you can live where you choose to live, and pull in an income from anywhere in the world. All you have to do is find something you can sell. Whether it's your remote computing skills, information, coffee, or plots of land on Mars, there's a lot you can do on the Net.

Physical distance is ceasing to be as important. We're in the age of the passing of remoteness. When we can skip around half the globe in seconds without leaving our chairs do we really need the new ozone-blasting Superjumbo's?

In the future (not long now) we're just not going to need to travel as much. I suppose it's easy for me to say that when I'm the one on the barrier reef, but at least, when virtual reality comes of age, you can stay at home and think you're here. And look at the advantages you'll have as an armchair tourist. You'll have your favourite pub still down the street, you're not going to risk dropping from the sky with a thousand other people, and best of all you can visit a third world country without having to drink the water.

But electronic communication over 14000 miles does have one big disadvantage. I can't get myself a good pint of bitter. They don't give a xxxx for real ale here.

A virtual reality pint pint of beer just doesn't have the same appeal. So perhaps that Superjumbo does have its uses after all.
(c) Phil Wiley 1994/77
(please note that this article was originally written for The Guardian newspaper in England, and some of the references to missing English beer might not work for readers in other countries).

The Ultimate Telecommuters.
by Phil Wiley

Working from home and selling my work around the world used to make me think I was a bit of a super telecommuter, but now I know I'm only in the little league.

Earlier this year, during a joint Australian and US military exercise, I met the ultimate telecommuters who get their orders by satellite link up to The White House.

Here's an excerpt from a newspaper column I published about the experience:

"...I'm writing this on board the US Navy's Communications Vessel USS Blue Ridge. The US Navy flew me in to look at the ship's facilities, and to photograph and interview some crewmembers. Naturally I spent some hours chatting with the Internet specialists on board.

I'd expected lots of computers on board, and was prepared for that, but I'm amazed how much use they make of the net, especially e-mail.

In the ship's newsroom, where a team of journalists churn out stories which appear in publications throughout the world, every computer seemed to be running a web browser or e-mail program.

"We use the Internet as a way of retrieving and distributing unclassified information, said a spokesperson. "There is a separate Internet for use for classified information, a secret Internet."

One thing they use the Secret Internet for, is to provide guidance to a commander of a vessel which might be physically 1000's of mile away. Using the net the commander could be in the same room.

And you should see the speed at which it all works. No lowly modem communications for the sailors on Blue Ridge. The ship is constantly linked to four of its own orbiting satellites.
"Normally Internet access is extremely fast, " web master JO3 Kristopher Sandrick told me. "We've got a better bandwidth than fibre Optic; it's lightening fast. But right now, because of all the traffic, it's slowed right down."

You could have fooled me.

The USS Blue Ridge is the command ship for the entire US 7th Fleet, and it spends more than half of each year taking part in operations, exercises, and port visits.

"We could run a war anywhere in the world from here, " said an un-named spokesman. "We can make phone calls, and send e-mails and faxes to anywhere in the world, anytime. We have a satellite connection with CNN, and we maintain that 24 hours a day all year.

"All the information from throughout the 7th fleet is piped into this ship, and decisions are made at this point and actions taken."

I asked if the crew were allowed to get on the net for personal use, and learnt that they're allowed to use e-mail to communicate with their immediate families, except during battle status periods, or exercises like the current Tandem Thrust. Most people on the ship have access to an Internet
account, but if people only want to use the net occasionally they usually make use of someone else's account.

The Blue Ridge's big team of journalist's and photographers are constantly imputing illustrated stories into the Tandem Thrust Home Page, which you can find at the rather complicated address of:
http://www.c7f.yokipc.navy.mil/dwnundr.html
The site designer is Kristopher Sandrick, and he's done a great job. Check it out for all the latest news and features on the exercise. You might even catch a glimpse of me. I'll be in Shoalwater Bay with my camera and notebook computer getting into all the action."
(Not sure if this site is still up, haven't checked it recently)

Be A Visible Telecommuter
If you telecommute a few days a week, here are a few
ways to stay visible to your employer:

* Maintain the same scheudle you would if you went to
the office every day. That way you'll be available when
clients or co-workers call during regular business hours

* Use e-mail and the phone to deliever the saem number
of informal face-to-face chats you have with your boss
and co-workers when you're in the office

* Stay available by phone. Strategies: use call forwarding
that will automatically forward to your home phone
messages you get in the office. Or include a phone
number where you can be reached on your office voice mail

* Don't turn down meetings or client lunches that fall
on days when you're working at home. Face-to-face time is
vital to staying on everyone's radar screen

* Beware of limiting yourself only to projects that you can
easily do at home. That could hurt your chances to project
a hard-working, ambitious image.

Source: Office Hours, 12 Daniel Road, Fairfield,NJ 07004
and Communication Briefings newsletter, 11-1 King St, Suite
110, Alexandria, VA 22314

Introduction to Telecommuting
by William A. Council

A large part of the American Dream is to be in business for
oneself.
Now, thanks to telecommuting, more are leaving the classic
workplace. Telecommuting is working from home and maintaining a payroll at your job.

About 10 percent of the workforce (more than nine million
Americans) telecommute. Another 14.2 million work out of their homes (the self-employed). A recent Bell Atlantic commissioned survey estimates that two million American businesses support some kind of telecommuting program. Salaried jobs that can be successfully done at home include:

Accountant, Administrative Assistant, Architect, Desktop
Publisher, Human Resources Professional, Illustrator,
Insurance Agent, News Reporter, Secretary, Typesetter or
Word Processor.

Telecommuting is becoming a staple for business in the 90's.
Carol Browner, Administrator of the EPA explains that,
"If 10% of the nation's workforce telecommuted one day a week, we would avoid the frustration of driving 24.4 million miles, we'd breathe air with 12,983 tons less air pollution and we'd conserve more than 1.2 million gallons of fuel each week." Telecommuting can save wear and tear on the
environment. As our natural resources continue to be stretched, conservation becomes more and more of a national concern. As we work toward healing our environment we must also curtail the damage being done to it.

When we were in the Industrial Age, most of our jobs centered around being on the job to use tools and equipment that could not be used at home. We are now in the "Information Age." More than 60 percent of all jobs are information based instead of location-dependant. Most of today's jobs can be broken down into three different stages: Research, Production and Presentation. The Research Stage is where the employee gathers the needed information for his assignment. This can be anything from speaking with clients to doing on-line research. Researching is almost always done at work.

The Production Stage is where the creative work is done and is ideal for telecommuting. In the production stage, the reporter writes and the architect draws. This stages is where the constant interruptions of an office environment often work to hinder the creative process.

Lastly, the Presentation Stage is where the finished product be
it book, article or multimedia presentation is delivered to your
supervisor, employee or client. The amount of time spent within each of these categories determines how successful any given job can be for telecommuting.

Some employers like telecommuting because it allows them reduced office space (a rotating on site requires fewer desks), increased employee satisfaction (employees don't have to face the daily stress of commuting), reduced turnover (Flexibility of working at home allows employees to spend time with their families), increased staffing flexibility and cost control and increased productivity.

There are advantages for the employee as well. These include:
fewer work interruptions, increased sense of control over work, increased scheduling flexibility and increased savings on food, clothes and transportation. The employee is required to periodically visit the office for evaluation and to keep in
touch with everyone. This is well worth the price since the
employee has greater control over his or her time. If you
are a morning person, then you can do most of your work in the wee hours of the morning. The converse is true if you are a night person. The key to telecommuting is flexibility. It is
a good starting point for someone desiring to venture out into
the business arena.
Eva Grodburg, from Home Office Computing, says "My brother, an attorney stopped by recently as I was laying out my magazine pages on my living room floor. I was wearing my shorts and tee shirt. I had my favorite rock and roll playing and I was working hard. He remarked that the
dictionary definition of the perfect job was mine."
The drawbacks to Telecommuting are serious enough to send
an average 1 in 5 telecommuters packing for the office according to a national survey by Link Resources. These drawbacks include: Boundary Issues (Being on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week), Envy from Co-Workers, Workaholic Tendencies (Let me work just five more minutes), Self-Motivation (There is not anyone standing over you watching you work) and Isolation.
Isolation is the most trying of all these drawbacks.
Dr. Grisela Booth, a Chicago-based clinical psychologist
states, "Loneliness is when you feel that no one knows you
exist. It's the 'Christmas Feeling' we can have when we feel
cut off." This is to be distinguished from the peace and
quiet that is mandatory for creative or thought-intensive
activities.

Although the drawbacks present obstacles, they are not
impossible to overcome. Proper planning and realistic goal
setting can alleviate all of these drawbacks.

Companies with Telecommuting programs include U.S. West,
J.C. Penny, Aetna Life and Casulty, AT&T, Hewlett-Packard
Company, GTE, Pacific Bell, the State of Arizona and Ameritech Corporation. Both employers and employees are faced with the rapid changes in business. Companies in order to keep and get the most qualified individuals are seeking ways to attract new employees. Telecommuting is an important option for both employer and employee for the 90's and beyond.
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