interesting thread on nomadic computing/working... some real life feedback from two nomadic workers, both consultants: 1) Major firm decides to get rid of most of central office for consultants and adopts 'hotelling'... if you come to the central office, you must 'check in' and we will provide you a 'room' and a link into the company network. Consultant finds he misses his colleagues, and the informal chats, and idea sessions. Hears from others, via phone chats, that they feel the same. Nomadic consultants sometimes go out of their way to schedule layovers in the same airport so that they can interact F2F. On-line chat, email, vociemail and cell phone just don't substitute effectively for F2F intereaction with colleagues they say. 2) Independent consultant works from home office, spends 8-12 hours a day on internet, has clients/ colleagues all over the world. Recent I/T project was being all done over the net using email, FTP, web sites and WebEx. A meeting was scheduled for the whole team in one physiscal place for 2 days. The two day meeting accomplished much more than months of email -- we all concluded that: "A day F2F is worth a 1,000 emails" -- especially for complex work. Independent consultant may interact with 20-30 people a day on-line, but still misses proximity of others. Occasionally gathers his lap-top and goes to local bookstore cafe to work and be with real people. Who else is in the bookstore cafe? Other nomadic workers who desire close proximity to living, breathinjg bodies! What's nice about the cafe is that it is a good place to form diverse ties -- outside of your company/industry. Valdis Krebs http://www.orgnet.com