Workplace moves into tomorrow

The revolution in telecomputing -- which combines computers, software and telecommunications -- is changing everything about the way we live, work, play, learn and move around. With innovations like electronic city halls and electronic town meetings, it is even changing the way we govern.

One of the major impacts of the telecomputing revolution is in the workplace where -- in the words of a new report called "WorkSmart" by the Center for the New West, Cornell's International Workplace Studies Program and the Claremont Graduate School -- "the old model of everyone coming to a single workplace, usually at about the same time, is breaking down." Alternatives to the traditional office -- "distributed work," telework, team offices -- are now being tried, for a variety of reasons.

First, from professionals to craft workers and the self-employed, people are experimenting with new and more flexible approaches to how they work. With each passing day, more people are working at home. Indeed, more than 41 million people now work at home some time during the week