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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