When I first became a tele-worker there were no lap-tops and no mobile phones. Tele-working meant having a dedicated PC at home and another at the office. On-line connection was either via a 1Mbit/s LAN or a 9.6kbit/s dial-up modem, with 0.5Mbyte of RAM, 20Mbytes of Hard Drive, and a clock rate of 20MHz. At that time most of my work would fit on a floppy disc. And very occasionally I would resort to using someone else's machine for brief periods when I was in transit. Over a decade later my lap-top has a 100Mbit/s LAN connection, a 56kbit/s dial-up modem, 200Mbyte of RAM, 8Gbytes of Hard Drive and a 300MHz clock. I no longer use floppy discs because nothing worthwhile fits on them, and I carry a 1Gbyte PCMCIA Hard Drive instead. Most tele-workers today have access to similar equipment and the habits of the 'new age nomadic workers' are no longer seen as an oddity. So I think we can now assume that working on the move has now become accepted and the norm for many.

Among the benefits of this tele-working revolution has been the wholesale move from paper and desk to the screen and knee. It has allowed people to do far more with far less, and to work where and when they desire. Work is now an activity and not a place. Typing pools, librarians, and secretaries have disappeared by the legion, and so have the acres of filing cabinets and cupboards. People have learnt new skills and are more empowered than ever before in our history. But it is not all gain, there is still some pain! Whilst mobile phones are now universal and can be made to work anywhere on the planet, getting your laptop on-line can be testing to say the least. To be blunt the global telephone network tends to be lap-top, people, and work unfriendly. Different connectors, dial tones, signalling standards, and dial sequences all add up to a significant set of hurdles for the tired traveller. Compound this with every hotel bedroom, boardroom, airport lounge, office and call box being different, and you might be persuaded that there is some fiendish design at work!

There you are in a hotel or office with PCs available and you cannot access your company email or intranet site. You actually have lug identical computing power with you wherever you go to make access over an international phone line at less than 28.8kbit/s when there is a PC and a 100Mbit/s LAN in the room right next to you! Just suppose you had to carry your own extension telephone -it is unthinkable, and it would be considered to be crazy. Then why are companies not giving their people access to email and Intranets over the WWW? The reason is simple, because of there is an illusion of security with the dial-up connection.

The next big step forward in teleworking and mobile computing has to be a browser based world where we can all use any machine anywhere without worry or difficulty. Interestingly, my wife and children can do this because the are not part of a company. But for many professionals it remains a distant dream!

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