Telework is taking off, hopefully for good

Before 2005 I worked for two decades in office environments. I eventually realized that most of the people could have been working from home most of the time, using the telework systems that were beginning to appear.

At times I raised this point. The most common objections were that using telework systems is difficult, and that teleworkers at home wouldn’t work at all.

But, in my experience, those who wouldn’t work from home wouldn’t work in the office either. They would just pretend to work, slow things down, and create a toxic environment. Also in my experience, most people quickly learn how to use simple telework systems.

In 2005 I decided that office life was too boring and started my own company with a few partners and a bunch of freelance collaborators. In our company, everyone teleworked. At first we rented office space, but eventually we gave it up because we didn’t really need it.

Ten years ago in 2010, among other things, we used to distribute a really awesome telepresence system based on light Virtual Reality (VR) technology, called Teleplace. In the picture, our booth at Imagina 2010 in Monaco.

I remember the CEO of a large company telling me in a Teleplace meeting that Teleplace was a breakthrough system with a huge potential, but his people were too stupid to use it, and too lazy to work from home without constant supervision and harassment.

Strange, because just before meeting him I was talking to some of his people, all very smart, hardworking, and motivated.

My company made good money for a few years, but eventually it was killed by the recession. Since 2011, I have been happily freelancing, and always teleworking.

But companies and organizations have been slow at adopting telework.

Fast forward to 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic. Now everyone is preaching and adopting telework, including all my former employers, and even the large company mentioned above. Many workplaces are closed — the workers telework. Also, many schools are closed — the teachers teleteach and the students telelearn.

Today, a stack of free cloud services including Google Drive, Slack, Trello, and Zoom, enables all freelancers and employees, teachers and students, to telework and telelearn. These are among the tools most used at this moment, but there are alternatives (including open source alternatives). For large companies and organizations, there are premium versions of these tools, and enterprise systems (but these days consumer technology is often better than enterprise technology).

Zoom, a videoconferencing system with screen sharing and many other features, is attracting a lot of attention because it works well is and easy to use. See David Wood’s recent review of Zoom and my interview with David on “Cosmism and the Future of Religion,” done over Zoom.

This past weekend I have participated in two Zoom meetings, including the annual conference of the Mormon Transhumanist Association, which was switched to a Zoom teleconference at the last moment. More than 50 people participated in the event, which was well organized (trust the Mormons for good organization).

Of course, not everyone can telework, because some tasks require physical presence. But even with only half of the workforce teleworking, there would be huge improvements for everyone (e.g. traffic, pollution, energy, time, costs… not to mention quality of life and happiness). The same can be said for education (telelearning).

Perhaps, when the pandemic is over, most workers and companies, students and teachers, will be used to telework and choose to continue. I hope so.

I still LOVE the Teleplace approach, an integrated telepresence solution with light VR technology, videoconferencing, screen sharing, and fully interactive document sharing. This technology creates a sense of “being there” in easily accessible, permanent meeting rooms.

The Teleplace technology is now developed and distributed by 3D ICC with the name “Immersive Terf.”

I am a big fan of 3D ICC’s Terf. Unfortunately, the company is underfunded, but I hope they will ride the new telework wave and attract investors. It is encouraging that a new incarnation of the legendary Croquet project, upon which Terf technology is based, has recently been funded.

Cover image from 3D ICC.