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On the simplest level, telecommuting makes it harder for people to have the kinds of informal interactions that are crucial to the way knowledge moves through an organization. The role that hallway chat plays in driving new ideas has become a cliche of business writing, but that doesn't make it less true.

I've spent so many years commuting, I kind of prefer a home office.

Indeed, in a world of the BlackBerry, remote access and Wi-Fi hotspots on every street corner, it feels particularly outdated that much of our working culture is still dominated by the need to be at our desk for long hours of the day.

What we've tried to do is have neighbors, colleagues, friends and family talking.

We are able to use technology to make it clear that someone's car is available or a room in a home is accessible; that there is an available desk in an office someplace.

Equipped with cell phones, beepers, and handheld computers, the 'conspicuously industrious' blur the line between home and office by working anytime, anywhere.

Seriously, we are in the midst of the convergence of voice and data and that is challenging the infrastructure of the telephone companies. There are huge commercial interests in the basic technology, but even more so in content delivery and control of content.

Our technological infrastructure alienates us from each other. No need to form a workplace community, everybody there will be out in a year or two, and so will you, looking for a better place.

Inexpensive phones and pay-as-you go services are already spreading mobile phone technology to many parts of that world that never had a wired infrastructure.

If you think about Cisco's offerings like TelePresence, where it's an immersive way to communicate for businesses to connect and have conversations in a real-time immersive mode, how that will change health care, how that'll change retail business, how that'll change actually travel. There's lots of changes that we will see going forward.