WebEx

Years ago, I found that you could play Scrabble on yahoo.games.com with people around the world. Remember that?

And remember how people use to meet in the games just to chat?  That was before person-to-person chat sessions.  Quite irritating for me who was there to actually play the games.

But, people stayed in contact with each other.

Without being in the same room.

Then WebEx came along with the webcams and online meeting.

Then GoTo Meeting and video Skype and, most recently, Google Hangouts.

What do all of these things have in common?

You're not in the same room with the person at the other end.

You don't even need to be on the same continent.

And judging from the prevalence of these tools and webcams in laptops, I have to say, they seem to be working as effective communication devices.

Can someone tell me, then, why there is still this idea that going into the office makes you more productive?

I know, let's burn 3 hours of your day in rush hour traffic so that you're super relaxed and happy by the time you reach either end, and then let's be more effective communicators that we would be in over a webcam.

That makes sense, right?

When are people going to really accept that remote works.  Technology isn't just for online gaming, you know.