Lawrence DeBivort has previously suggested on FW List that the NYTC tragedy will encourage the building of shorter skyscrapers. Another FWer in a private message has suggested to me that more video-conferencing and distance-working will be encouraged.
My takes on these are that: 1. Yes, it's likely that shorter building will be built in the future, even though buildings that are considerably taller than the NYTC Towers could be built which are structurally sound. But it also needs to be borne in mind that there only needs to be one or two more terrorist attacks on skyscrapers (and these need not involve crashing planes into them but simply leaving semtex bombs), and there will be wide-scale fear about working in tall buildings which could have severe effects on New York, London and other dense financial services. 2. Yes, it's likely that more video-conferencing and distance-working will take place in the future. Indeed, a subsidiary reason why I started my choral music business (selling on the Net) was to test the idea that one could run a business without actually meeting one's working colleagues. (Only two out of my team of nine in eight different countries in Handlo Music have ever met -- that is, I've only met one of them and none of the others have met one another. We don't have video-conferencing though, only e-mail, but we work together very well even though we have minor language problems sometimes.) The problem here seems to me to be the fact that bosses are not yet ready to dispense with the "factory" method of management -- that they have to see those they oversee -- that they cannot entirely trust people to work conscientiously when they are out of sight. But quite besides my own little outfit, there many businesses, including a major software firm, which operate successfully with distance-methods. Also, distance-learning by universities in various parts of the world is one of the fastest-growing sectors of all at the present time. I'm puzzled why distance-working and video-conferencing has not taken off much more quickly than they have done so far. Perhaps when broadband transmission becomes widespread and more cheaply available then we'll see it happening in a big way. The considerable reduction in overheads, and savings on commuting costs by staff means that those firms which can take the plunge will probably gain great advantages over their competitors. I imagine that it's got to happen sooner or later and that the dense clusterings of skyscrapers in many of our largest cities will become a thing of the past. Keith Hudson ___________________________________________________________________ Keith Hudson, General Editor, Calus <http://www.calus.org> 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England Tel: +44 1225 312622; Fax: +44 1225 447727; mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________________
