Who is Farhan Lalji?

Let’s recap here, fuel prices are going up and up and up. People want to have a work-life balance. The internet has revolutionised the way people communicate. So why do we need to be in the same place to work together? We don’t.

Sure being in the same room as people you work with adds value, it means you’re able to socialise, you’re able to learn more about people and trust people. But how many people do you actually work that closely with? Is it enough to justify large rents in metropolitan locations? Not to mention a lot of times meeting with people or conversations get in the way of productivity.

I’ve worked virtually with lots of folks in past jobs and in my present job. I find getting together once a week with some, once a month with others, and once a quarter with others is enough to build rapport and through the telephone, instant messaging, email, desktop conferencing, video conferencing and other tools we don’t need to be in the same office as each other to work together effectively. I like working from home. I probably should do it more; I bet I’d be more effective.

So my prediction for the near future is that we’ll see a lot more virtual working, a lot more working from home and lot more smaller offices. This will potentially mean fewer meetings, less distractions and a drop in our collective foot prints. Not to mention a healthier bottom line as you don’t have to pay for large offices.

This morning I saw a headline and story that bothered me on my feed reader,

Obama under fire after fundraiser remarks (Reuters)
Reuters - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama came under fire on Friday for saying small-town Pennsylvania residents were “bitter” and “cling to guns or religion,” in comments his rivals said showed an elitist view of the middle class.

But then I went on twitter to see what Obama News had to say about it. And sure enough there’s a posting with the response from the senator in Indiana where he clarifies that:

“And for 25, 30 years Democrats and Republicans have come before them and said we’re going to make your community better. We’re going to make it right and nothing ever happens. And of course they’re bitter. Of course they’re frustrated. You would be too. In fact many of you are. Because the same thing has happened here in Indiana. The same thing happened across the border in Decatur. The same thing has happened all across the country. Nobody is looking out for you. Nobody is thinking about you. And so people end up- they don’t vote on economic issues because they don’t expect anybody’s going to help them. So people end up, you know, voting on issues like guns, and are they going to have the right to bear arms. They vote on issues like gay marriage. And they take refuge in their faith and their community and their families and things they can count on. But they don’t believe they can count on Washington. So I made this statement– so, here’s what rich. Senator Clinton says ‘No, I don’t think that people are bitter in Pennsylvania. You know, I think Barack’s being condescending.’ John McCain says, ‘Oh, how could he say that? How could he say people are bitter? You know, he’s obviously out of touch with people.’

And a YouTube clip so you can see the full context.

This is what I mean by the web facilitating democracy, it’s the transparency in stories that wasn’t there before and is there now. Before you would have seen the story in print media and had nowhere to turn. But today you see the story, and through the power of the web you hear straight from the source and make up your own mind with more information.

Cathy pointed me to the LordsoftheBlog.net today. It’s about page describes it as:

“a collaborative blog written by Members of the House of Lords for the purposes of public engagement.”

Last year I discovered David Cameron’s blog, I was skeptical (sk or sc? Seems like it can be spelt both ways) and unsure as to whether or not we would see DC blogging and posting in a years time and although the blog is being updated everyday it’s still updated more then once a week. It could be better, but it’s better then I thought it would be.

Earlier this week, I started trying twittering again to see if I can find any value in the service. One of the reasons why was the fact that Downing Street was twittering and I would be damned if Downing Street was an earlier adopter of something then myself.

Sometime between the discovery of LordsoftheBlog.net and the Downing Street Twitter I watched an address by Obama at the Google offices - sorry to lazy to find it again and link/embed it - in California.

Today it downed on me, all of these things are signs that information is being spread to people on their terms. People can engage or chose to ignore the information, but governments and officials representing government are finally leveraging the ability of the web to truly empower people. At the same time people have more access to information and the thinking behind the decisions made by government then ever before.

With blogs people can comment on posts around decisions and government officials can reply. With Twitter people can follow activities closer and respond with questions and concerns and watch the reaction to feedback. This is a giant step and I think this brings us closer to truly having government for the people and by the people.

Jeremy Zawodny has an interesting post about meetings being laptop free, and this allowing people to focus more. I like this idea and enjoy meetings where everyone is focused.  I think the debate needs to be widened a bit. I get really annoyed when I’m having a conversation, out for dinner, or in a meeting, presenting something and people are checking their email/using their Blackberries – an aside is it Blackberries or Blackberrys? Sorry RIM if I’ve broken your brand guidelines.Checking your email, while having a conversation with someone else, is like having a separate conversation at the same time. Or reading a paper or a book while conversing with other people, it’s not a very nice feeling for the other people you’re with.

I understand we’ve been granted technology that helps us stay communicated with multiple people, have multiple tasks on the go and multi-tasking like this is good, revolutionary even. But, if you’re sitting in a meeting, having dinner with people and you’re checking email or using your blackberry instead should you really be out with the people you’re with? Do you really need to be in this meeting?

So far I’ve resisted having a blackberry, I’m connected enough, feel like I respond to emails in time, can wait till I get home or back to my desk, and that’s okay by me. I know that I rarely offend people but there have been times when I’ve been with people and I want to throw their Blackberries out the window. Am I alone in this?

Have we become so dependent on real time communication that we sacrifice our basic levels of respect for one another? I hope not.