The Internet is steadily creating a "work from anywhere" work force, enabling "greener" labor, local living (no need for "bedroom communities" when people can work from home) and a rebirth of civic life. The only question is, why is "the system" so slow to reap the benefits?
THE INTERNET -- MAGIC IN THE MOPS OF 'FANTASIA'
The Internet is like the magic in the mops in Disney's "Fantasia." (And we users are Mickey.) It enables all kinds of crazy things to happen, rapidly and widely and unpredictably. Like Mickey, we can't foretell or control what "the magic" will do, the changes it will wreak or the disruption it will cause. But we can take advantage of the good trends it spawns.
As it already has with TV, book publishing and other sectors, the Web is bringing a sea change to the way we work: home-based workers, intermittent freelancers, remote and distributed teams. These developments have the potential to fortify families, offset global warming significantly and kindle a renaissance of community life across the United States.
THE 'DISRUPTORS' ARE GETTING BIGGER
In Silicon Valley and elsewhere, "cloudsourcing" (using "workers from anywhere" to get jobs and projects done) is steamrolling the old notion of "let's all march to the factory together now and clock in," which dates from the Industrial Revolution.
For example, venture-capital backed LiveOps (www.liveops.com), headed by former eBay COO Maynard Webb, has 20,000 independent home-based customer service agents and continues to expand. (When LiveOps becomes a public company, as it's expected to do soon, a big dose of magic will hit the mops from "Fantasia.")
At companies like oDesk (www.odesk.com), which offers an international meeting place for hirers and independent contractors of all kinds, 145,000 workers are hired in one quarter by over 30,000 companies. And its trends are growing rapidly.
With over 500 million members, Facebook is also becoming a major forum for jobs and job seekers. On our own Facebook page alone atwww.facebook.com/
Job aggregator Indeed (www.indeed.com), a large and growing site that unites jobs from all over the Internet in one easy-to-search database, has greatly simplified the job hunt. According to site-traffic monitor Compete.com, almost 13 million people visited Indeed last month, its busiest month yet.
SEEING, BELIEVING, ACTING
With developments like these rippling through the jobscape -- and telework becoming a lively topic in the federal work force, too -- it begs the question: Why are we all still driving to work? Why aren't more employers seeing the light? Studies routinely show increased productivity and savings from telework, but why are our commutes getting longer?
It may come down to the "telescope effect." Each of us -- including, or perhaps especially, policy-makers -- habitually looks at the world like an astronomer whose telescope barely swivels.
We peer intently through the tube, but we see only a narrow band of the heavens. After a while, viewing the same old planets and stars every night through the same old cylinder, we conclude that there really aren't that many possibilities out there. Not much going on. Business as usual, indefinitely.
And all the while, a wondrous universe shimmers all around us and beckons with promise and potential.
Christine Durst and Michael Haaren are leaders in the work-at-home movement and advocates of de-rat-raced living. Their latest book is "Work at Home Now," a guide to finding home-based jobs. They offer additional guidance on finding home-based work at www.RatRaceRebellion.com. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2011 BY STAFFCENTRIX, DISTRIBUTED BYCREATORS.COM
THE INTERNET -- MAGIC IN THE MOPS OF 'FANTASIA'
The Internet is like the magic in the mops in Disney's "Fantasia." (And we users are Mickey.) It enables all kinds of crazy things to happen, rapidly and widely and unpredictably. Like Mickey, we can't foretell or control what "the magic" will do, the changes it will wreak or the disruption it will cause. But we can take advantage of the good trends it spawns.
As it already has with TV, book publishing and other sectors, the Web is bringing a sea change to the way we work: home-based workers, intermittent freelancers, remote and distributed teams. These developments have the potential to fortify families, offset global warming significantly and kindle a renaissance of community life across the United States.
THE 'DISRUPTORS' ARE GETTING BIGGER
In Silicon Valley and elsewhere, "cloudsourcing" (using "workers from anywhere" to get jobs and projects done) is steamrolling the old notion of "let's all march to the factory together now and clock in," which dates from the Industrial Revolution.
For example, venture-capital backed LiveOps (www.liveops.com), headed by former eBay COO Maynard Webb, has 20,000 independent home-based customer service agents and continues to expand. (When LiveOps becomes a public company, as it's expected to do soon, a big dose of magic will hit the mops from "Fantasia.")
At companies like oDesk (www.odesk.com), which offers an international meeting place for hirers and independent contractors of all kinds, 145,000 workers are hired in one quarter by over 30,000 companies. And its trends are growing rapidly.
With over 500 million members, Facebook is also becoming a major forum for jobs and job seekers. On our own Facebook page alone atwww.facebook.com/
Job aggregator Indeed (www.indeed.com), a large and growing site that unites jobs from all over the Internet in one easy-to-search database, has greatly simplified the job hunt. According to site-traffic monitor Compete.com, almost 13 million people visited Indeed last month, its busiest month yet.
SEEING, BELIEVING, ACTING
With developments like these rippling through the jobscape -- and telework becoming a lively topic in the federal work force, too -- it begs the question: Why are we all still driving to work? Why aren't more employers seeing the light? Studies routinely show increased productivity and savings from telework, but why are our commutes getting longer?
It may come down to the "telescope effect." Each of us -- including, or perhaps especially, policy-makers -- habitually looks at the world like an astronomer whose telescope barely swivels.
We peer intently through the tube, but we see only a narrow band of the heavens. After a while, viewing the same old planets and stars every night through the same old cylinder, we conclude that there really aren't that many possibilities out there. Not much going on. Business as usual, indefinitely.
And all the while, a wondrous universe shimmers all around us and beckons with promise and potential.
Christine Durst and Michael Haaren are leaders in the work-at-home movement and advocates of de-rat-raced living. Their latest book is "Work at Home Now," a guide to finding home-based jobs. They offer additional guidance on finding home-based work at www.RatRaceRebellion.com. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2011 BY STAFFCENTRIX, DISTRIBUTED BYCREATORS.COM
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