The Dispersed Office

The Industrial Revolution led to vast social changes in the 19th century. Workers moved from dispersed locations in the countryside to concentrations in towns to be near their place of work. Today most industrial and commercial activity still takes place in concentrations in towns. Though many of the worst consequences of the Industrial Revolution — slums, poverty, squalor — have disappeared, most people still travel to their place of work at the office or the factory. The total cost, in time taken and energy consumed by people travelling to work, is enormous. With the microchip revolution this is now beginning to change. Using modern communications technology, more and more people are finding that they do not need to travel to a place of work; they can work at home. Nevertheless, because people always resist change, this new way of working is evolving only slowly.