The garden office of the future is all around

Victor Keegan in The Guardian is always well worth reading on all things tech-related, especially those with a social aspect. He has a nice piece in today's Technology section 'The office of the future is all around' in which he talks about remote working businesses, particularly among new web-based companies which, as he says, "have no cultural legacies to maintain" in terms of working practices. These companies, he says:

"...can capitalise on the new high-speed broadband era, with its promise of free international telecommunications, and learn the lessons of the open source movement that enables people to cooperate on a global basis without the traditional corporate infrastructure. If virtual working catches on it would reduce the need for international travel, give people extra leisure time - since they wouldn't need to travel to work - and would eliminate the stress of working in a corporate hierarchy. It might even bring property prices down if companies came to realise that not only do they not need a prestigious headquarters in a capital city, but they may not need an office at all."