WEBVTT - The Office of the Future 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.960 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve cameray. 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:08.920 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technologies with 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:17.880 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello there, everybody, 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:20.320 and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Polette, 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:22.320 and I am the tech editor here at how stuff 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:25.880 works dot Com. Sitting across from me, as usual, is 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:29.600 senior writer Jonathan Strickland. Are you sure about that, Chris? 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:33.760 We had a moment just a second ago that's going 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:38.760 on the reel where it was unclear if Chris knew 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:41.080 who he was or not. I never know who I am. 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:44.320 He violated a very important trademark I did. I'm sorry. 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:46.600 It's okay. I think we should have just kept going 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:48.040 with it. I think our listeners would have thought it 0:00:48.080 --> 0:00:50.200 was funny. And now they're all wondering what we're talking about. 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:53.519 All right, So let's before we get started into today's episode, 0:00:53.760 --> 0:00:56.240 just leaving you guys hanging there, let's talk a little 0:00:56.280 --> 0:01:00.760 bit about Oh God, Punkin Chunkin and orenge you glad 0:01:00.800 --> 0:01:07.320 we are? Yeah? Right, So Punkin Chunkin shooting Pumpkins, great distances, 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:12.280 television shows, Science Channel with giant machines. Yes, the enormous 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:16.039 machines that propel pumpkins. Alright, so the Science Channel showing 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:22.360 two shows the roads punkin Chunkin and punkin Chunkin on Thanksgiving, 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:27.119 which is November twenty six, starting at eight pm Eastern time, right, 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:29.240 and the nine pm, of course, would be the second show, 0:01:29.280 --> 0:01:33.080 punkin Chunkin. So you can watch people build machines throwing pumpkins. 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:36.440 Great distances. Glad we got that all the way. What's 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:39.360 on the docket for today? Well, today we want to 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:46.720 talk about the future. Wow. Well you know, I don't. 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:49.760 I don't think just talking about it really is enough. 0:01:51.120 --> 0:01:54.280 We're tech stuff, right, so we do more than just 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:58.000 talk about stuff. We we do thinks. So I suggest 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:02.080 we just switch a way back machine to the way 0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:05.280 forward machine. Let me just hit that switch. Did you 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:09.200 check the levels? We'll be fine. We'll be fine. Able 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:10.519 to get there and get back, no problem. Let me 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:14.720 just flip the switch first. All right, now, everybody into 0:02:14.760 --> 0:02:17.679 the machine. I'm talking. I'm talking to the listeners to 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:20.600 come on, guys, we're all going together, he says. It's safe. 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:22.440 I'm not gonna do you any good if you stay 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:24.959 behind while we go up there. All right, Okay, everyone 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:29.680 hands and arms inside the way forward machine until it stops. Okay, 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:32.000 so let's just set this forward a couple of decades. 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:38.280 Uh right, Um for me, it's the weird sound effects, 0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:42.520 all right, hang on, hang on, alright, alright, I think 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:45.640 we're there now. Um. Let's let me just open the 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:48.120 door and make sure that Darren any dinosaurs or anything 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:53.960 we didn't excellent Lina, No, no, here we go. Office 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:57.120 of the Future. All right, everybody out. Okay, let's take 0:02:57.120 --> 0:03:00.480 a quick look around and see what we see here. Um. Wow, 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:06.720 giant robots. Yeah, no, it's kind of empty. Yeah. So 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:09.880 it turns out the Office of the Future not a 0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:11.720 whole lot of a lot of people in the office 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:15.080 doesn't like it. I guess, um, I guess that telecommuting 0:03:15.120 --> 0:03:20.040 thing finally paid off. Who would have well apparent, Actually, 0:03:20.160 --> 0:03:22.880 quite a few people back back from our our home 0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:26.080 year of two thousand nine thought it. Uh. It turns 0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:29.079 out that a lot of executives believed at that time 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:33.200 that we were moving towards a telecommuting kind of culture, 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:37.200 at least in the Western world when it comes to offices, 0:03:37.320 --> 0:03:40.880 And part of the reason for that is that technology 0:03:40.880 --> 0:03:44.520 had reached a point where this is completely within the 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:46.320 realm of possibility. There are a lot of people who 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:50.920 telecommute back in two thousand nine, but more so than that, 0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:54.800 other concerns start to pop up, things like why should 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:58.520 a company pay the overhead necessary to maintain a physical 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:01.600 office space if every one could actually work out of 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:04.520 his or her home or you know a coffee shop 0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:07.480 just down the street. Yeah, like why pay that electricity 0:04:07.480 --> 0:04:09.680 bill if you don't have to. I'm guessing if you 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:12.000 go down to the factory down the road, there will 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:14.120 still be people there. However, yeah, they will be the 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:17.320 ones who are enslaved by the robots to fetch things 0:04:17.320 --> 0:04:20.680 like w D forty. But in the office it's going 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:23.320 to be different. So there are a lot of different 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:27.760 technologies that are at play here that can allow office 0:04:27.760 --> 0:04:33.000 workers to work remotely. Uh. And I don't think we 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:36.080 should just jump straight to the to the working from 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:42.000 home section. There are stages in between, for example, virtual PCs, 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:46.760 virtual PCs. Now, I wanted to talk a bit about 0:04:46.800 --> 0:04:51.240 a company called Pano Pano Logic Panel Logic. They sent 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:54.680 me a device to look at and I did, and 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:58.400 it's a pretty interesting concept. The idea here is that 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:00.760 And let's say that you've got an office and you 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:03.680 have a hundred employees, and let's say that each one 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:06.640 of those employees needs access to a PC while it 0:05:06.760 --> 0:05:09.720 work all right, Now, normally you would have to go 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:13.320 and purchase at least one PCs, if not a few extra, 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:16.680 just in case something breaks down, right, And that means 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:19.760 that you have to purchase licenses for all of the 0:05:19.839 --> 0:05:22.159 software that you're going to be using for those PCs, 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:25.080 assuming that you're using some across the entire office. Yes, 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:28.640 you also have to maintain those PCs, so when things 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:32.239 break down, you have be ready to fix them. Um, 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:34.760 and that means you have a hundred different machines to fix. 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:37.279 And unless you've bought them all at the same time, 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:40.400 all from the same place, those PCs are gonna have 0:05:40.440 --> 0:05:44.039 different parts, They're gonna be different models. There may be 0:05:44.120 --> 0:05:48.120 different hardware associate with each one. So if one breaks 0:05:48.120 --> 0:05:50.240 down that that doesn't necessarily mean that you've got a 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:53.440 drawer full of replacement parts to fix it immediately. You 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:55.960 may have to go and get something new. There are 0:05:55.960 --> 0:05:58.800 a lot of headaches associated with having lots of physical machines. 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:02.840 Now in virtually moving parts. Let's break So what Panos 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:06.800 approach is is their suggestion, their their product. Actually what 0:06:06.880 --> 0:06:08.880 it what does is there? It's two parts. There's a 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:14.240 software component and a hardware component. The software component is yeah, 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:17.599 well well it should. So you install the software component 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:21.239 on a server, all right, and you compartmentalize that server 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:26.719 into uh into virtual PCs. So each virtual PC acts 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:30.520 like a real physical PC. It has its own independent 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:34.760 applications that run on their own without sapping anything else 0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:37.120 from any other virtual PC. But they're all running on 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:40.080 one real machine. Yes, one real machine is supplying the 0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:45.599 processing power and storage capacity for dozens of virtual machines, 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:48.640 all right. Then the hardware component is just a simple 0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:52.719 little station that you plug a you can plug a 0:06:52.800 --> 0:06:56.560 keyboard into, you can plug a um A monitor into it, 0:06:56.600 --> 0:06:59.279 and you plug an Ethernet cord into it. Two acts 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:03.320 to get the data feed from the server, and you 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:07.919 have a power chord. And that's about it. So there's 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:11.800 no CPU, there's no disk drive, nothing like that. Everything 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:14.360 is stored on the server. Everything you would access would 0:07:14.400 --> 0:07:17.560 be on the server. You would have your own individual 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:21.840 folders to save things too that are on that exists 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:25.120 on your virtual PC. But the information itself exists on 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:28.720 the physical server. Now, why would a company want to 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:32.680 do this? Oh gee, I don't know. It seems like 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:35.400 it would uh save you a lot of trouble if 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:38.800 you were trying to, you know, find ways to repair things. 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:41.040 As you pointed out, Sure, yeah, that's a big one. 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:43.080 And also would save you a lot of money on 0:07:43.120 --> 0:07:47.960 licensing software. Yep, that's true too. And um, you know 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:53.240 there's there's always the opportunity to save on electricity. That's 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:57.480 another good one. It's just cheaper, like each individual device, 0:07:57.560 --> 0:08:01.280 it would be cheaper than buying a uh are normal 0:08:01.600 --> 0:08:05.200 what you would normally consider I guess a midpowered machine, 0:08:05.360 --> 0:08:07.720 mid to high powered machine. It would be less expensive 0:08:07.760 --> 0:08:13.040 than that. Storage is simpler. And also if there's a problem, 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:15.960 you have one machine to maintain, I mean you can 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:18.680 you can do regular maintenance on a server a lot 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:22.640 easier than you can on a hundred different physical machines. Um. Also, 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:25.320 like here here's a here's a real world example of 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:29.160 where this could come in handy recently, at how Stuff Works, 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:34.560 we upgraded part of our software in across the entire office, right, 0:08:35.040 --> 0:08:37.600 and that required that each of us turn over his 0:08:37.800 --> 0:08:40.640 or her computer to the I T guy for an 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:43.080 hour or more at a time in order to get 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:46.880 this software installed on our computers. That's just procedure. It's 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:50.400 company procedure, it's the way we work. So that meant 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:53.160 that this one I T Guy had to go through 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:56.440 and do the same process over and over on all 0:08:56.480 --> 0:08:59.280 the different pieces in the office. Now, if you had 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:02.680 the virtual PC model, you make that change once on 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:05.880 the server and then you then upgrade all the virtual 0:09:05.920 --> 0:09:09.840 PCs at one time. It's much faster than having to 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:14.280 take it piecemeal. So what happens If that one machine 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:17.839 goes down, then you've got a problem. If your one 0:09:17.880 --> 0:09:20.439 machine goes down, then yeah, all of your access goes down. 0:09:20.440 --> 0:09:23.079 But I mean that that happens already if you are 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:26.800 working on a on a system where um things like 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:29.000 you have an Internet server and the Internet server goes 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:31.080 down and you're no longer able to access the Internet. 0:09:31.120 --> 0:09:34.360 I mean that's happened at many places. I can think 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:38.320 of one very close to us right now, like the 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:42.160 room we're in, so the But yeah, this this can 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:44.720 happen to any office at any time. Now. Granted it 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:47.560 does sound scary because it's the idea of Okay, well, now, 0:09:47.600 --> 0:09:50.880 you've got one point of failure, and um, you know, 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:54.560 in the in the instance where you have lots of machines, 0:09:54.920 --> 0:09:58.840 one machine might fail, But unless it's a critical machine 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:02.079 for a specific project, that's maybe not the worst thing 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:03.920 in the world that could happen, whereas if that happened 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:06.560 on a centralized point. But the idea being that if 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:10.720 you can continue to do maintenance and and monitor this 0:10:10.800 --> 0:10:13.439 one machine, I mean, if that's what where your I. T. 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:19.319 Departments focus is is directed, there's a much better chance 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:21.719 of keeping that machine running than a whole bunch of 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:27.240 different machines in various states of of use. So yeah, 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:30.000 there's a risk versus reward consideration you have to take 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:32.720 into account before you move to something like a virtual 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:37.120 PC solution. But on the same by the same token, 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:40.080 I mean, you're already running some of those risks in 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:44.960 most offices now anyway. It's just that you're now putting 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:47.720 more of a burden on that one machine as opposed 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:50.480 to you know, a whole bunch of individual ones. But 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:53.839 like I've worked in offices where you had to save 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:56.760 everything to a network drive. You couldn't you weren't supposed 0:10:56.760 --> 0:11:00.400 to save anything to your local drive at all, and 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:02.960 in that case, if that network drive went down, you 0:11:03.000 --> 0:11:05.480 could not access any of your work yep. And I 0:11:05.520 --> 0:11:08.320 mean that's happened before, So those sort of things, those 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:10.920 those things are going to happen. But if you factor 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:14.040 that in before you make your decision, it's not so 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:17.320 scary if you just take into you know that, all right, 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:20.079 sometimes stuff is gonna go wrong and you're gonna have 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:22.800 to handle it. But this is kind of a it's 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:26.240 also kind of a step toward another kind of computing 0:11:26.240 --> 0:11:29.360 we've talked about before, which is cloud computing. Yep. Yep. 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:33.840 Now cloud computing, you're no longer even providing the server yep. 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:37.880 That's true. Um, that information is all stored somewhere else 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:41.320 on company servers, like for example, if you've ever used 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:49.000 Google Docs or the upcoming uh Microsoft Office Live. Um, basically, 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:53.800 the applications themselves and the files that you create and 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:57.560 those applications are all stored on the company's on that 0:11:57.640 --> 0:12:03.920 company's servers. So Google's massive data warehouses filled filled to 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:07.160 their you know, top with computers. All your files are 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:10.160 in there somewhere actually, probably in many many places, since 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:14.240 you many many backups. Um. But yeah, that's all. That's 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:18.079 all done. Yeah, I mean that's all done with cloud computing. 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:21.000 So and it's out there somewhere. The interesting thing here 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:23.480 is that, you know, again you have to ask yourself 0:12:23.520 --> 0:12:26.280 the question why would any company move to this? And 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:30.080 it comes down to cost. I mean by moving your 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:35.120 your processing and storage loads off site. Uh. As long 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:38.280 as the cost of the service is lower than the 0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:41.080 cost it would take you to purchase and maintain your 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:44.479 own equipment, that's going to seem like a very attractive 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:49.680 alternative for companies. Uh. But there are some big hurdles 0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:53.280 to get past. The biggest one, I think is the 0:12:53.320 --> 0:12:57.360 whole perception of how reliable are cloud computing services. Yeah, 0:12:57.400 --> 0:13:00.680 and that's taken some meetings lately to you. Yeah, in 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:03.400 the in bet well lately being back in two thousand nine, 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:06.720 in the future now, so years ago, back in two 0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:10.880 thousand nine, and our personal timeline right right, Yeah, this 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:14.520 is hard. I gotta think in four dimensions. I usually 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:18.680 manage one and a half. But the Yeah, so back 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:21.040 in two thousand nine, you know, back when are we 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:24.760 all were just a few minutes ago, the biggest problems 0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:28.720 were things like Google Gmail going down or Google Apps 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:33.720 going down or T Mobile losing all the side Mobile 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:37.840 didn't do that, except it wasn't Mobile and Mobile gets 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:41.040 T Mobile gets the worst of that deal because not 0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:44.640 only were they not responsible for the the service outage 0:13:44.679 --> 0:13:47.080 and we're talking about the Sidekick service outage, the Danger 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:49.840 servers that went down, not only was T Mobile not 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:52.840 responsible for that, but they also get the blame for 0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:56.480 it because the T Mobile name is on that Sidekick device. Yes, 0:13:56.800 --> 0:13:59.800 and uh so everybody is angry at T Mobile, even 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:02.679 though Microsoft is the one that owns the Danger servers. 0:14:03.880 --> 0:14:06.079 At any rate, when you can take the blame for 0:14:06.120 --> 0:14:08.840 someone else's problem, yeah, you gotta man. You gotta love 0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:12.240 being Microsoft in that situation. Except the savvy people, of course, 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:15.560 already know the difference. It's just whether the general public 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:17.719 is aware of it. But that's that's the problem, right. 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:20.880 There's this perception that if you entrust your data to 0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:25.000 some other service and something goes wrong, uh, then you're 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:28.680 you're totally up the creek. And I think the biggest 0:14:29.080 --> 0:14:33.360 obstacle for most people is a sense of control because 0:14:33.400 --> 0:14:37.760 these problems do pop up in offices right now under 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:43.360 just local you know services, So your local servers at 0:14:43.440 --> 0:14:45.680 your office the ones that are actually physically in your 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:51.400 building possibly could go down and it affects your entire office. Um, 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:55.600 but you that feels different than if it were in 0:14:55.720 --> 0:14:59.320 someone else's control, like in Google's control, because at least 0:14:59.400 --> 0:15:02.000 then you can be the one standing in the room 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:04.400 looking at all these machines that aren't blinking lights like 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:07.520 they're supposed to and scream profanity if you wish, Whereas 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:09.680 if it's in Google's building, you have no idea if 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:12.560 anyone is screaming profanity or even in the general vicinity 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:15.720 of the computers that aren't working. I mean, it's a 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:19.320 safe bet. I don't know about the screaming profanity part. 0:15:19.360 --> 0:15:22.040 I'm not really aware of that in Google's culture. But 0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:26.800 the point being that without those those machines being on 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:30.280 your physical premises you you lose that sense of control 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:33.920 and it's harder to entrust your your data and your 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:38.200 processing power to another party. But this is the future. 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:42.360 We've gotten past that because obviously companies have managed to 0:15:43.040 --> 0:15:47.640 create UH services that are both secure and reliable, or 0:15:47.680 --> 0:15:51.200 at least secure enough and reliable enough and cheap enough 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:53.560 for companies to say, you know what, we're gonna go 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:55.360 with this because it's gonna save us more money in 0:15:55.400 --> 0:16:00.240 the long run. So what else has made the Office 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:05.680 of the future become a non localized, non geographic you know, 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:10.320 uh entity. I mean, now we no longer have these 0:16:10.360 --> 0:16:14.080 massive offices filled with people screaming and yelling at each 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:17.560 other and typewriters clacking and oh wait, I'm thinking I 0:16:17.600 --> 0:16:19.840 took that trip to the nineteen twenties the other day. 0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:24.040 I'm thinking of you know, I think those big screens 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:26.520 over there might have something to do with it. Oh yeah, 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:28.360 well that that would have something to do with it, 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:31.120 because the you know, of course, that technology is getting 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:34.520 cheaper and cheaper every year. Yes, we're at least in 0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:36.720 two thousand nine, Yes, back in two thousand nine. By 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:41.120 now it's you know, pretty much commonlies. You know. Well, 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:45.800 I think the pennies back in so, you know, during 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:52.520 that whole Mayan thing, yea, anyway, yeah, um yeah. Actually 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:56.560 the telepresence idea Cisco um, you know, was big into 0:16:56.600 --> 0:16:59.840 that back in two thousand nine, about the idea that 0:16:59.880 --> 0:17:03.960 you can immerse yourself in um being in a meeting, 0:17:04.400 --> 0:17:08.520 in a virtual situation with the right kind of camera 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:11.000 and having the large enough screen you feel like you're 0:17:11.040 --> 0:17:15.080 actually right in front of the person and talking to them, um, 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:18.000 which was a pretty neat way of making it possible 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:20.280 to uh, to communicate with other people, because that was 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:22.960 the big thing about working in person when you had 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:25.280 to be in an office building like this giant, empty 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:27.919 one that we're in now. Uh, you know, well, what 0:17:27.960 --> 0:17:29.520 are you gonna do. You don't get any face time 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:31.879 with anybody, You don't get the opportunity to make your 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:34.080 point in person. But now you don't need to because 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:37.520 you have you know this uh, this conferencing technology that 0:17:37.560 --> 0:17:39.560 allows you to do that, and you know it's all 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:43.280 free with this. These ads supported voice over Internet protocol 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:46.440 services and there's tons of them now. And not only that, 0:17:46.480 --> 0:17:52.720 but I think culturally the shift started where people began 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:58.520 to place less and less importance on that in person meeting. UM. 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:02.359 I mean, part of it was technlogy was allowing for alternatives, 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:06.879 and part of it's just this interesting shift where people 0:18:06.920 --> 0:18:12.119 are becoming more comfortable with virtual spaces, with communicating over 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:19.080 various forms of Internet or electronic uh methods. So let's 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:24.239 talk about also collaboration. Collaboration is much easier in the 0:18:24.280 --> 0:18:27.120 future than it was, you know, in two thousand nine 0:18:27.119 --> 0:18:29.760 and and far easier than back and when I started 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:34.800 working in an office environment, like when Google Wave revolutionized 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:39.679 office communications. Sure, because let's let's think back to the 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:42.760 early days of my career. Because this way I can 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:45.480 I can kind of step through how collaboration has changed. 0:18:45.480 --> 0:18:48.080 Are No, no, we're not We're not going to get 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:49.560 in the machine. I'm just gonna tell you about it. 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:51.560 So the machine is just gonna stay right there. We're 0:18:51.560 --> 0:18:54.600 just gonna stay in this building. No one wander off. 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:57.040 I see some of you going toward the windows. Just 0:18:57.119 --> 0:19:01.280 be careful, okay, alright, So anyway, the back when I 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:04.639 started work, it was really hard to collaborate with other 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:08.320 people because in order to do any sort of collaboration 0:19:08.400 --> 0:19:11.199 I had to create a document on my machine. I 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:13.800 then had to email it or put it up on 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:17.440 a server for someone else. They would pull a copy 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:21.280 of that document onto their machine make changes. Then they'd 0:19:21.280 --> 0:19:24.320 have to save that copy back either to a centralized 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:26.960 server or email it to me. And now you've got 0:19:27.040 --> 0:19:29.920 multiple copies of the same document kind of floating around. 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:33.080 It just made it really messy and difficult to keep track. 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:36.560 Ye skip ahead, you got you started getting things like 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:42.959 Google Docs, where now you've got a centralized document creation source, 0:19:43.040 --> 0:19:45.240 like you can go to Google Docs, create a document, 0:19:45.480 --> 0:19:47.639 and you can invite other people to come into that 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:53.480 document and make edits, and you can create a unified 0:19:53.600 --> 0:19:58.760 effort in creating this document without making extra copies. Move 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:02.280 on to Google Wave, which incorporates not just collaboration, but 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:05.080 real time collaboration, where you can actually see people making 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:07.680 changes in real time and you can comment on them. 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:10.679 You can have a discussion at that moment within the 0:20:10.720 --> 0:20:14.840 document itself if you wanted to and discuss what should 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:19.600 and should not go in there. Yeah, it was, it was. 0:20:19.720 --> 0:20:21.719 It was a little buggy, you know, it didn't necessarily 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:24.400 keep up with all your waves and and you didn't 0:20:24.440 --> 0:20:28.080 have that many applications. But now now there's practically everything 0:20:28.160 --> 0:20:31.679 available on Google Wave. You can do video conferencing, you 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:35.320 can create documents, you can create presentations, you can do 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:39.240 pretty much all the basic Microsoft kind of office things 0:20:39.240 --> 0:20:41.960 that a lot of officers did earlier. And what's really 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:43.840 interesting is that, of course Google Wave is not the 0:20:43.880 --> 0:20:48.120 only solution. I think it it really led a revolution 0:20:48.359 --> 0:20:53.560 in how we communicate online. So really the there are 0:20:53.680 --> 0:20:56.840 tons of different applications, not just Googles. I mean, Google's, 0:20:56.840 --> 0:20:58.320 of course, is the oldest one, so that's the one 0:20:58.359 --> 0:21:01.199 we talk about. But obviously other companies have come out 0:21:01.240 --> 0:21:04.280 with their own versions of this kind of software. Yeah yeah, 0:21:05.080 --> 0:21:08.560 and just just wasn't anticipating the whole you know, Twitter 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:13.560 buying Google things. Yeah, that really surprised me too. Yeah. Anyway, also, 0:21:13.720 --> 0:21:15.800 you know, um, well, we won't get into it at 0:21:15.800 --> 0:21:18.520 any rate. So somebody's gonna you know, look, listen to 0:21:18.560 --> 0:21:21.040 this here, that much of it and freak out. Well, 0:21:21.080 --> 0:21:22.919 clearly they didn't give in the machine with us at 0:21:22.920 --> 0:21:26.200 the beginning. If they did, they'd see what we're talking about. 0:21:26.920 --> 0:21:31.240 So here here's something some other things to consider about 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:35.280 the office. Wow, what does that here? Yeah, you know 0:21:35.359 --> 0:21:39.040 what's because it's big empty building, right. Okay, So if 0:21:39.160 --> 0:21:42.439 we do move to more telecommuting, as this version of 0:21:42.480 --> 0:21:44.880 the future has shown us, now, granted we gotta remember 0:21:45.280 --> 0:21:47.280 futures they branch off. We may just be in one 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:50.040 possible future. We didn't go to the one where the 0:21:50.080 --> 0:21:52.679 robots rule us. So, I mean there are a lot 0:21:52.680 --> 0:21:56.640 of different choices. Well I haven't looked out the window, 0:21:56.760 --> 0:22:00.679 tell you the truth. So but assuming that that this 0:22:00.720 --> 0:22:04.240 does hold true and that we no longer have the 0:22:04.280 --> 0:22:08.199 need to create a geographic location for our office. Like 0:22:08.280 --> 0:22:10.800 let's say, a lot of offices now they allow their 0:22:10.800 --> 0:22:14.400 employees to log in from wherever they are to uh 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:19.199 to contribute to the company. What happens to all the 0:22:19.280 --> 0:22:25.240 office buildings, Well, you know, they they're really nice planters. Yeah, 0:22:25.359 --> 0:22:27.879 that's that's one of the things. I mean, it's one 0:22:27.880 --> 0:22:30.080 of those questions that you think, why are you even asking, 0:22:30.080 --> 0:22:32.720 and you think, well, no, this is a legitimate question. 0:22:32.760 --> 0:22:34.639 If what are all the people going to do with 0:22:34.800 --> 0:22:38.439 those Yeah, you've got you've got these massive buildings, like 0:22:38.480 --> 0:22:42.000 we're we're in a pretty tall building in Atlanta. And 0:22:42.359 --> 0:22:44.919 can you imagine if if more offices moved to a 0:22:44.960 --> 0:22:50.320 telecommuting uh atmosphere back in two thousand nine. Yeah, let's 0:22:50.359 --> 0:22:53.840 assume that offices do find that telecommuting does work, that 0:22:53.920 --> 0:22:57.720 employees are justice productive if they work remotely as they 0:22:57.760 --> 0:23:00.240 would be if they worked in the office. They gonna 0:23:00.240 --> 0:23:03.280 say more money by having a virtual space as opposed 0:23:03.280 --> 0:23:06.720 to a physical space. All of those real estate owners 0:23:06.720 --> 0:23:10.120 who own these buildings are going to be in trouble, 0:23:10.520 --> 0:23:15.159 I mean, And then follow the next step, what happens 0:23:15.200 --> 0:23:18.359 to cities. If suddenly you have all these abandoned buildings 0:23:18.960 --> 0:23:21.199 in the middle, it could turn into another city that 0:23:21.280 --> 0:23:24.600 I won't mention on this podcast. I'm not gonna. I'm 0:23:24.640 --> 0:23:28.280 not gonna at any rate you end up with a 0:23:28.280 --> 0:23:30.920