Editor's Corner

Ever since the dawn of the beeper device, which lets people communicate wherever and whenever, I've had the sneaking suspicion that ubiquitous access was not far off. The emerging communications technologies we all use today in our very mobile lives prove the point. While we can still claim the cell phone was off, the beeper was off or IM was turned off, there will soon come a day when there won't be any excuse for not answering a message or returning a call as the person reaching out will know exactly where we were and what we were doing.

It's called "presence technology," and it's bringing us all closer to the Big Brother syndrome, but this time on the workplace rather than government level. Once companies move to a unified messaging platform the capabilities to know exactly what an employee is doing at any time no matter where they are could very easily become reality. And while I can see the business benefits to having such access and information, I can also see the danger point of losing privacy during our workday.

As a recent article at CIO Insight points out, there is a lot of discussion and planning about expectations and employee education head before the next wave of communications hits the enterprise. - Judy