London geek fashion week & remote working

I am back in the London, hammering out beautifully crafted HTML and CSS for freelance cash at a glossy, high-end agency.

Vaingloriously glamorous though freelance contract work is, ultimately it is not sustainable unless you live in the lunny bin or near a railway station with direct links.

What it does afford is the opportunity to catch up on the latest geek fashions: short-back-and-wonky hair, NHS glasses, lumberjack shirt, super-skinny jeans, big buckly belt and suede desert boots. Oh yes, the 21 year fashion cycle comes full circle.

This cycle is reflected in the technology: cool Apple products, almost-cross-browser programing environment that is big, chunky and slow and mobile phones, again.

All this London working though does beg the statement: there must be another way.

Photo CC copyright jlcwalker on Flickr

I walk into the office and, apart from the relaxed self-imposed uniform and pretty pictures on the walls, it looks darned similar to any office. Rows of desks, people and monitors.

Aren't we supposed to be working in a distributed 21st century manner? Why are we tied to the office? Technology? Habit? What about teleconferencing, collaborative tools?

There are answers out there...