The concepts of time-shifting and place-shifting (originally called "space" shifting) come from the realm of consumer electronics. The classic time-shifting device is TiVo, which allows you to "shift" the time of your favorite TV programs to a time of your choosing.
On place-shifting front, Sony, HAVA, and Sling Media, among others, have devices which allow you to change the "place" where you consume media by sending TV shows to your PC, for example. You could also think of the iPod/iPhone as doing the same thing with your music and videos. Indeed, one denizen of the interweb, Nari Kannan, postulates that the ability to shift time and/or place is an essential element of technical innovation.
Kannan goes on to say, "Placeshifting in the larger context with the widespread adoption of the Internet enabled Outsourcing and Offshoring! Work is not tethered to one location anymore." We find the same idea expressed thusly in this article on the future of electronic design, "The Internet dissolves international boundaries, creating a time- and place-shifting global village of design and engineering."
At this stage of the game, any work whose end-product is an electronic file (which could be a text document or a feature film) requires solely that collaborators be connected electronically, not that they be spatially proximate to one another. In fact, the only complication introduced by the fact that the end-product takes a more material form, a chair, for example, is that the collaborators must each on their end be connected to some physical transport system such as that run by FedEx or UPS.
Given the boundary-less world of cyber-enabled work, to what extent are we still bound by geography when it comes to landing gigs or hiring people, especially since anyone can post a resume or portfolio online or advertise a job opening and it can be found by anyone with access to the web from anywhere on Earth?
When it comes to actually getting hired or hiring I believe that the only thing making physical presence in a particular geographic location necessary is trust (or, more accurately, the lack thereof). As atavastic or primitive as it may be, the most basic form of trust still rests in seeing someone with our own eyes, shaking their hand, and sizing them up by talking to them, asking them questions, and gauging their responses.
Of course, people nowadays will readily work with someone they have never physically met. Why? Because trust functions as a currency that can be passed from one individual to another through an introduction, a recommendation, or a referral. The same technology that enables time- or place-shifted collaboration has encouraged the growth of globe-spanning trust networks, which may in the end turn out to be its most revolutionary effect.
People can make a career out of being trusted (Brogan calls these folk "trust agents"). My question to you is: Do you see us here at Aquent as trust agents? If so, how may we assist you?
Image Courtesy of Kevin Krejci.
Leave a comment