Shrinking world

Just how much electronic communication has become the norm - and has totally revolutionaised the way we work - struck home on Friday.

I was working on two projects during a slightly elongated working day, both of which had originated in London.

With the movement of the key players involved, one guy was responding to questions via Blackberry from Prague. We worked just as swiftly as if he'd been in his London office, despite the fact he spent most of his day travelling.

When the other project started, both key players were also in London, but now the content provider's on the east coast of the US and the project co-ordinator is in Australia. The 15 hour timespan between us is a bit of a stretch but we can link up by phone or internet chat - and can collaborate on the documentation in real time. E-mail is now just so accepted as a working communication currency that none of us thinks twice about shooting messages around the world - and we work far more efficiently than losing thousands of hours each year stuck outside radio contact on planes travelling to meetings.

I started in communication 20 years ago - it truly was a different world.