back to article Orange predicts death of bosses and birth of P2P offices

Orange has been studying how we'll be working over the next decade or two, and apparently we'll be dumping the CEO but not all working from home. The analysis - entitled Connected Britain - is more downbeat than previous efforts, no doubt reflecting a slightly-less-optimistic economy. But the document (pdf) is much more than …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    yeah out of the 3000 asked

    99% of them lived in london

    stupid

    plz can we get more background on these statistics otherwise they are pointless....

    in the coutryside the house is more important mainly due to the fact most ppl dont rent

  2. Darius
    Thumb Down

    Wildfire!

    Orange predicted ten years ago that we'd wear a tiny earpiece in our ears and that we'd be woken up by the voice of Wildfire (a virtual personal assistant) and that 'she' would organise our day, remind us of meetings, make calls for us and organise flowers when necessary - just like a real PA. However, the future was not so bright for Wildfire as they got rid of her and so changed the future!

  3. The Indomitable Gall

    @Darius

    Darius,

    If your real PA wakes you up by whispering in your ear, I can see why you need her to organise flowers. Your wife must be livid!

  4. Mathew White
    Troll

    Land

    Basically Orange want their employees to rent their office space for them.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    @ Darius

    I was thinking the same, what happened to my little ear piece?

  6. David Evans
    FAIL

    No CEOs?

    I've just skimmed the document and while it mentions "no CEOs" twice, it doesn't say why a distributed, social-networked organisation can do without a Head Honcho. Is that just thrown in as some kind of bizarre wish-fulfilment or because it will make a good headline for lazy journos who won't actually read the report? Because frankly, its bollocks.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    @ Darius

    "Wildfire" is technically possible though. I guess no one wants it.

  8. Grease Monkey Silver badge

    FFS

    Variations on this sort of bollocks have been predicted before. No big bosses? No head office? Don't make me chortle. What is this some sort of Marxist utopian dream?

    It's all very sweet in theory, but it doesn't work in practice. Look at the number of cooperative businesses that started up working to a similar model, by the time they made it big these companies had a traditional management structure and a shiny head office.

    Many hands supposedly make light work, but too many cooks spoil the broth. Ships need captains. And the captain wants his own cabin that's better than the crew. And fleets have admirals And the admiral wants a fancy flagship.

    So what we end up with is managers with corner offices and a CEO working at a fancy flagship of a head office.

    It will never change significantly because those in the management structure don't want it to change and will make sure it doesn't. Those further down have no power to make a change and the only way they will ever have that power is if they become part of that management structure, at which juncture they will support the status quo.

    The working class can kiss my arse, etc.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Fail and Orange...

    A gripping tale of why a CEO wont sack themselves.

    Do orange really think that the guy in charge would allow the introduction of a system that makes them not be.

  10. Darius

    Just to clarify!

    For the record, I don't have a PA! The wake up call and diary run down is is just what Orange 'predicted' would be the norm in the future!!!

    Wildfire did work (not to the extent that Orange predicted) but 'she' made calls, took messages and even told a joke occasionally. Orange withdrew the service because didn't want to invest time in something that wasn't going to make them money. This is despite purchasing the Wildfire technology for over £100m. It was probably slightly ahead of it's time. Callers couldn't quite grasp that the PA (that answered the phone in a similar fashion to a human) was a machine. Oddly enough, it seems that nowadays we do spend a lot my time talking to machines!

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/1999/07/20/orange_adds_wildfire_virtual_pa/

  11. Elmer Phud
    IT Angle

    Sir Clive

    Didn't the One-Per-Desk (QL with extra bits) break the mould and shatter the entire 'going to the office' way of working?

  12. Piggy and Tazzy
    WTF?

    P2P?

    Is this the same P2P that we're being told by the other lot (The Gov't and the music/film industry) is evil?

    I wish they'd make their fucking minds up.

  13. Suburban Inmate
    Welcome

    Bossless companies?

    Here we go again. http://www.uncanny.net/~wsa/ital1920.html

    I guess the Orange vision includes some Intranet/VPN/SSL message board to facilitate decision making. Don't ask me how it's going to be moderated though. Could all go a bit 4chan if they're not careful!

    Still, several hundred workers with a genuine interest in the workers getting rich* has got to be better than a small board of directors with a genuine interest in the board of directors getting rich.

    *(OK, subject to market competition and whatnot, so "fairly compensated" rather than stinking rich)

  14. Gannon (J.) Dick
    Thumb Down

    @Grease Monkey

    Stop blaming the Bolsheviks. This plan depends for failure on the proposition that the Mensheviks are stupid enough to send their pay to investors instead of keeping it.

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