If there’s one thing that I’m acutely aware of, it’s the blurring of lines between work and home. It used to be that the work week was well defined in both scope and culture. We had a very precise protocol for communicating in the office, using memos, telexes, and carefully structured and painstakingly dictated letters that started with “To whom it may concern” and ended with “Sincerely yours.”

Gone are the days of formal communications. These days you’re very likely to e-mail a colleague from home at 10 p.m. on a weekend or end up in a spirited instant messaging discussion with someone while you’re on a conference call from your home office. The world of work has stealthily crept deeply into the fabric of our lives.

Along with the ambiguity that comes from blurring the lines between work and home comes an additional challenge. The communication tools that we use today (voice mail, e-mail, and instant messaging) have limitations that continually force us to try to adapt our behavior to the medium we use. For example, the other day I fell victim to a misunderstanding that arose from the impersonal nature of instant messaging. Anger flared and feelings were hurt simply because my messaging partner did not understand the emotional context of a series of messages.

We have a whole dictionary of emoticons that are supposed to salve the wounds wrought by the enigmatic electronic word, but aren’t we now in a technological position to eliminate the cause of the pain?

Over the next few weeks we’ll discuss the ways that technology is poised to change our life experiences and allow us to communicate freely with a more human flavor. I hope that experts and researchers in the worlds of information technology and personal communications will help us understand some of the trends and developments in the field and, of course, those of you who have opinions on this subject must play an important role in shaping our conversation.

Here’s to a spirited discussion on the potential that new and future communications technologies have to improve our daily lives.

Sincerely yours,

Roger W. Farnsworth