Teleworking, clearing up some misunderstandings.

Homeworking and teleworking.

 There seems  to be quite  a difference of  opinion to  these two  terms.
 Some people  think that homeworking  is manual labour  (self-employment)
 and that teleworking is not.

 the problem here is  that the meaning of the  two terms cross over  each
 others boundaries  quite a lot,  or to put  it another way,  teleworking
 from home is in all intents and purposes is homeworking!

 OK, so you might say that homeworking is basically based at home and  no
 where else?   Well,  you would  be wrong.   There  are many  homeworkers
 that, as another example, go  out and sell from catalogues within  their
 local area,  and their  base of operations  is at  or from  home.   Even
 self-employed teleworkers have to  go out and consult with their  client
 base.

 With  these  two  terms,  there  is  an  easily  defined   relationship.
 Teleworking is a subset of Homeworking.

 If you're working from, self-employed or not, you are working from  home
 regardless if you use telecommunications and technology or not.


Telecottages and Telecentres

 Telecottages and  Telecentres are  basically the  same, except  for  the
 location and on the odd occasion, function.  This also depends on how  a
 Telecentre or Telecottage is managed.

 Telecottages tend  to be  out of  town, the  odd few  are purpose  built
 mini-villages where teleworkers live  and their families live, but  this
 can be quite costly to set-up.   In many instances a telecottage may  be
 set-up within an existing small village where there is a large  interest
 in remote working or there are already many people working from home  in
 and around the village.  One of  the main reasons for the existence  for
 a telecottage is the  need for an individual (or  family) to be able  to
 stay in one place  yet have many clients nationally or  internationally.
 As a side line,  a teleworker (maybe the  better term is homeworker)  is
 also free to relocate as many times as required.

 Telecentres, on  the other hand,  are set-up in  medium to larger  towns
 and  cities  to  do  the  same  job  as  a  telecottage,  but   possibly
 concentrating  more  on  training  and  support  for  teleworkers   with
 possibly  a  bit of  a  social  aspect  woven  in.    (aka.  A  training
 association that also offers support services.)

 There is one  more thing that  can be mentioned  which can embrace  both
 the above terms.  You may have  a company which employs home workers  on
 a employed  basis and  using telecommunications  to perform  their  jobs
 (aka.  Teleworkers!).   That  this company  may  do is  set-up  regional
 offices and/or meeting  places where an employee  may go to use  company
 resources and to catch up on the latest gossip.

      [This report was last updated on 03 August 1996.]
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