1. Introduction

Up until about thirty years ago the main means of communication within an organisation was face-to-face. People would physically walk to a person's desk, even if it was on another floor!

Where it really was too far to physically walk, conversations would take place via the land line telephone. If you couldn't get hold of someone on the telephone then you would write and post a letter.

Around 30 years ago the fax machine became popular in offices. It was revolutionary at the time - instead of having to wait up to a week for post to be delivered a document could be faxed and received in just a few minutes.

Over the last thirty years technology has advanced out of all recognition with emails, SMS, video conferencing, chat rooms to name but a few.

This mini-web examines how these changes have affected the way that organisations and people communicate.