Why we still travel … even though we have email
If, like me, you've wondered why with all our email and conference calls, we spend so much time on airplanes, then you should read How Email Brings You Closer to the Guy in the Next Cubicle from Wired. I don't think he completely answered it but he makes two good points:
1. Technology enables us to meet up with people we are interested in meeting, whether for business or pleasure.
It follows that matchmaking is most effective in densely populated areas, where there are plenty of fish but an awfully big sea. If you live in Los Angeles, online dating is the killer app. If you live in a small town, you've likely already met all your potential mates at church or a bar.
2. Technology enables us to communicate more effectively with our networks, but doesn't replace facetime. It just enhances the inbetween facetime communications.
The most productive workers have the densest intracompany email web.
This shouldn't surprise us. Email makes it quicker and easier to reach your colleagues — you don't have to interrupt them, and messages are easy to process. But email doesn't stop you from wanting facetime, too. Just the opposite: By enabling us to maintain productive business relationships with more people, it encourages more face-to-face contact. Have you noticed business travel dying out? Neither have I. Air travel is at record highs.
On a different note, I'm glad to see that all those hundreds of inter-HP emails I sent were good for my productivity! I have to admit that sometimes I wondered! 
