The mobile phone too has changed the way we live. I remember a time when you were in a car and running late for an appointment - there was no way to call to let the other party know of your tardiness. Now your cell phone can not only let you call but it gives you turn-by-turn directions and allows you to surf the web, send email, etc.

IP has also allowed work to move anywhere. Everywhere! You can hire a person in a country you never visited and monitor their progress as if they were in the next room.

Communications technology is also green - very green. Sure an IP phone like any other piece of electronics can have some toxic components and uses electricity but with it you can work from home as if you are in the office. You can cease driving and still be part of the corporate infrastructure.

Telepresence is the closest approximation to being there we have today and avatars may allow us to virtually beam ourselves anywhere we like.

So be proud of yourself. Whether you purchase, resell or manufacture communications products or services you are a vital cog in the communications industry and you are making the world a better, more productive and greener place. Our industry doesn't have the "environmental cache" of the organic food industry but when you think about, it perhaps it should.