Is the Road Warrior a dying breed? The rise of The Collaborator.

Two of our Cisco Subnet bloggers, Jim Doherty and Neil Anderson, have what I think is an intriguing blogpost: “The end of the Road Warrior”. Their argument is that the nature of mobility is changing, and therefore changing the skills needed to work successfully, and the nature of that work. Initially, mobile workers were swashbuckling power-users, focused on getting connected while traveling to meet coworkers or customers. (Our ace security reporter Ellen Messmer has a new story up on a report about telecommuting security and productivity issues, and how they’re being ignored.) But now, Doherty and Anderson argue, the issue is groups or teams, comprised of workers in different locations and timezones (who may or may not be traveling), that have a need for optimal effectiveness in working together. I’m intrigued by the shift from the individual focus to individual-in-a-group focus, which they seem to be saying is being enabled by pervasive connectivity. Is mobility changing work? Changing the way we work? What’s your experience, both for yourself and as you look at your company?