The Economist recently published a study on the progress in wireless technology, and the leader they drew from it was titled "our nomadic future" - describing our new ability to work anywhere using ubiquitous connectivity.

the social changes are already visible: parents on beaches waving at their children while typing furtively on their BlackBerrys; entrepreneurs discovering they don't need offices after all (if you need to recharge something, you just go to Starbucks); teenagers text-dumping their boyfriends. Everybody is doing more on the move.

These changes are also highly visible in the workforce, and the associated issues are often discussed when we talk with management about the future of the workforce.  Like many of these business leaders, the Economist sees a mixed blessing:

Will it be a better life? In some ways, yes. Digital nomadism will liberate ever more knowledge workers from the cubicle prisons of Dilbert cartoons. But the old tyranny of place could become a new tyranny of time, as nomads who are “always on” all too often end up—mentally—anywhere but here (wherever here may be).

This is a social trend which is impacting most if not all employers, yet the impacts of it are not always already visible in our HR Trends, and the effect it has on our workforce will be varied.  Like the aging workforce and other major social trends, the trend to digital nomadism has multiple sometimes conflicting potential impacts, which of course can vary across an organization.  Trends and issue like these need to be explored for good workforce planning.   Are you discussing the possibilities and risks of social trends like this with your business leaders?