Editor's Note: Today Business Impact begins a new monthly report. Throughout August. we'll explore the ways that technology is changing how, when, and where we work.

The idea that the office is a specific place where our professional lives happen is becoming less universal, and less important. These days many knowledge workers can be productive anywhere, thanks to smarter, more numerous mobile devices, faster network access, and a growing number of online collaboration tools. Telecommuting is no longer merely something that the phone company is trying to sell you. And wherever the office may be, wider and better use of social networks, data analytics, and smart technologies such as voice recognition could be poised to increase productivity dramatically—meaning that both real and virtual offices may have fewer people in them.