IT is always fascinating to learn about the things which go on in other offices. Liverpool City Council has banned the use of internal e-mails on Wednesdays in an attempt to encourage staff to talk to each other.

Management fads come and go, but this ground-breaking concept might just catch on. The council says the experiment, designed to make council business flow more efficiently, involves people being encouraged to pick up their phones and perhaps even get up from their desks and talk to someone face to face.

Only on Wednesdays, though.

During the rest of the week they are presumably expected to continue communicating with colleagues through the computer on the desk which dispenses with the need for human contact.

As the proud owner, still, of an Imperial Good Companion 6 portable typewriter, I have always been sceptical about some of the claims made for new technology.

In fact, I was the only person in the office to write "Luddites Rule OK!" when we were first confronted with computer screens.

To this day, although I grudgingly admit that the machines can be pretty amazing, I am often to be heard suggesting that communication was quicker in the good old days of pigeons and cleft sticks.

The problem for many modern office workers is the sheer weight of e-mails which need attention.

I like to think I use e-mail sparingly and reasonably sensibly, but I am not so sure about the rest of the world.

Electronic junk or "spam" is one of the curses of the age and it is often a major challenge to find useful information buried in the dross.

For instance, messages arrive regularly from Nigeria seeking to lure me into various financial scams and, although it was nice of her to ask me, I felt unable to accept Jessy's offer of participation in a "red hot slut sex-fest."

Where will it all end?

This avalanche of e-mail rubbish was unheard of a few years ago and I can see it getting much worse before it gets better.

As Luddites do, I fully expect the whole world-wide electronic system to become so overloaded one day that it crashes, causing untold chaos.

Office workers in Liverpool, meanwhile, no doubt look forward to Wednesdays and their trip back from the future.

Is this a sign that some human beings are beginning to realise that there is a limit to technological dependence?

Take mobile phones.

Although it is annoying to sit behind people on the train/bus listening to people telling loved ones that they are on the bus/train, the mobile is one of the more useful inventions in recent times.

But will it ever catch on widely as the all-singing, all-dancing communications medium which will enable you to send pictures, access the Internet, read newspaper reports and sort out your personal banking? Maybe not.

A recent survey produced bad news for the beleaguered telecommunications firms. Most of those quizzed suggested that the handsets were best used for a particular purpose -- making phone calls.

It is probably only a matter of time before a bored teenager somewhere develops a fiendishly clever virus which leaves us all gazing helplessly at blank screens.

IT is always fascinating to learn about the things which go on in other offices. Liverpool City Council has banned the use of internal e-mails on Wednesdays in an attempt to encourage staff to talk to each other.

Management fads come and go, but this ground-breaking concept might just catch on. The council says the experiment, designed to make council business flow more efficiently, involves people being encouraged to pick up their phones and perhaps even get up from their desks and talk to someone face to face.

Only on Wednesdays, though.

During the rest of the week they are presumably expected to continue communicating with colleagues through the computer on the desk which dispenses with the need for human contact.

As the proud owner, still, of an Imperial Good Companion 6 portable typewriter, I have always been sceptical about some of the claims made for new technology.

In fact, I was the only person in the office to write "Luddites Rule OK!" when we were first confronted with computer screens.

To this day, although I grudgingly admit that the machines can be pretty amazing, I am often to be heard suggesting that communication was quicker in the good old days of pigeons and cleft sticks.

The problem for many modern office workers is the sheer weight of e-mails which need attention.

I like to think I use e-mail sparingly and reasonably sensibly, but I am not so sure about the rest of the world.

Electronic junk or "spam" is one of the curses of the age and it is often a major challenge to find useful information buried in the dross.

For instance, messages arrive regularly from Nigeria seeking to lure me into various financial scams and, although it was nice of her to ask me, I felt unable to accept Jessy's offer of participation in a "sex-fest".

Where will it all end?

This avalanche of e-mail rubbish was unheard of a few years ago and I can see it getting much worse before it gets better.

As Luddites do, I fully expect the whole world-wide electronic system to become so overloaded one day that it crashes, causing untold chaos.

Office workers in Liverpool, meanwhile, no doubt look forward to Wednesdays and their trip back from the future.

Is this a sign that some human beings are beginning to realise that there is a limit to technological dependence?

Take mobile phones.

Although it is annoying to sit behind people on the train/bus listening to people telling loved ones that they are on the bus/train, the mobile is one of the more useful inventions in recent times.

But will it ever catch on widely as the all-singing, all-dancing communications medium which will enable you to send pictures, access the Internet, read newspaper reports and sort out your personal banking? Maybe not.

A recent survey produced bad news for the beleaguered telecommunications firms. Most of those quizzed suggested that the handsets were best used for a particular purpose -- making phone calls.