ABSTRACT
In a digital world, the division of labor across persons is very different from traditional role divisions in most areas of production. Driving forces behind the reshuffling are two developments that are part of the digital revolution. First, digitization of products, services, and communication results removes spatial constraints on production. There is much less necessity to transport goods and people physically from one place to another as part of the regular work flow if goods are digital and people can manipulate these online. As an example, compare the way a newspaper article is written today with how it was produced yesterday. The journalist sends an electronic copy of an article from anywhere in the world to a store that can be accessed by editors who finish a final version. Only this version has to assume the form of a hard copy; all previous manipulations have been carried out on digital proxies. Neither is there any physical product until the press release of the paper containing the article, nor has any physical transport of the would-be product taken place. Digital copies and remote access, then, have rendered separation and distribution of tasks obsolete.
