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"I can remember when the first pulsars were discovered. I was able to go and sit down and listen to graduate students talking about what their theories, to explain what pulsars really were."
- Vernor Vinge

Hotdesk  
  A desk space that was itself ready for input.  

Just a term, really; not a lot of explanation. The concept, it seems to me, is that of a desk that has all of the functions of a modern cubicle built-in: phone, computer, network access, and so forth.

She propped her feet on the ledge of a hotdesk. She wore meticulous little reproductions of lineman's boots, buckled across the instep and stoutly laced to the ankle.
Technovelgy from Idoru, by William Gibson.
Published by Putnam in 1996
Additional resources -

As a person who has spent a considerable part of his life in cubicles, I'm trying to imagine one that would be higher tech and more interesting. So, rather than thinking of a computer as something you add to a cubicle, imagine sitting in the computer or being surrounded by it. The calendar on your wall? A flat panel display with a touch screen. The phone? Can't even see it; you come in and the cube tells you what you missed, including emails. Sit at the desk anywhere, and a keyboard is projected from little ports onto the desk surface; your finger motions tell what needs to be typed in (or dialed, in the case of a phone number).

When will Steelcase get together with Gateway and produce the hotcube? Only time will tell.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Idoru
  More Ideas and Technology by William Gibson
  Tech news articles related to Idoru
  Tech news articles related to works by William Gibson

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