More and more, the new office is just not there, not any one particular where, and work involves people alone in a room with a computer. Everyone marvels at what they can do, but their answer to the old problem of how to meet people may surprise you. PNS associate editor Koren Capozza writes for New California Media, PNS' ethnic news media collaborative and web site (NCMonline.com).

SAN FRANCISCO -- In all the gushing about the high-tech economic boom, few pundits have cast even a passing glance at the private life of the industry's worker bees.

What happens to the thousands of single men shackled to a computer for 90 hours a week -- how do they foster human relationships? How do they meet women?

For some lonely dot-com professionals, the answer is online, under "escort services."

Escorts and their promoters have realized that high-tech has come at the expense of "high touch." The speed and sophistication of today's communication links have ironically made it increasingly difficult to be intimate with other people.

Online escorts tap into the needs of those who crave moments of intense, living contact -- witness the booming number of male, female, transgendered, transvestite, etc. "service providers" catering to alienated professionals.

"We love the computer nerds," says Carol Leigh (AKA Scarlott the Harlot), an escort for over 20 years and a sex worker's advocate with the Bay Area Sex Workers Advocacy Network (BAYSWAN). "They're our best customers." she adds. BAYSWAN lobbies for the legalization of sex work and advocates health and safety standards for the sex industry.

In part, the online trend reflects a shift in San Francisco where a police department cleanup campaign ousted street hookers from the Tenderloin and Union Square area. Some prostitutes moved to the Mission district where the price can go under $10 and the sex workers are widely known to be junkies.

Mirroring the situation in the city itself, street prostitutes earn very little and work in the worst neighborhoods while escorts command between $300 and $500 per hour.

"Business is expanding in the Bay Area," says Leigh. "The industry is growing in general and the sex industry is booming with it."

Doing business on the Net has multiple advantages for sex workers and johns alike: It's safer, attracts a "classier" client base, and is hidden from the watchful eye of vice cops. In the free-wheeling world of cyberspace, escorts, prostitutes, pimps and customers can communicate more efficiently and more anonymously.

As the characteristics of San Francisco's labor force change, so has the profile of johns, says Norma Hotaling, director of SAGE, a San Francisco-based non-profit that runs an innovative program, The John School, where johns are confronted by former prostitutes.

"More and more young people are seeking out prostitutes," says Hotaling, "It could be a new form of dating for young men who are isolated sitting in front of computers most waking hours."

Without even standing up, online johns can find sites that cater to their interests. San Francisco's own, www.lovings.com, boasts over 7.8 million visitors and is the Bay Area's self-proclaimed "best" online source for escorts, mistresses and masters. The site features close to one hundred women who display their assets with color photos and catchy spiels. Some pitch themselves as girlfriends-for-hire, others are more explicit with advertisements like "XXX playmate." The site's "traffic" tabulator speaks volumes to its popularity -- the digits on the site's counter spin before your eyes at the rate of about 1 hit per second.

Some women who have worked both say that though the name has more prestige, escort work is no different than the street. "You don't always sleep with the guy -- sometimes you do sexual massage or erotic dance but you always give half of what you make to whoever runs the service," says Alexandra, a Russian immigrant and former escort worker who asked to identified by only her first name.

"You get pimped just like on the streets," agrees Julie (a pseudonym), a former escort who worked with "College Coeds," a San Francisco escort agency. Both women complained that up to 70 percent of their earnings went to their agency.

The sheer volume of sites and advertisers means that online escort operations are rarely tracked by the vice squad. "Only about two thirds of the escort agencies out there have legal permits," says Bob Davis, supervisor of the SFPD vice crimes division. "It's not in my purview to comb the Internet."

For pent-up professionals, escorts can provide an invaluable service and according to BAYSWAN, online escorts are pleased to be of assistance.

"The isolated men are the best kind. The only affection they get is from their computer," says Leigh. "They're so appreciative."

Clearly sex work has found a home on the Web. And in a world increasingly defined by remote communication, face-to-face contact, affection and touch may become the decade's hottest e-commerce commodity.

SIDEBAR:

Escort web sites are not the only way to research sex online. News groups abound (alt.sex.services etc.) providing a chat forum for men to compare notes. A web site called The World Sex Guide (www.worldsexguide.com) compiles the messages into an online guidebook that gives shockingly specific advice on buying prostitutes in 110 countries.

Though some are very unhappy about online sex, those who work in the trade see the Internet as a tool for empowerment. They have used the Web to exchange information and develop organizations that function almost like trade unions.

San Francisco-based Sex Workers Advocacy Network has a site (www.bayswan.com) that connects escorts, exotic dancers and prostitutes to advocacy groups, social service agencies and lawyers. The site aims to improve conditions for sex industry workers and includes information about legal rights and police abuse. Another popular site, the Whore Activist Network (WAN), has chat rooms where sex workers can alert each other about violent johns, abusive police and other "vocational hazards."