The author, Erick Schonfeld, has an office problem. He's "shuttling between a Manhattan office building (for reporting and meetings) and his home office (for writing and thinking)."
So he's looking at new kind of office designed by Steelcase and IBM. These two companies are "trying to improve the workspace by mixing architecture, furniture design, and technology."
BlueSpace is a joint research project between IBM and Steelcase (SCS). Borrowing from disciplines as diverse as ergonomics, ethnography, and data management, BlueSpace is an attempt to create an utterly malleable, completely adaptable office.
BlueSpace is really just a start. Other technologies that Steelcase is exploring could enhance the digital office even further.
One day, you'll be able to plug any surface into the Internet. Every wall, for instance, could have a display or act as an electronic whiteboard. "In effect, architecture becomes the technology," says Steelcase's Greiner. He imagines remote meetings taking place between groups of people in different locations, each of which has electronic whiteboard walls connected to the Internet. "If you write something," he explains, "it shows up on the walls in the other rooms. It's as if you're there, as a ghost."
Source: Erick Schonfeld, Business 2.0, June 7, 2002
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