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| Rebuilding Workplace Strategies |
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| Many business organizations are now tackling reform at a time
when information technology and markets are rapidly changing. Such changes sometimes
affect business organizations and are responsible for even converting their business
systems. At the same time, there is increasing diversification arising in the
choice of workplaces, which constitute a considerable part of management resources
of such organizations. Now is the time for them to rebuild their strategies for
the future, with a wide spectrum of workplace options which even extend to the
outside of the organization. |
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Sun Microsystems/ San Francisco, California, USA |
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| Network of Workplaces |
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| Sun Microsystems (referred to as Sun) skyrocketed
from a venture firm in Silicon Valley to a world-wide high-tech company. They
have been conducting in-house surveys and pilot programs since the beginning of
the 90s in search for models of working environments and workstyles that best
fit the age of knowledge work. iWork is a conclusion drawn from their abundant
data and experiences. Scott McNealy, who was among the founders of Sun and has
served as CEO for many years, describes iWork's vision in the following way. "The
network is the computer. The network is your office. You really work on the network,
you don't work in some little cubicle or walled office. iWork is an office which
appears wherever and whenever you need one." |
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| Sun
Microsystems/ Menlo Park, Santa Clara & San Francisco, California, USA |
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| Hot Coffee Served with Hot Spot |
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| In the recent usage, "hot spot" refers
to services offering connections with the internet indoors as well as outdoors
using wireless LAN or Bluetooth. Starbucks, which runs coffeehouses globally,
started this service at its locations last August. Allied with T-Mobile, which
has the world largest wireless communication network, "HotSpot service"
is "a natural extension of Starbucks' original service of offering people
spaces where they can gather and exchange information over cups of coffee"
according to Howard Schultz, Starbucks Chairman. Now Starbucks coffeehouses have
become satellite offices dispersed in town. |
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| Starbucks/
Seattle, Washington, USA |
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| Hot Spot for Real Time Business |
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| John L. Scott Real Estate (referred to as JLS),
with its headquarters in the suburbs of Seattle, ranks fourth as a locally based
real estate company. To JLS, which has 115 offices in Washington State, Oregon
State and Idaho State, Starbucks is an indispensable partner. Its 3,000 agents
are equipped with wireless tools and take advantage of Starbucks' HotSpot service,
so that in field work, they are in the same information environment as they are
in offices. |
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| John L. Scott Real Estate/ Seattle, Washington,
USA |
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| The multiplication of "Hotspots" allows
people to access Internet outside of offices and homes through broadband wireless
LAN. At this stage, however, hotspots are located only in public and commercial
facilities such as cafes, stations, airports and libraries. They are not yet ubiquitous.
NYCwireless featured here advocates the spread of the wireless network throughout
New York. And that free of charge. Many parks including Bryant Park and street
corners have already become hotspots. In the near future, the time may come when
mobile workers can open their laptop computers anywhere and freely access Internet. |
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| NYCwireless/
New York, New York, USA |
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| A New Paradigm of Commercial Space |
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| The spectacular advance of communication technology
has ushered in an era where business activities take place without office or shop
spaces. Not everything is done virtually, however. A sense of security and assurance
arises when there is direct contact between those who offer services and those
who receive them. There are images which can be communicated only through physical
spaces. ING Direct, a firm who has grown rapidly by offering savings and loan
products without fees or minimums online or by telephone, thought of creating
a space where they could interact with customers. They opened a cafe instead of
a conventional branch. ING Direct Cafe is a new combination of business and commercial
space, which transcends the conventional paradigm. |
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| ING
Direct Cafe/ New York, New York, USA |
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| CRE and Workplaces Strategy in Turbulent
Times |
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| The role of CRE (Corporate Real Estate) has been
undergoing a big change in a turbulent business environment. CORENET, the largest
professional organization in the field of CRE, is a vast treasure-house of updated
knowledge and leaders. Its Global Summit was held in San Diego in November 2002,
attracting 3,000 professionals, in search of the newest trends and information.
The article summarizes some highlights of the Summit. |
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| Experimenting Future Learning |
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| SLL (Stanford Learning Lab), featured in ECIFFO
40, was established on the campus of Stanford University for the purpose of innovating
learning methods for students. In 2002, it was dissolved into a new institution,
SCIL (Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning). Its headquarters, Wallenberg
Hall, was inaugurated in September in the same year. The building packed with
facilities to develop and experiment new learning methods based on teamwork, illuminates
the way the office will evolve in future. |
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| SCIL/
Palo Alto, California, USA |
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| Creating Collaborative Environment |
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| Knowledge workers get together, exchange ideas
and collaborate to create something. knOwhere is a space especially catering to
such workshops. It is a unique firm which supports workshops across the board
in terms of both hardware and software through a program specially developed to
find solutions or through original furniture which allow free reconfiguration. |
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| knOwhere/
Palo Alto, California, USA |
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