Selected articles from back issues.
The Art of Innovation
Since its inception in 1991, IDEO has been a leader in the design world, creating a series of hit products such as the first Apple Computer mouse and Polaroid I-Zone Instant Camera. Where does its creative power come from? How does it orient its overflowing power of creation to innovation? Such queries intrigue not only the design industry but also the business world as a whole. The Art of Innovation, published in February, 2001, profusely reveals such secrets. In the following interview, Tom Kelley, author of the book and IDEO General Manager, talks about the IDEO magic.
Sharing Contextual Information
A team of professionals, whose total effect exceeds the sum of its parts. What kind of space can support their workstyle? The advance of informational technology has removed spatial and temporal restrictions and the structural shift towards digital economy has deconstructed traditional corporate organizations. In such a milieu, the individual members of a project team formed for a variety of missions must work towards a common goal in spite of their diverse backgrounds, and effectively combine different skills to lend themselves to achievements. In this article, how to design a space which serve as the homebase for such teams is proposed.
WORK NAKED
"If the management is willing to let employees 'work in pajamas', the company will be getting the most of its organizational potential." This is the theme running through Work Naked, recently published by Cynthia Froggatt, a workplace strategy consultant. ECIFFO interviewed her at Manhattan Upper West Side to hear why she wrote this book which offers tips on how to improve performances at virtual workplaces.
TURN IT OFF
E-mail, voice mail, mobile phones....Advancing technology, while expanding the boundary of virtual offices, can be a heavy constraint on people's life. How can we find a balance between work life and private life in this technological modern world? Gil Gordon talks about it referring to his recently published book Turn It Off. He is a forerunner and expert in the field of teleworking.
What's Next?
DEGW, a world leader in office design and consulting, has designed many leading-edge offices, some of which were covered in ECIFFO 34 and are still fresh in the memory of our readers. In this issue, the first in the 21st century, ECIFFO interviewed Francis Duffy, Founder, Despina Katsikakis, Managing Partner, Worldwide, and Andrew Harrison, Director of Research & Methods, focusing on the future of the office and the current challenges it faces.
The City is the Office
Now that information networks cover the entire world like a large cobweb, we don't have to be confined to our offices when we work. In such a situation, an inquiry into the future of workplace needs an approach more comprehensive than relying only on the office space as a tool of analysis. We must think in terms of a larger context such as society or life as a whole. DEGW's project, "The City is the Office", led by Andrew Harrison, is based on such an approach. It is an attempt to tap the potential of various urban locations as a workplace.
Zero-Time Space
Franklin Becker, Ph.D.
International Workplace Studies Program
Cornell University

Zero time space is space that can be procured and/or constructed and be ready for use in as short a period of time (as close to zero) as possible from when the need to occupy (or exit) a space occurs. It can be achieved physically, by new approaches to construction; organizationally, by new approaches to procurement; technologically, by exploiting the potential of information technology to enable remote work; and operationally, by new policies for allocating and using space.
WORK PLACE SUPPORTING CHANGE
Akihiro Kishimoto
Institute of Office Systems KOKUYO Co., Ltd.

Various kinds of alternative workplace have been created to support organizational changes and make organizations more adaptive to technological advances. Now that all possible options have been tried out in the last few years, we are able to see that the alternative workplace is not a minor solution applicable only to exceptional cases but an important option to help organizations change. It is now time to learn from the past experiences and formulate a prescription to help the alternative workplace function more effectively. Let us first make an overview of the background and role of organizational change and take a new look at what the workplace is capable of doing.
Adaptable Work-Settings
Akihiro Kishimoto / Institute of Office Systems, KOKUYO Co., Ltd.

To achieve the flexibility to deal with organizational and technological changes-this has been one of the challenges since the birth of the modern office. It is still as important a challenge as before, but the conditions under which the challenge is to be met are different and the methods available are also different. The diversification of workstyle has made it possible to blur the relationship among organization, work and space. The inconveniences brought about by the accelerating diversification of needs can be compensated for with the freedom gained by the disappearance of physical limitations through virtualization. From this perspective, the following article will analyze the adaptability of office interior.

Gil Gordon Interview
Mr. Telecommuting Talks About the Future of Telecommuting
Mr. Telecommuting Talks About the Future of Telecommuting

Gil Gordon became independent in 1982,after working in the recruiting division of Johnson & Johnson. He started consulting services to promote the idea of telecommuting, a virtually unknown concept at the time, and to support companies interested in the idea. But the attempt was a little ahead of the times, so that he had to support himself by consulting on recruitment services.
Currently he heads Gil Gordon Associates and has been publishing the Telecommuting Review since

THE TOOLBOX FOR ELECTRONIC NOMADS
Akihiro Kishimoto, Institute of Office Systems, Kokuyo Co., Ltd.

Electronic Nomads pursue highly mobile, non-territorial workstyles, using digitized information and electronic technology as tools. High mobility necessiates workers to carry tools and information with them, as they are constantly on the move and their destinations hardly predictable. In the meantime, the accessing to networks is becoming easier, and networks themselves are going to have functions and serve as intelligent tools. In suh a mobile work situation, what tools should be supplied and how should they be carried?

HELP YOUR SELF
Akihiro Kishimoto, Institute of Office Systems, Kokuyo Co., Ltd.

The office space can function fully only when it caters to the needs arising from the workstyle of the people using it. The function of the space can best be maintained when we leave the office renovation in the hand of the user who is most aware of the constantly changing needs of the organization an the necessity of introducing the rapidly advancing information technology. This article explores the possibility of such office interior renovation.

CLUB OFFICE
Akihiro Kishimoto, Institute of Office Systems, Kokuyo Co., Ltd.

Judging from the present trend of social change, business and information technology, occupying the mainstream workforce in the future will be those professional workers who will make the utmost use of information technology. Their workstyle will be non-territorial, unrestricted by time and place. This article proposes an image of office space which will serve as the base supporting their activities, the activities of "electronic nomads."