Posts Tagged ‘Technology’
June 7th, 2010 in Trends No Comments
Beyond the cube, workplace design now embraces such lofty concepts as enhancing communication, facilitating work-in-process, managing technology and providing an up-to-date alternative to “cube life”. Sound too easy? Let’s break it down. 
- Planning principals begin with storage and work surfaces, not cubicle panels.
- Natural light is shared and collaboration is enhanced.
- Work in Progress is displayed & organized as the user wants it.
- Wires, cords and connections are smartly managed and easily accessible.
Access to natural light can be increased by lowering panel height. If privacy is then an issue, incorporate translucent privacy screens. (more…)
June 7th, 2010 in Design No Comments
Gone are the workplace concepts of the 1970’s. Floor plan designs created isolating and non-stimulating environments. Physical barriers of cubicle design, circulation patterns, and the lack of daylight views for most employees blend together to inhibit collaboration and inspiration.
Teams are therefore slower complete tasks, thus affecting team, and individual results.
Workplaces also must be reinvented to accommodate new technologies, beyond just the impact of wireless technology. New hardware and software is causing workers to think and behave differently, and therefore, accomplish daily tasks in a new way. (more…)
July 25th, 2009 in Trends 1 Comment
The proliferation of touch screens on electronic devices over the past several years has included mobile phones (notably Apple’s iPhone), satellite navigation systems and portable game consoles. Now, according to this article, PCs will soon join the crowd. The author points out that Microsoft has already demonstrated a prototype of the next version of its flagship operating system based around “multi-touch” capabilities that allow a touch screen to sense more than one finger at once. Soon one will be able to press buttons, tap icons, call up windows and rotate and stretch onscreen objects using two fingers at a time. Apple, for its part, has put multi-touch track pads on its laptop computers and is rumored to be working on touch screens for its next line of computers. (more…)
May 31st, 2009 in Technology, Trends No Comments
In an ideal world, employees would eagerly anticipate each written company communiqué; spend their free time exploring the corporate intranet’s self-service feature and curl up with the detailed company newsletter. The reality of today’s workplace, however, is different. This article notes that employees now get instant messages on their cell phones on the bus to work while they’re reading their e-mail. They’re watching TV programs on their computer screens, browsing the Internet on their TVs and getting quick updates from friends while Facebooking, YouTubing and Twittering. New technologies have created new media trends “that are changing expectations for how, why and when employees receive information.” Companies are advised to keep up or risk their messages to employees will be left behind. (more…)
April 15th, 2009 in Technology No Comments
This article alerts readers to two new tools that can turn mobile broadband connections into veritable Wi-Fi hot spots. Novaters Mifi is a device with a built-in broadband connection, allowing purchasers to buy one subscription for the Mifi and then pass it around to their employees. It supports five users with a 30 foot range and is sold through wireless carriers for around $200.
Netgear’s 3G Broadband Wireless Router runs about $130, plugs into a USB modem or laptop and allows up to 64 people to share one person’s connection. The author notes, however, that Netgear recommends a 25 person limit. The range is 125 feet.
Source: Staff, Inc, Apr, 2009
April 13th, 2009 in Buildings, Technology No Comments
Current construction practice has a building’s different utility systems – electrical, heating and cooling, water, surveillance, access control, fire alarms and voice and data networks – being installed by experts in each area with little communication between them. The systems have different cabling and software as well as closed protocols, meaning only the installing companies can modify or repair the systems they install. Most systems are not Internet protocol (IP) that allows data to be sent or received over the Internet. (more…)
January 17th, 2009 in Technology No Comments
For years the computer industry followed Moore’s Law, derived from an observation made in 1965 by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, that the cost of a given amount of computing power falls by half roughly every 18 months, meaning that the amount of computing power available at a particular price doubles over the same period. This article finds that partly because of the current recession and partly because the industry is maturing, with current hardware and software adequate for most common business tasks, customers are looking for the flip side of Moore’s law – instead of ever-increasing performance at a particular price, they want a particular level of performance at an ever-decreasing price. (more…)
September 26th, 2008 in Technology No Comments
According to this communication by Forrester Research, 21 percent of US adults currently work from home, while 80 percent of business travel organizers polled in 2008 believe business travel is set to increase exponentially over the next 12 months. The author believes that this shift is helping to launch a new generation of communications tools to efficiently and effectively address changing business needs. One example of this change is the replacement of landline telephones with cell phones. Twenty percent of US adults do not have landline phone service in their home, with most of these relying on cell phones for communication. Another is the increased use of data card-equipped laptops that offer flexibility that a cable-tethered PC does not. (more…)
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