NetWORK News 7/29/10

The next evolution of NewWOW
A persistent question throughout the last symposium on Social Media and New Ways of Working was "How should New WOW take advantage of this new tool?" With our existing model of a core of corporate members, we have enjoyed slow and steady growth since our beginning four and one half years ago to reach sixteen corporate members. Assuming this growth rate, the core membership could grow to forty members in five years.

But our present model only involves a small portion of a larger community who may not be sufficiently "expert" to want to be members of the core membership but are interested in new ways of working. These include those directly concerned with the planning, design and management of workplaces--corporate real estate managers, architects, technologists, organizational designers--but also a larger community of business managers and workers who interested in or dealing with new ways of working. The next evolution of New WOW will include this larger community. The core of New WOW, the expert corporate members, consultant and academic colleagues will continue, but a new outer community of interested professionals, called the Community, will be added.

Professionals will be able to join the NewWOW Community free after registering basic information. They will have access to the weekly NetWORK News, portions of the NewWOW website, their own discussion threads, research publications (some of which would be sold), and resumes of the members.

This new community will help us promote the NewWOW brand, refer us to new core members, publicize our research findings and other services, and give us insights into the interests and issues of a larger group.

A discussion of this model is especially important now as we are finally engaging a graphic designer and web programmer to rebrand and redesign our website.

We'd be interested to know what you think about this idea. Please post your thoughts at: http://www.newwow.net/members/node/1720

2010 - 2011 research schedule
Plans are underway for a rigorous research effort next year. We've also selected dates for the next two symposia and Tertulias. Thanks to our members who completed our poll (see http://www.newwow.net/members/node/1713#comment-1096 for results), we identified several topics of interest and selected the top choices for further investigation.

Two key topics will be developed into white papers:

• Measuring Work and Work Performance – January 2011
  
• Innovation and New Ways of Working - May 2011

SAVE THESE DATES:

• September 23, 2010 - Roundtable (virtual) – Topic: "Problem – You Need to Increase Your Workforce by 50% While Shrinking Real Estate Holdings, How Do You Do It?"
  
• December 9, 2010 - Roundtable (virtual) – Topic: "Innovation and New Ways of Working– What Are the Key Issues We Need to Address?"
  
• February 6-9, 2011 - Symposium (California) – "Measuring Work and Work Performance"
  
• April 7, 2011 – Roundtable (virtual) – Topic to be announced
  
• June 2011 (Date and place to be announced) – "Innovation and New Ways of Working – What We've Learned About the Key Issues"

Watch your newsletter and check our Events Calendar for updates.

Featured study: Telework in the European Union 2010
We're grateful to Matti Vartiainen for uploading the latest report on European telework. The report assesses the incidence of telework across the 27 EU Members States and Norway, examines the regulatory framework for telework and looks at issues concerning employment and working conditions. The growth trend definitely points up. In 2000, the overall average proportion of employees involved in telework was about 5.3% in the 'older' 15 EU Member States (EU15) and 4.2% in the then candidate countries. In 2005, the overall proportion had increased to 7% for the entire EU27. The country with the highest number of teleworkers? The Czech Republic (15.2% of workers telework for a quarter of the time or more). Download a copy of the study: http://www.newwow.net/members/node/1711

More news this week:

• President urges Fed workers to reduce commute, travel less
  President Obama announced that the Federal Government plans to reduce greenhouse gas pollution from indirect sources, such as employee travel and commuting, by 13% by 2020. The Federal government is the single largest energy consumer in the country, managing nearly 500,000 buildings and has a fuel bill that tops $24 billion.
  http://www.newwow.net/members/node/584#comment-1094

• Steelcase studies generation Y in the workplace
  We summarize an interview with Sudhakar Lahade, senior design researcher at Steelcase, who shared his ideas on why companies should invest in better workplace design. He talked with a reporter from LiveMint.com about the recent Steelcase survey, "Generation Y in the Workplace," that compared workplace preferences across companies in India, China and the US. http://www.newwow.net/members/node/1721

• Camp innovation
  A BusinessWeek story gave an inside look into how Amdocs, a $3 billion software and services company, runs its "innovation camp." Four days of intense structured activities developed hundreds of new ideas – all for less than $100,000, not including staff time away from the office. http://www.newwow.net/members/node/1712

• Status of U.S. telework bill
  According to a report on Federal News Radio this week, there's "a very real possibility" that the 2010 Telework Enhancement Act will get passed this term. For more on this bill's progress, and links to track the Senate and House versions of the measure, see:
  http://www.newwow.net/members/node/615#comment-1095