Future Work Center Updated

The Center for Information Work, a Microsoft showcase for advanced workplace technology, has been recently updated with new software and hardware. Located in the Executive Briefing Center (EBC) at Microsoft’s Redmond, WA, headquarters, the center shows customers and partners some long-term research priorities of the Information Worker organization, which develops Office, Project, and SharePoint products.

As before, the center takes visitors (80% of whom are customer executives attending other briefings at the EBC) through a role-playing scenario in a futuristic office environment, intended to represent a possible workplace five to seven years in the future. The three-year-old center has showcased several design ideas that eventually appeared in products, including voice and presence integration (supported by the Communicator client product) and the RingCam table-mounted camera and software for digital conferencing (soon to be launched as a product called Roundtable).

The center’s new scenario simulates taking a new drug into clinical trials. Hardware featured includes a large display made up of 35-inch flat panels, and the Digidesk, a touch-sensitive display in the form of an inclined table. Software concepts include a Desktop Assistant that integrates various forms of communication (including e-mail, voice, and fax) into a calendar timeline; “implicit query” search, which automatically pulls up documents related to incoming e-mail; and 3D visualization of workflow processes.