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We want this Repository to become a powerful resource for the entire Future of Work community.

If you have written or have found articles or papers published by others that you would like to share, please send them to us (at jim@thefutureofwork.net) and we'll post them here (Note: Do not send copyrighted materials without permission. However, we are happy to post URL links to other websites where materials copyrighted by others can be found).

Check here frequently to see what's new. For now we are including summaries of Corporate Member Roundtable Meetings, a compilation of white papers and research working notes that we have prepared, links to the Members-Only Teleconference Archives, and public links to the Future of Work Agenda newsletter Archives and our current collection of reprints of articles we've written for other publications. We're also including articles submitted by members of our Future of Work community. And we'll be adding lots more over time.

Roundtable Meeting Summaries

Fall 2006 Roundtable
This meeting was hosted by Jones Lang LaSalle and the GSA in Chicago, Illinois, on March 4-5, 2006.
Summary Report
This brief overview report includes links to most of the formal presentations that were the focus of our roundtable conversations. More importantly, it also includes links to online recordings of the majority of our working sessions. Note: the recordings are relatively rough, and are unedited. They were made with a single iPod microphone. They're not great, but we figured they are better than nothing.

Spring 2005 Roundtable
This meeting was hosted by Hewlett Packard in Cupertino, California, on March 9-10, 2005.
Summary Report

Fall 2004 Roundtable
This meeting was hosted by Agilent Technologies in Santa Rose, California, on October 20-21, 2004. Herman Miller generously sponsored the group dinner on October 20.
Summary Report

Proprietary White Papers and Special Articles

This collection of white papers, thought pieces, (including selected articles published by WDC with other copyrights) is available for download by Future of Work members.

"Back to the Future: Small Cities, Small Planes, Big Deal"(August 2006)

Our research on the growing tendency for knowledge workers to prefer living in smaller exurban and rural communities led us to discover that there is an unreognized technology on the verge of transforming the American landscape - very light jets. We're about to enter an era of "air taxis" that will be able to transport people directly from one community to another, bypassing the existing "hub and spoke" air traffic systems and providing medium-distance transportation at hitherto unknown low cost.

We believe the advent of a national network of air taxis will have a dramatic impact on regional economies. This white paper is a preliminary analysis of how air taxis may affect people's choices about where to live.

Measuring the Business Value of Distributed Work

The original version of this white paper was prepared in 2005 as part of a research contract funded by the Gaines Foundation. We have since edited it somewhat to reflect more recent research and the conversations about workplace productivity and effectiveness that have occurred at Future of Work Member Roundtables.

"Using Shadowing to Build Creativity and Continuity"(July 2004)

This article, co-authored by Corporate Member Gloria Young and Stanford University/John Gardner Fellowship intern Amanda Kahn, was published in the July 2004 issue of Knowledge Management Review. It describes the process that Gloria and Amanda developed to build deep understanding of the "grammar of work" at San Francisco's City Hall and to create effective succession plans for key executives.

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Article Reprints and Other Public Files

These materials are available to the general public. We include links to the Future of Work Agenda newsletter Archives and our compilation of reprints of articles we've written for other publications.

Teleconference Archives

These Archives include (in reverse chronological order) selected audio recordings of Executive Roundtable Teleconferences held in 2004 and 2005. Most of the files are in .mp3 format, although prior to 2005 we recorded in RealAudio format. If you do not have RealAudio player installed on your computer you can download it here.

Alternatively we are finding that iTunes and Quicktime are also incredibly easy to use (and both are available for either a Mac or a PC).

Note that if you have a Pop-Up blocker installed you may need to disable it (or hold down the Control Key) as you click on each Teleconference file.

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Future of Work Members Teleconference
December 15, 2005

This call was an open conversation with Future of Work members. We discussed three specific topics:

1. Update on the research into the viability of forming a new industry association focused on distributed work
2. Update on the 2006 World Congress on the Future of Work
3. Questions about corporate concierge services from Donna Biskys of Agilent Technologies

Left-click here for a Recording of the one-hour call
(Please be patient; it may take a minute or two for the recording to begin playing, depending on your broadband speed and audio player.)

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Future of Work Corporate Members Leadership Forum
November 10, 2005

This Leadership Forum featured a conversation with Toni Kistner, Vice President of Business Development for Capital Gaines Investments, LLC, and a small business member of Future of Work. As most of our members know, Toni was for several years the editor of the "Telework Beat" online column for Network World. She left Network World earlier this year to join Capital Gaines, where she is working with founder Jerry Gaines to promote distributed work in all its forms. Toni is also the author of the FanningOut blog.

Toni opened the conversation by focusing our attention on a significant challenge to the future of distributed work: the potential for double state taxation of distributed workers. As you may know, the Supreme Court recently refused to review a lower court decision to let stand New York's legal right to tax 100% of a Tennessee resident's income from a New York-based employer (he was a long-distance telecommuter who spends less than a week a month in New York but must nevertheless pay New York income taxes on his full income).

We also posted a note about that decision on our blog recently: "Telecommuting a Takes a Body Blow."

We urge you to read the blog post and listen to this conversation. We believe this issue is going to become increasingly prominent in the news and to have a growing impact on corporate recruiting and relocation decisions.

Click here for a Recording of the Fifty-Minute Call
(Please be patient; it may take a minute or two for the recording to begin playing, depending on your broadband speed and audio player.)

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Future of Work Members Teleconference
September 22, 2005

This call was an open conversation with Future of Work members. We explored several specific ideas for making the membership more valuable and more relevant for our small business/individual members.

The two most specific ideas that emerged from the conversation were: (1) to launch a weekly Question/Answer email broadcast and group weblog that would enable our members to engage in online dialogues about major professional issues, and over time to build an online knowledge base. The call participants were very supportive of the proposal (which was initiated by Lynne Lewicki of StoneBlue LLC), and saw it as a good means of getting better acquainted with each other as well as developing a solid network of both ideas and professional resources to draw on.

(2) The second proposal, forwarded by Jim Ware, was that we move the Future of Work member directory from the private side of the web site to the public side, so that it can become a resource directory and marketing opportunity for members. There was unanimous support for the idea, and we are moving ahead to redesign it in a way that will give members complete control over which and how much information they choose to share (including of course links to their own individual websites).

Click here for a Recording of the Fifty-Minute Call
(Please be patient; it may take a minute or two for the recording to begin playing, depending on your broadband speed and audio player.)

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Future of Work Corporate Members Leadership Forum Teleconference
August 25, 2005
Research Update

This was a relatively informal (for us) teleconference that focused on two current research initiatives. We first discussed the recent Work Environment Measurement Practices survey that a number of member firms completed in late July/early August (as a prelude to the September Members' Roundtable Meeting, where workplace effectiveness will be discussed in much greater depth).

Following that conversation, we then briefly described our desire to update the 2003 Future of Work Workforce Survey and conduct a new round of data collection. Again, this topic will be dealt with in much greater depth at the September Members' Roundtable meeting.

Note: we have emailed all Future of Work corporate members supplementary materials about both efforts.

And one suggestion: before you begin listening to the recording, we recommend that you open and/or download the Workplace Metrics Executive Summary file, which is available at:

Work Environment Measurement Practices - Summary of Preliminary Findings

Click here for a Recording of the Forty-Minute Call

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Future of Work Members Teleconference
June 23, 2005

The Future of the Information Workplace
A conversation with Erica Rugullies

This was an important and intriguing conversation about the evolution of collaborative technologies and the platforms they rely on. Erica is a Senior Analyst at Forrester Research. Her presentation began by describing the very familiar problem we all face of having to use several different, independent applications to get one "simple" task done. Forrester's vision is of a fully integrated, seamless, interconnected set of web-based applications that puts us as end users in the drivers' seat instead of having to do all the IT integration ourselves.

One unfortunate note: because of a technical error by our teleconferencing service, the recording did not begin until about 20 minutes into the call. We regret there is nothing we can do to recapture those first 20 minutes. The recording picks up as Erica is completing her comments about slide #10.

And one suggestion: before you begin listening to the recording, we recommend that you open and/or download Erica's presentation file, which is available at:

The Future of the Information Workplace

Click here for a Recording of the One-Hour Call

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Corporate Members Leadership Forum Teleconference
May 19, 2005

This Leadership Forum teleconference included two open conversations. The first was a brief overview of key learnings from the 2005 World Congress on the Future of Work, drawn primarily from Charlie's review of the Delegate's table notes (Charlie will be preparing a more formal written summary over the next several weeks).

The second half of the call centered around the members' continuing interest in developing new and more powerful measurements of workplace effectiveness.

The outcome of that second conversation was a general agreement to collaborate over the next several months on an inventory of what workplace measures Future of Work members are currently using. We will devote a major portion of the Fall Members Roundtable (September 12-14 at Herman Miller in Zeeland, Michigan) to member presentations on current workplace performance measurement practices, and to developing an approach for extending and enhancing those metrics into a benchmarking exercise to help us learn from each other.

Click here for a recording of the One-Hour Call

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Corporate Members Leadership Forum Teleconference
February 3, 2005

This Leadership Forum teleconference focused on the development of human capital - and, more importantly, how to measure human capital development and link it to business performance.

Charlie Grantham and Jim Ware engaged in a wide-ranging conversation with Susan Cantrell of Accenture's Institute for High Performance Business.

The conversation focused on a measurement framework that Accenture has developed; the framework links human capital development activities to business performance through a series of linkages. Accenture has conducted some early empirical research to validate the framework and is eager to continue developing the model through collaborative efforts with other Future of Work members.

An audio recording of this conversation, along with Susan's presentation materials, is available by special request. Please contact Jim Ware to obtain a copy of the file.

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All-Member "Open Mike" Teleconference
December 9, 2004

This open-agenda teleconference included a wide-ranging discussion of how to measure workplace effectiveness as well a continuation of the November 18 conversation exploring the interactions among technology, creativity, and workspace design.

An audio recording of this conversation is available by special request. Please contact Jim Ware to obtain a copy of the file.

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Corporate Members Leadership Forum Teleconference
November 18, 2004

This Leadership Forum teleconference focused on the impact of technology, people, and workspace design on creativity.

Charlie Grantham and Jim Ware engaged in a wide-ranging conversation with Mikael Nilsson of the Sense Studio within the Interactive Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. The Work Design Collaborative has just agreed to partner with Mikael and his colleagues in an eight-month joint research project focused on two major questions:

What is the relationship between creativity, people, and the design of office space?
What is the relationship between technology, people, and the design of office space?

This conversation was about the questions and the issues, not the research project itself. Note: we had some technical difficulty with the teleconference that prevented Members from joining in the conversation until the last 20 minutes of the call. However, once the conversation was widened to include everyone, the intensity and value of the conversation picked up by an order of magnitude or two.

An audio recording of this conversation is available by special request. Please contact Jim Ware to obtain a copy of the file.

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Individual Members Teleconference
September 9, 2004

This teleconference was an "open mike" conversation among several individual members of the Future of Work Community.

This conversation ranged over a wide variety of topics, with a particular focus on how we can make better use of the Future of Work website to share ideas, experiences, and concerns about the future of work in general, and our community in particular. In particular we brainstormed some more effective ways to use the blog and other resources to create a broader and deeper understanding of each other's interests and experiences.

An audio recording of this conversation is available by special request. Please contact Jim Ware to obtain a copy of the file.

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Leadership Forum Teleconference
People and Place: A conversation with Sara Beckman and Arnold Wasserman.
September 9, 2004

Jim Ware engaged with Professors Sara Beckman and Arnold Wassserman in an open conversation about the relationship between physical spaces and work patterns, with a particular focus on how to foster creativity and collaboration through workplace design. Among the questions we discussed were:

• What is the history of workplace design? Where did all those cubes come from?
• How does the physical layout and "feel" of a workplace affect individual and group productivity? creativity? collaboration?
• What principles are most important in designing workplaces that foster creativity and innovation?

An audio recording of this conversation is available by special request. Please contact Jim Ware to obtain a copy of the file.

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Leadership Forum Teleconference
Managing Distributed Teams: A conversation with Pamela Hinds.
June 24, 2004

Members engaged with Professor Hinds in an open conversation about the life cycles of teams, focusing in particular on the interplay between distributed electronic communication and face-to-face meetings. Among the questions we discussed were:

An audio recording of this conversation is available by special request. Please contact Jim Ware to obtain a copy of the file.

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Corporate Members "Open Mike" Teleconference
June 10, 2004

This conversation was a regularly scheduled "open agenda" teleconference for Corporate Members of the Future of Work Community.

Charlie Grantham led the conversation, which covered a wide range of topics, from which technologies to invest in, to how to maintain community in a distributed organization, to what kinds of offices best support what kinds of work.

An audio recording of this conversation is available by special request. Please contact Jim Ware to obtain a copy of the file.

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Individual Members Organizing Call
May 25, 2004

This conversation was a brainstorming session among the new individual members of the Future of Work Community.

We discussed our vision for the community, including the new Members-Only portion of the web site. More importantly, we developed several new ideas of how we can work together and what kind of activities we want to make happen.

An audio recording of this conversation is available by special request. Please contact Jim Ware to obtain a copy of the file.

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