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In the course of our research and knowledge production activities we prepare several proprietary reports each year for our members and other clients. While those reports are produced exclusively for Future of Work members, we occasionally condense them to produce summary documents that we can share with the larger community. As these white papers become available, we will post them here.

WIRED West Michigan

In May 2007 we completed Phase I of our innovation project that is a key component of the WIRED West Michigan project. Our research, which in this project is public domain, included the production of three working papers that we are pleased to make available here:

Market Segmentation and Development for Remote Work Centers

This paper describes the concept of a shared workplace, proposes a typology of shared work centers and describes the types of knowledge workers who might make use of a remote work center (or, as we prefer, a "Business Community Center^TM).

Knowledge Work and Knowledge Workers

This paper is a response to the question, "What is a knowledge worker?" that was raised during the WIRED project. We also address the idea of location-neutral workers and discuss what kinds of jobs would be appropriate (or inappropriate) candidates for membership in a remote work center.

What Attracts Knowledge Workers?

This paper explores the attributes of communities that make them attractive to knowledge workers. Building on the important insights of Daniel Pink in A Whole New Mind (xx, 2006), we propose six characteristics of a community that, if well-developed, will induce talented knowledge workers to want to live there.

How Come Distributed Work is Still the Next Big Thing?

This white paper is a consolidation of a three-part series of articles we published in Future of Work Agenda (our free monthly newsletter)in the fall of 2006. It addresses the question in its title: Why has it taken so long for distributed work to become widely accepted and practiced? We first identify a number of reasons why we believe distributed work should be more widely practiced. Then we suggest several factors in corporate culture and management assumptions that mitigate against acceptance. Finally, in the third section, we offer guidelines and principles for organizations interested in implementing distributed work programs.

Understanding Distributed Work

An overview of the attributes of distributed work, with a particular emphasis on the three primary dimensions that distributed workers must cross: space, time, and organizational boundaries. Provides several key models and frameworks for describing distributed work.

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Photo provided by Neal Zimmerman, author of "At Work At Home"