http://www.soe.oeaw.ac.at/telework/ProjectEnglish.html 

Feasibility study for the implementation of a telework center as part of a housing project in the town of Bruck, Lower Austria.

In October 1994, the regional government of Lower Austria invited a consortium consisting of the Center for Social Innovation (CSI/Laboratory G.I.V.E.), the Research Institute for Social Economy at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and the IBM Consulting Group to conduct a feasibility study regarding the implementation of a telework center as a pilot-project within the framework of regional telematics initiatives.

The project's first step was to find out about the conditions and possibilities to place a telework center in a housing project. A carrier organisation should be installed and supplied with necessary information and support by experts, future users, and officials in order to design, build and run the telework center.

One main motive for the implementation of telematics initiatives rests upon the desire to overcome growing social problems (e.g. commuting, unemployment), as well as on the economic necessity to improve the regional infrastructure of rural areas. Therefore, telematics has become one of the hopes for future economic and social developments.

Of course, social problems cannot be solved merely by means of technical innovations, which rather raise even more questions and carry risks that need to be accompanied by social innovations. Socio-cultural as well as structural economic processes of transformation resulting from new types of organisations have to be looked at critically.

Only the well adjusted application of technical means will lead to the desired success. The effect of telematics on society depends very much on the design and organisation of its applications. All possible advantages and disadvantages need to be discussed in the planning process, weighed against each other and be brought to the best possible result. Technical aspects need to be subordinated to social ones. Specific needs of future users and the local population of the region will have to be taken into consideration. Today, the technical implementation of a telework center is no longer a problem. Of much larger relevance are the social and functional issues of the infrastructural change, which will be adressed in the concept for the telework center and the surrounding housing projects. Ecological aspects shall be regarded as well.

The specific constellation of the telework center in Bruck allows a much larger bandwidth of possibilities for design and activity than existing projects elsewhere. New chances and risks arise from combining the realms of working and living within one common infrastructure. A great advantage will be the improved working and living quality through more independence and autonomy of the users. New jobs and other ways of income are created largely by innovative "Start Ups" in the field of technology and services. Regarding the increasing tendency of globalization and rationalization such activities appear to become one possibility to prevent increasing unemployment and regional disadvantages. On the other hand, it can not be denied that "Home Based Businesses" are a danger to the individual's private sphere, communication and working habits and have destructive consequences in the long run.

We want to find out if well planned local arrangements (such as work-sharing, consensual design, better use of resources) can serve as a solution. The possibilities are almost unlimited: from shared administration to car-sharing or day care centers we find an endless number of possibilities to be taken into consideration to become part of a telework center.

A telework center's innovative character and success finally depend on the individuals and institutions who run it. The necessity of a specific local design requires the participation of those who will later use it. This is not only an essential precondition for social acceptance, but also for the optimal functioning and widespread use of the telework center by the public. By means of information campaigns, media events, workshops and discussions with all participants in the process we will try to find the optimal solution.

The telework center in Bruck an der Leitha, Lower Austria, shall serve as a model case for further telematic initiatives throughout the country. At the present state of planning it will consist of one large (separable) multi-purpose conference room, approximately 20 fulltime office-workspaces, one large room for temporary users, as well as a small kitchen and communication areas. In the basement a kindergarten, a multi-supply shop, the administration and technical support will complement the building's multifunctionality.

The final report of the feasibility study as the first of three steps towards the realization of the telework center is currently being completed.
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Cooperation Partners

G.I.V.E.  http://www.austria.eu.net/gv95/e_index.html 

G.I.V.E. is an independent research organization and part of the CSI - Centre for Social Innovation (Zentrum für soziale Innovation), an institute with educational and advisory functions in Vienna, Austria. G.I.V.E. stands for Globally Integrated Village Environment. Its activities are carried out within an interdisciplinary international network in order to develop and promote social innovations by linking social, ecological and technological issues in the field of new types of settlement, ways of living, work, education and production in the age of telecommunication.

Technological innovations always cause major social changes, moving faster than society and often creating an unbridgeable gap between them. 'Social Innovation' means to anticipate such developments in order to be able to act and react in time and minimize eventually occurring problems. Research is meaningless if it is not applied or applicable in practical situations. The CSI wants to increase the relevance of scientific knowledge by immediately applying the results of research in concrete everyday situations in order to modify them to better deal with technologies potential.

G.I.V.E.
Jedleseerstraße 75, 1210 Vienna
phone: (+43-1) 278 78 01-77
FAX: (+43-1) 278 78 01-8
e-mail: Mag. Armin Bardel

Austrian Academy of Sciences, Department of Social Economy

By the end of the 20th Century, social, political and economic structures have radically changed all over the world. This new situation needs to be viewed in its whole complexity to be able to understand, and document it. Therefore, economic research is conducted with a multidisciplinary approach including institutional and technological changes. Particularly the processes of European integration are being examined by means of computer simulated scenarios. Analyses, consulting and ongoing research largely concentrate on telecommunications.

Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften
Forschungsstelle für Sozioökonomie
Kegelgasse 27, A-1030 Vienna
phone: (+43-1) 712 21 40-37
FAX: (+43-1) 712 21 40-34
e-mail: Mag. Johanna Sommer

The IBM Networking Consulting Practice Vienna, Austria

The IBM Consulting Group provides consulting services to corporations and organizations regarding business transformation issues, information technology strategy and implementation, as well as consultative services dealing with information technology and manufacturing-specific issues. Networking Consulting experiences include:

• public and private wide area networks;
• local area networks; voice, data, multimedia and video;
• multivendor and open systems; radio and satellite networks, and the consequences all these networks bring into daily life.

IBM Consulting Group
Obere Donaustraße 95, 1020 Vienna
phone: (+43-1) 211 45-2734
FAX: (+43-1) 211 45-3820
e-mail: Herwig Spuller