Workplaces: Intelligent and Otherwise

If you've received your January 2008 issue of Dr. Dobb's Journal, you know that we're all over workspaces--"informative workspaces," as the case may be. You know...the kind of workspace that says a lot about you. The kind of cube that reflects your code.

But the folks at Carnegie Mellon University have gone one step further. They're talking about "intelligent worksplaces." Now if you're like me, you've worked at a lot of places where the higher you go up the management foodchain, the more that term sounds like an oxymoron. But it probably works around CMU because you have to be pretty smart just to get into class.

As it turns out, there's nothing new about intelligent workplaces around CMU. In fact, the Robert L. Preger Intelligent Workplace (IW) is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a special emphasis on energy conservation, renewable energy, and its impact on health and productivity. Granted, its not necessarily about software development, but it is a whole lot about designing buildings with connectivity and intelligent embedded controls to achieve energy efficiency, not to mention supporting power management, data/voice, and video.

From what I can tell, the offices at the Intelligent Workplace might make it interesting to go into an office. But darn, there's that "intelligent" requirement again.

-- Jonathan Erickson
jerickson@ddj.com

Posted by Jon Erickson at 03:44 PM  Permalink