The authors of Womenomics make a convincing argument for women to benefit from the flexibility business revolution.
“Finding balance and satisfaction in both professional and personal lives,” a nomad mantra for sure.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqJaUcxYWQA]
Stantum Japan have unveiled their multi-touch, resistive touchscreen technology, showcased on a Slate PC proof of concept device.
Responsiveness and accuracy are reported to be remarkable, with the multitouch feature accommodating as many fingers as you can fit on the screen. There’s pressure sensitivity too and users can even use the thing with a paintbrush. Yes, a paintbrush.
Scalable from 2.5 to 30 inches, this can do all the gestures, swipes and rotations you could want. At face value, very impressive technology. Watch the video.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl7dChsCToA&feature=player_embedded]
So why resistive instead of capacitive (or resistive vs iPhone / iPod Touch)?
Stantum is looking to break into all sorts of markets with their new touch panels – including mobile, Tablet and netbook markets. Hopefully we’ll see a next generation mobile device with one of their screens in the near future.
(Thanks to www.netbooked.net )
I had the pleasure of chairing an event in Milton Keynes with Public Sector Forums today. Presentations will be on the PSF site from 30 November.
[slideshow id=3098476543668241735&w=426&h=320]
My Slides are here;
[slideshare id=2581148&doc=psfmiltonkeynes-091125051141-phpapp01]
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
Twitter posts (Tweets) from the day and the parallel infosecurity sessions are aggregated here.
The day finished with a good discussion on the future of Nomad. I was very pleased to hear that delegates see a role for Nomad going forward and grateful for the kind words of support and thanks for our efforts in saving the community (phoenix from the ashes)!
We talked about plans to build a new web2.0 platform to support the Nomad community and enable groups of common interest to collaborate and share learning.
It was suggested that Nomad should also;
It’s not too late to let us know your thoughts. Complete the mobile working survey, including specific questions on Nomad. Or contact us directly at mail@nomadpublicsector.com
“Be two places at once with QA, telepresence robot from Anybots. Enjoy complete freedom to move fluidly and interact with others in a remote location from the ease of your home or office.”
“QA operates simply, cleanly, and quietly while still giving you a full physical presence. It allows you to see and be seen, talk and listen, and collaborate in ways and places never before possible.”
Amazing but somehow reinforces the perception of work as a place we should attend rather than an activity we can often do from different locations.
Still pretty whizzy though. I wonder if they do a ‘Transformers’ version, perhaps with weaponry? Autobots or Decepticons?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8haDx4DS3c&feature=player_embedded]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWwGExpb-Xg&feature=player_embedded]
NICE have published, “Promoting mental wellbeing through productive and healthy working conditions: guidance for employers”.
Guidance for those who have a direct or indirect role in, and responsibility for, promoting mental wellbeing at work. This includes all employers and their representatives, irrespective of the size of the business or organisation and whether they are in the public, private, or voluntary sectors. It may also be of interest to professionals working in human resources or occupational health, employees, trade union representatives and members of the public.
Interesting comments on flexible working and the role of line managers including, “Managers’ ability to manage teams with flexible working patterns may need to be developed.”
Nomad is increasingly being asked about leadership and management techniques. Managing a dispersed, 21st century mobile workforce certainly requires new skills.
This may be an area Nomad should look to explore further in the future.
Access the report and slides here.
A concept car demonstrating the potential application of next generation mobile networks. Sophisticated touchscreen experiences that promise video and music on demand, gaming, ecommerce, a wifi hotspot, real-time GPS updates, real-time traffic and weather data, and road and vehicle monitoring.
Quite impressive but then again, given future congestion predictions, we’re probably going to need the car to be a [mobile] office more often!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AaIUg4tHnU&feature=player_embedded]
I have been a board member of the Nomad mobile and flexible working forum since 2003 and have long recognised the importance and value of Nomad in terms of promoting innovation in local government and sharing best practice. I passionately believe that mobile and flexible working is going to be critical to the future of local public service delivery.
I’m very pleased to have brokered transitional arrangements with Cambridgeshire County Council to ensure that Nomad can continue. Under new arrangements I will assume the national lead for Nomad and I’m working on proposals to develop a revised and rejuvenated programme, supporting regional groupings including Nomad Scotland.
I am particularly interested in exploring the opportunity to broaden the community to include all of the public sector.
I recently presented on local government experiences to the Department of Health and a Strategic Health Authority and was struck, for example, by the synergy and overlap between work just commencing in the NHS and our experiences in local government. The state of the public purse surely means we need to find ways of collaborating across the public sector and ‘Total Place’ may well prove to be the strategic catalyst we need here.
I also hope to take Nomad into new and emerging areas and to get closer to the leading edge of technological and social innovation.
We face challenging times and I genuinely believe that by working together we can find new and creative ways of delivering services in the future. Widespread adoption of new work styles is going to be critical to that.
The forthcoming swingeing cuts in public expenditure will mandate radical and creative thinking, including around options to deliver services across organisational and geographical boundaries. Changes of this nature will inevitably require remote access to different back offices, effective data sharing and the ability to work across these boundaries in a time efficient way. Mobile and flexible working and associated technology implementations are going to be fundamental here.
Across the wider public sector there is significant opportunity to implement new work styles. NHS community health services, for example, overlap with local authority social care services and present enormous opportunity to take a whole area approach to re-engineering service delivery. Even modest efficiency improvements in these areas could net £billions in savings and there is proven opportunity to implement mobile and flexible working solutions in these and other areas.
Nomad is well placed to support the public sector in implementing change. It seems essential that in striving to deliver efficiencies we avoid duplication of effort and take steps to ensure we share what we find works and, perhaps even more importantly, what we find doesn’t.
I am in detailed discussions with potential partners and possible sponsors and have been working hard to put Nomad on a sustainable footing. I have also given some thought to a possible future low-cost subscription service as a means to support Nomad’s future.
I would be very interested to hear from others on how you would like to see Nomad progress. Share your views and enter a draw to win an iPod Touch by completing the short mobile working survey, designed with our friends at Public Sector Forums, accessible here.
Alternatively, post comments below or get in touch directly at mail@nomadpublicsector.com. Please let me know how you think Nomad can help support and develop 21st century public services.
The existing website at www.nomadpublicsector.com remains accessible pending replacement with a new community site, harnessing social web functionality to support a vibrant online community of Nomads.
Harnessing Mobile Technologies for Public Services and Mobile Working
24th November 2009, Milton Keynes
I’m chairing this event for Public Sector Forums where we will look at how mobile technology can deliver transformed services to citizens and more effective and efficient ways of working. Delegates will choose to attend one of two conference tracks taking place on the day;
Public sector professionals interested or involved in planning, developing and/or implementing mobile working strategies or delivering applications and services via mobile.
For more information see Public Sector Forums and if you can’t attend on the day you could follow highlights via Twitter (#PSFBUZZ).
“Hi,
I am currently 5 feet or more away from my desk and as I have not noticed that it’s the 21st Century, I have no interest in keeping in touch with what is going on in the world.
Your message will be printed off by my PA and go to the bottom of a very large pile which will probably end up in the bin before I get round to reading it.”
(Thanks to John Popham, reproduced here following related workplace discussions yesterday).
I’m taking a trip to Belfast on October 7th.
Leeds Bradford to Belfast for exciting meet with @learningpool Discussing collaboration and future direction for Nomad.