The Creative Space Agency is an innovative service that links owners of vacant property with creative professionals looking for potential spaces in London in which to work, exhibit, perform or rehearse.

The services on offer through the Creative Space Agency include an up to date list of available spaces in London, handy fact sheets and regular training sessions to help creative professionals get the most out of the service.

The Creative Space Agency is a project delivered jointly by CIDA (the Cultural Industries Development Agency) and Urban Space Management.

CIDA is the leading support organisation for the creative and cultural sector. We help thousands of creative individuals, businesses and arts organisations by providing information, business support, professional development training, networking & showcasing opportunities, and by commissioning new work.

Urban Space Management is a leading developer and manager of regeneration projects in Great Britain and the United States, drawing more than 15 million visitors to it projects annually.

This initiative is funded by Arts Council England, London and the London

http://www.creativespaceagency.co.uk

Citizen Space is a coworking space in San Francisco located at 425 Second St on the third floor. It is generally open from 10am – 6pm weekdays. The idea of Citizen Space is to take the best elements of a coffee shop (social, energetic, creative) and the best elements of a workspace (productive, functional) and combine them to give indie workers the chance to have their own, affordable space. Citizen Space was built on coworking philosophy.Day-tripping and casual guests can visit for free, but you must follow our ground rulez and be a good neighbor. If you want to leave your stuff, we rent out desks for $425/month. We also hold various events at our space and are happy to consider making our facilities available for event hosting.If this sounds interesting to you, drop us a note or join either the Citizen Space mailing list (low volume) or Coworking Group. Or just drop by!

The Coffee Office is built for business – meeting spaces, workstations, conference rooms and café are combined into a centre for mobile professionals.

Based in Windsor, Ontario, The Coffee Office was founded to offer business professionals everything they need to stay productive outside a traditional office, in what trendwatching.com calls a being space. A café section is open to everyone, and like the rest of the building, offers free high-speed wireless internet and plenty of power points.

The rest of the space is reserved for TCO members, who have access to private workstations and conference rooms. For CAD 90 per month, members have free use of the workstations and members lounge and (fuelling productivity) 25 complimentary coffees per month. Conference rooms can be rented for CAD 35 or 50 per hour (small or large), and private cubicles for CAD 5/hour. When it’s time for a power nap, a sleep module is available for CAD 10/hour. Other thoughtful touches include noise diffusers that help keep conversations private, and access to a Nerd On Site.

We previously covered similar initiatives in New York, which offered work spaces to writers or parents. TCO, however, is focused exclusively on the ‘mobile warrior’. The Yankee Group, a Boston-based research and consulting firm, estimates that 50 million people—about 38 percent of the working population in the United States—are mobile workers, defined as those who spend at least 20 percent of their time away from their primary workplace. These employees in the field, independent contractors, freelancers and minipreneurs all need a flexible base for doing business.

Plenty of opportunities for The Coffee Office (which is working on expansion through franchising) and other new entrants in this field. Hey, they may eventually even sell to Starbucks?

Website: http://www.thecoffeeoffice.com

A few weeks ago, we wrote about how Microsoft’s Surface technology is being used at Sheraton hotels, letting hotel guests use interactive touchscreen ‘tables’ to access local information and plan their stay. As we mentioned, the interactive tables are part of a wide-reaching partnership between Sheraton and Microsoft, which also includes new high-tech hotel lounges named “The Link@Sheraton experienced with Microsoft”, thankfully shortened to Link@Sheraton.

Launching Link@Sheraton in a big way, the hotel brand invited New Yorkers to abandon their desks yesterday to work from Central Park, where it recreated its new lounges and set the right example by stationing around 600 of Starwood’s own employees to work remotely using Link@Sheraton’s technological offerings. The event, dubbed Global Out Of Office Day, was also celebrated in in Shanghai, where Sheraton took over part of West Nanjing Road, and in Sydney’s Customs House. Last but not least, G.O.O.D. will be hosted at the Sheraton Lisbon Resort & Spa on Thursday, September 18th. Starwood—Sheraton’s parent company—will also be offering free wifi in Central Park’s Sheep Meadow through the rest of September. While tumbling markets made for rather awkward timing, especially since Sheraton hopes to attract more business travellers, the concept playfully combined a number of consumer and marketing trends that are still going strong: pop-up spaces, online oxygen, brand butlers and, of course, new spaces for mobile workers.

www.globaloutofofficeday.com

http://www.globaloutofofficeday.com/

The Hat Factory is a coworking space, a space shared by a number of people to pool workplace resources such as internet connections, while retaining the amenities of working from home or a coffee shop. Members of the Hat Factory are freelancers, consultants, work from home, and other independent types preferring flexible workplace conditions.

Cost and facilities

Shared open table layout, can accommodate 15+ people

Connected and Sustainable Work

Hub Pavilions – Fusing the physical and virtual workspace

How will Pavilions work ?

• Hub Culture Pavilions enable new work models and space innovation in urban centers. This location caters specifically to the urban worker, and makes them readily accessible to foot traffic. A secondary benefit to HCP is the renewal of a city center.
• Pavilions are a member-based entity, where an individual pays a monthly fee to join the global virtual and physical network. Access to the facility will be made available on a drop-in basis. Membership provides access to all global pavilions, making them of interest to the global worker.
• Pavilions offer a convergence of physical and virtual collaboration, social engagement and work. People can choose to engage virtually and/or in person, with no disruption. This new approach blends the advantages of remote and office work, as well as expands the connections among workers to a much personalized, and relevant, setting.
• Upon arrival to a venue, a visitor is greeted by a concierge who offers connected services, local information and community based on the member/visitor social/ interest profile. Once inside, the user has the option to work individually, in groups or socialize. Connectivity is offered at no extra cost. The venue would deliver interactive services such as voice and high quality video (TelePresence) in a conference room setting.
• The user collaboration would be extended inside or outside the venue using collaboration technologies, as membership will include collaboration “wells” for each user

http://www.connectedurbandevelopment.org/connected_and_sustainable

due filmati riguardanti un progetto di Ubiquitous Computing nell’ambito dell’HealthCare. Il sistema sviluppato ha come scopo quello di aiutare i bambini non udenti ad imparare il linguaggio dei segni attraverso l’utilizzo di alcuni giochi ed oggetti. Questo può essere un interessante esempio di come la tecnologia e i sistemi Context Aware possano realmente portare innovazione e sviluppo alle tecniche di insegnamento in ambito medico-sociale.

 http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ido4Y4yGoK8

http://youtube.com/watch?v=itablRTyM5A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ido4Y4yGoK8

Microsoft Office Labs immagina i nuovi dispositivi e le interfacce  protagoniste dei futuri sistemi sanitari.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F1u36Y-qlE&feature=related

http://www.istartedsomething.com/20080308/office-labs-future-of-personal-health-concept/

Led per l’accesso wireless a internet

Una stanza luminosa per connettere a Internet computer, cellulari e iPhone. Senza cavi che intralciano il cammino tra le scrivanie. I punti di accesso alla rete, però, non sono le antennine degli hotspot, ma led come quelli che illuminano il percorso nelle sale cinematografiche o i pulsanti per sollevare i finestrini nelle automobili. È una tecnologia che sfrutta per l’invio di dati le impercettibili intermittenze di luce emessa dai led: si tratta di un progetto sviluppato da alcuni ricercatori del Boston University college che di recente hanno ottenuto finanziamenti da una prestigiosa istituzione americana, la National science foundation.

L’area wireless “luminosa” è in grado di collegare alla rete apparecchi come televisioni, radio, computer, telefonini e termostati: ma quali sarebbero i vantaggi rispetto alle attuali tecnologie? Secondo i ricercatori, i led raggiungono la velocità di dieci megabit al secondo per la trasmissione wireless, superando il Wi-fi. Inoltre, gli utenti sarebbero anche più sicuri da intercettazioni o da persone collegate clandestinamente perché la luce, a differenza delle frequenze Wi-fi, non attraversa i muri. L’area wireless, quindi, sarebbe confinata unicamente nel perimetro di una stanza. Il sistema proposto dal Boston University college ha anche un risvolto ecologico: nei prossimi anni le lampadine a incandescenza saranno sostituite da fonti luminose che richiedono un minore consumo energetico. E una zona illuminata da led permetterebbe contemporaneamente di ridurre i consumi e di avere a disposizione una connessione a internet superveloce. La prima applicazione immaginata dai ricercatori, però, è nei trasporti: gli ambienti interni delle autobili, per esempio, contengono led,ma si ipotizzano applicazioni anche nell’ambiente lavoro.

Già sette anni fa Stephen Leeb, professore al Mit, aveva proposto di usare le lampadine tradizionali per trasmettere dati in ambienti chiusi: il suo apparecchio permetteva di affievolire la luce per una piccola frazione di secondo, generando oscillazioni luminose sono impercettibili alla vista, ma tali da consentire l’invio di informazioni. Il progetto è uscito dal laboratorio ed è diventato un’azienda, Talking lights: il sistema sviluppato da Leeb utilizza lampadari e abat-jour per trovare persone e oggetti che indossano badge o altri dispositivi in grandi edifici: finora è stato utilizzato da alberghi, ospedali e casinò

http://blog.panorama.it/hitechescienza/2008/10/08/accendo-la-luce-per-connettermi-a-internet/