Office of the Future Strives to Be Flexible, Interactive

Office of the Future Strives to Be Flexible, Interactive

Innovations Range From Wireless Devices to ‘Smart Cards’

BY LEE ZION



Staff Writer

Science fiction writers from decades past always imagined the 21st century to be a time of flying cars and cities in the stratosphere.






Well, now that we’re two years into the 21st century, some of those wild visions haven’t yet come to pass. However, some workplace experts believe the office of the future won’t be too different from the 1960s cartoon show “The Jetsons.”






San Diego employees may soon see a wireless, paperless workplace similar to the office of George Jetson, salary man of the future. But unlike Jetson, they won’t have to commute in a folding rocket ship to get there.






Steve Gardner, spokesman for the San Diego office of Redmond Wash.-based Microsoft Corp., described an office without wires, without walls, and without limits.






“(We can) empower people through great software , any time, any place, with any device,” he said.






- ‘Smart Card’ Stores






Important Information






A promotional video from Microsoft showed a businessman soon being able to download the contents of his home computer to a cell phone via a “smart card.” The smart card would also be able to provide an out-of-town hospital with a medical history and health plan information in case of an emergency.






Other future applications include a “tablet PC,” about the size of a contemporary laptop. No keyboard needed , people would instead input information by scribbling on the screen with a special pen, or by talking into the device, Gardner said.






But some of the most promising technology is already in use. Thanks to the Internet, e-mail and similar applications, it’s now possible to do the same job out of the office as inside. In fact, for most of the 11