Fact or Fiction

And still it snows. Oh well, it's testing our remote working systems at least. Living only 2 minutes walk from my office, my journey to work in the snow is simple - I barely have time to get cold, or even wake up. But many people have walked considerable distances to get in, or sat on buses for ages, or driven their cars despite the weather and the lunatic driving of some people on the roads. Very reassuring and much appreciated.

Spent some of yesterday writing "the day in the life of" story about a member of staff how they might be working in 5 years time, following on from Tuesday's workshop. Bit difficult to judge. Not sure if I've gone over the top or not far enough. For instance - will any of these short excerpts from it be mainstream in the next 5 years?

Chris arrives at work, the door opening to let her through because of the RFID chip in her smart card. As she walks through the building her iPhone connects to the wireless network and is automatically updated with the latest news and events from the University and the plasma screen on the wall updates to show she’s in the building. She sits down in her flexible working space, and her computer switches itself on, having powered down automatically the previous evening to conserve energy. It greets her, having recognized her using biometric data. “What am I doing today?” she asks as she takes off her coat, and the computer tells her what meetings she has, and where they are. .....

She sits down at the large flat screen and touches it, bringing up her desk top - there’s no need to log in because of the biometric technology. Another touch and she has her in-box open which contains one or two messages, details of her voice mails and the items she needs to approve. She touches the voicemails and listens to them – she has no desktop phone .....

There’s a deadline coming up for a report, and to complete it Chris needs some management information. She touches the uGoogle icon on her desktop and activates the voice recognition system. “I want to know the country of origin of all International students admitted in the last 3 years” she says, and the results are displayed. She touches the download button, and the figures are downloaded into the analysis software on her computer.....

There’s a quiet ping, and a request for a video chat with Rosie appears on her screen. Chris touches accept, and Rosie’s face appears. They have a brief chat about their paper, agree it can be published, comment on the snow which is falling outside, and sign off.....

Back at her desk, her computer reminds her she has a meeting in 10 minutes, and tells her what room it’s in and what papers are available. On her way to the meeting, Chris's iPhone vibrates to notify her that a colleague is nearby. As she takes the iPhone out of her pocket, the screen displays a small map showing the relative locations of herself and the colleague who is labelled as 'John M'......

During the meeting the key points from each paper are displayed on the plasma screen, and the participants can read them on their portable devices (phones, laptops or electronic paper ). Nothing is printed.......

And finally on my wish list:

It’s now time to go home .......and her networked fridge and ice dispenser begin mixing the perfect gin and tonic which will be waiting for her as she walks though her front door