The Seven Tenets Of The Information Workplace

When Forrester first described the Information Workplace in 2005, we positioned it as the next-generation platform that delivered collaboration, content, portals and office productivity — plus a plethora of new capabilities bursting on the scene, such as unified communications and expertise location. But the Information Workplace (IW) has never been about the piece parts. Instead, what makes the Information Workplace transformational is how the piece parts are built into a seamless whole that supports people in the way they want to work. Specifically, we described the IW as role-based, contextual, seamless, visual, and multimodal. Now — fast-forward to late 2007 —enterprise Web 2.0 is rapidly advancing, bringing even greater "Design for People" concepts into the IW. For example, through the power of social networking and mashups, which allow people to have it their way, the IW can go beyond role-based to even become individualized. With enterprise Web 2.0, the IW also gains two new facets: "social" and "quick." With all these characteristics, the IW will better support a "Design for People" world and allow people to work in a much more natural way.