Mobile Virtual Work

Dear Reader This is a book about mobile virtual work. It aims at clarifying the basic concepts and showing present practices and future challenges. The roots of the book are in the collaboration of few European practitioners and - searchers, who met each other under the umbrella of the Swedish SALTSA programme (see next page) in January 2002 in Stockholm. The group was first called 'ICT, Mobility and Work Organisation' but redefined itself quickly as 'Mobile Virtual Cooperative Work' group. The change of the name reflects the development of reasoning in the group. We could not find much material on mobile work, certainly not systematic studies, - though a growing interest in mobile technologies and services could be found. Practices of telework and virtual organizations were better known, but we were convinced that the combination with mobile work was so- thing different and new. Our main target became to understand what it was all about. The next step was an expert meeting in October 2004 at Rånäs Castle again in Sweden. A wider group of experts was invited to present their views on mobile virtual work and ideas about book chapters from different perspectives of working life. Some of the expertise could be found through the network of the AMI@Work family created by the New Working En- ronments unit of the European Commission's Information Society Dir- torate-General. Also close collaboration was developed with the related MOSAIC program.

"This is a book about mobile virtual work. The objective is to contribute to the understanding and the improvement of an emerging new kind of work arrangement, i.e. mobile virtual work (MVW). Until now no systematic in-depth studies of this phenomenon have been available. The book has grown from several workshops that brought together experts from a wide range of areas. Through their cooperation a state of the art overview could be constructed of areas and aspects related to MVW: from ergonomic requirements to diffusion of mobile work systems, from implications for distributed cooperation to knowledge management for mobile employees. The book is not primarily about technologies and tools, although many mobile systems will play a role in the studies presented. Its special merit is that it contains many concrete case studies. That means that MVW is described and analysed with an eye both on theoreticians and practitioners. TOC:Concepts and Prevalence: Emerging Mobile Virtual Work.- Mobile Virtual Work - Concepts, Outcomes and Challenges.- Mapping the Mobile eWorkforce in Europe.- New Forms of Work in Labour Law.- Virtually Connected, Practically Mobile.- Collaboration in Mobile Virtual Work: a Human Factors View.- Model-based Design of Mobile Work Systems.- Usability in IT Systems for Mobile Work.- Participative Design for Home Care Nursing.- Well-being and Stress in Mobile and Virtual Work.- Building Scenarios for a Globally Distributed Corporation.- Case Descriptions of Mobile Virtual Work in Practice.- Organisational Strategies: Knowledge Sharing in Mobile Work.- Factors Influencing the Diffusion of New Mobile Services.- Mobile Workplaces and Innovative Business Practice.- Mobile Virtual Work: What have we learned?"

Concepts and Prevalence.- Emerging Mobile Virtual Work.- Mobile Virtual Work - Concepts, Outcomes and Challenges.- Mapping the Mobile eWorkforce in Europe.- New Forms of Work in Labour Law.- Mobility in Work.- Virtually Connected, Practically Mobile.- Collaboration in Mobile Virtual Work: a Human Factors View.- Model-based Design of Mobile Work Systems.- Usability in IT Systems for Mobile Work.- Participative Design for Home Care Nursing.- Well-being and Stress in Mobile and Virtual Work.- Building Scenarios for a Globally Distributed Corporation.- Case Descriptions of Mobile Virtual Work in Practice.- Organisational Strategies.- Knowledge Sharing in Mobile Work.- Factors Influencing the Diffusion of New Mobile Services.- Mobile Workplaces and Innovative Business Practice.- Mobile Virtual Work: What Have We Learned?.