[Berlin, GERMANY] The “MAP – Multimedia-Arbeitsplatz der Zukunft”
(“Multimedia Workplace of the Future”) project was kicked off yesterday in
Berlin with a press conference with Siegmar Mosdorf, the Parliamentary State
Secretary for the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. With
MAP, the Ministry of Economics wants to present a model project for more
effectiveness and mobility in the working world in the age of m-commerce.
The main goal is a “pocket-sized networked digital assistant”. With
innovative interaction systems, agent technologies, and mobility concepts,
the computer should be transformed from a tool into a pocket-sized office.
It should be able to independently carry out complex tasks at any time and
in any place by using the Internet to search for information, place orders,
confirm deliveries, accept contracts, or make appointments.
Mosdorf said, “In the multimedia workplace of the future, a person will no
longer be tied to the office, the office will be tied to the person – this
is a paradigm shift with unforeseeable consequences.” MAP is an integral
innovative approach which includes everything from the development of
technology and the application of models in the building industry to the
exploration of the social and legal repercussions in the workplace. Nine
economic industries and six scientific institutions and labor unions are
involved in this interdisciplinary and multi-industry project. ALCATEL SEL
AG is the project coordinator.
In 1998, MAP (together with 5 other prize winners from a total of 90
participants) was selected by an independent jury as the winner of the
German nationwide “Human-Technology-Interaction in the Information Society”
competition. The cost of the project has come to around 48 million
deutschmarks. With grants of around 24 million deutschmarks, the German
Federal Ministry of Economics hopes to strengthen and speed up the
activities in this forward-looking area. Mosdorf believes that, up to now,
European firms and research institutes – particularly those residing in
Germany – have been a step ahead in mobile Internet technologies and new
computer assistant systems.
