Multimedia workplace of the future

This article presents the main results from the interdisciplinary project Multimedia Workplace of the Future (MAP) funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Labor (BMWA). The focus of MAP is the development of innovative and secure technologies, methods and software component architectures for multimedia communication and multimodal interaction in the mobile workspace. Software agent technologies are used to delegate time-consuming, repetitive tasks and for (proactively) assisting mobile business processes. Functionality and usability-related trial tests have proven the effectiveness and acceptance of the technologies developed in MAP using three selected application domains: the mobile office domain, the construction industry, and the mobile facility management. The sensitive issue of automating legally relevant transaction using software agents was explored and validated in simulation studies. Here, technical innovation was underpinned by legal experts, psychologists and labor union representatives in order to secure user, business and social acceptance. MAP has thus made a significant contribution to proposals for a legislative structure and to transparency requirements for technical systems in work environments of the future.