JANUS organised a workshop at the E2002 Conference on E-Business and E-Work in Prague on October 17th. Further information from http://www.ebew.net

14.00 Session 7h Workshop on the project JANUS

Chairman: Maarten Botterman, Rand Europe, The Netherlands

• Understanding the pace and direction of the Information Society
  Maarten Botterman, RAND Europe
  
  Abstract. As digital technologies diffusion grows in Europe in uneven rhythms and patterns, their disruptive potential, both in a negative and positive sense is becoming evident. The process of transformation of the European socio-economic system is by no means straightforward and multidisciplinary socio-economic research is needed more than ever to support policy makers efforts to understand, accompany and try to balance it.
  The project JANUS weaves together the most relevant socio-economic research initiatives launched by the IST Programme KA I and II to provide a focal point for their interaction, leverage their combined know-how and act as a multiplier of their results diffusion towards external audiences. As the Roman God which inspired its name, JANUS has a double nature and aspires to become a focal point for the socioeconomic debate within and outside the IST programme, a true portal not only in the Internet sense.
  click here to download paper (pdf file 129kb )

• Emergence: eWork in a global economy
  Ursula Huws, Analytica Social & Economic Research, United Kingdom
  
  Abstract: The introduction of new information and communications technologies has been accompanied by major shifts in the location of employment both within and between European regions and globally. These developments are leading to a new industrial geography, with increasing regional specialisation in certain types of information-processing activities (e.g. call centres, data processing or software development). However such developments have been poorly mapped and documented. In particular, no evidence has been collected on the types of information processing activities which are likely to be outsourced or relocated, the extent of such relocation or the criteria used in the selection of remote locations. Such information will, however, be of critical importance to policy-makers, at regional, national and EU
  levels, in predicting future employment trends, ensuring the competitiveness of European industries, combating unemployment and developing policies for a socially inclusive European Information Society.
  click here to download paper (pdf file 225kb )

• Call centre Employment in Europe: Some interim results from the Tosca project
  Imogen Bertin, Cork Teleworking, Ireland
  
  Context: Call centres represent one of the fastest growing forms of employment in Europe. It is predicted that about 1.3% of the European labour force (or nearly two million people) will work in call centres in the year 2002[1]. Datamonitor estimate that as long ago as 1998, 3% of the US labour force was working in call centres. European call volume and employment numbers are continuing to increase, and if US trends are repeated here, will continue to do so, although perhaps at a less dramatic rate of growth than in recent years. Frost and Sullivan estimate that there were 12,750 call centres in Europe in 1999 and that this would grow to 28,289 by 2006[2] - a slightly lower forecast.
  click here to download paper (pdf file 146kb )
  

• eLancing - The future of work?
  Tobias Husing, Empirica, Germany
  
  Abstract: MIT researchers Thomas Malone and Robert Laubacher were the first who declared (in a 1998 paper in the Harvard Business Review ) the ‘dawn of the eLance economy’ in which freelancers get in touch with clients via the Internet, work as teleworkers, and transfer work results via ICT networks. Some have even argued that eLancing might become the dominant type of work organisation in the not too distant future. e-Lancers are seen as the logical answer to the flexibility requirements of today’s companies: According to this view, companies, which are affected by an increasing need to adapt as fast as they can to ever more volatile market conditions, must have access to a more flexible workforce to be able to shift labour at short notice to where and when it can be used most productively.
  In reality, however, there seems to be only limited evidence that ‘regular employment relationships’ are gradually being replaced by atypical ways of working in the line of the eLancer proposition of Malone and Laubacher. This paper reports on the results of a research project into e-lancing as an upcoming way of working.
  The research looked into how labour market processes are supported by the Internet, e.g. by online job exchanges, and into the ways in which labour market participants in selected parts of the economy make use of virtual labour market techniques. It was undertaken by empirica as part of the STAR project (‘Socio-economic Trend Assessment for the Digital Revolution’), supported by the European Commission through its Information Society Programme Key Action II.
  click here to download paper (pdf file 252kb )
  

• The impact of eWork on families and the social consequences
  Lars Bisgaard Schmidt, Danish Technological Institute, Denmark
  
  Abstract. This paper addresses issues of work-life balance and possible reconciliation strategies. eWork is on the raise throughout the European Union and is expected to be the working method of tomorrow. Much attention has been focused upon the technological aspects of eWork – broadband access, local loop problems and lack of security. However, this is only the start to eWorking, and we must address the social consequences for the eWorker and his family context. Only by building up a detailed understanding of how eWork arrangements are used in practice and the social and work-related consequences for the eWorker, partner and children will it be possible to discuss further political initiatives that can support adaptation of new eWorking arrangements and hence make them sustainable. This paper takes its point of departure in the IST Programme project FAMILIES and describes the need for detailed data; the methodology used for capturing data and some consolidated results.
  click here to download paper (pdf file 194kb )