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Recently, a significant increase of interest in the issue of telework was recorded in Austria. Starting with the ETW97 kick-off meeting in May, both private initiatives and the public sector showed their interest in being active during ETW97.
At the Forschungs-gesellschaft für Informatik (FGI), we aim to encourage as many telework activists as possible to organize or support the ETW events. Since there has been a lot of research on telework in recent years we are now concentrating on practical experiences with telework and telecooperation. The main goal is to raise people's awareness about the new opportunities by showing them examples of already deployed ICT applications in daily working and business life. The ETW events should provide practical advice and even inspiration for employees and the self-employed as well as for entrepreneurs. A further goal - which is of specific importance for Austria - is to emphasize the opportunities telematics applications provide for rural areas.
At the moment we can announce the following Austrian events during ETW97:
Several Austrian telecenters will be opened to the public for one day within ETW or even for the entire week.
A telecenter in Vienna is additionally preparing a symposium for November 5th focused on the presentation of the numerous advantages of telecenters for people living in remote areas (commuters) and for companies employing commuters.
A telematics initiative in Styria is preparing a workshop on "Telematics Applications in Rural Areas". The workshop will stimulate the use of the information technologies in rural areas by discussing examples of best practice from Austria as well as from other European countries.
On November 6th, the trade union for white-collar workers will install a telework hotline. Teleworkers and employees who plan to telework can get detailed information on the legal framework and the key aspects of this way of working.
The Center for Social Innovation (CSI) will hold a meeting of the DIPLOMAT consensus group "Labor relations and social innovation" in Vienna within ETW97.
The initiative "9 Austrian regions on their way to the information society" was started aiming at a detailed presentation of all the regional telework and telematic initiatives and projects at a single place - the Austrian Telework Website at <http://www.telearbeit.at/>.
A proposal for an "Initiative Telework" was presented to several ministries. This proposal, which includes the staging of several events, has received a lot of positive interest so far:
The Ministry for Labor, Health and Social Affairs will most likely organise an assembly discussing practical experiences of telework projects in Austria.
The Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry is planning to organize a workshop dealing with IT applications in agriculture presenting new job and business opportunities for farmers.
Several other ministries are just about to make decisions regarding their participation.
More details from these initiatives can be expected for the next issue which will also include information about participation of the industry during ETW97 in Austria. |
