What will the office of the future look like?

What will the office of the future look like? According to Microsoft's Center for Information Work (CIW) - the concept office on the Redmond campus - it will be all about metadata and more visuals.

Microsoft CIW group product manager Tom Gruver told silicon.com sister site CNET News.com: "The newly expanded CIW is our companywide think tank for cultivating that knowledge and applying it to the next generation of software-based productivity tools."

According to Gruver, future software will automatically search and harness metadata - identifying information tagged to items like appointments or Word documents - to automatically identify, organise and orchestrate common-sense relationships. These "pattern recognitions" are then automatically acted on to anticipate the needs of the "information worker".

"Information worker" is the term CIW uses to describe individuals who use computers to access or distribute information as part of their job.

Gruver said: "Content created on the subject, useful search results, relevant contacts, documents from other applications and information connected to whatever you are working on is all proactively provided to you. This includes a lot better visualisation of data - 3D modelling - connected to real live data at the back end.

"From a single-screen view, users can see a calendar and emails, phone calls and instant messages. The application creates a rolling time line of events based on your actions."

Correspondence is organised by priorities set by the company and the personal user. They are also set dynamically based on the user's actions.

It's as if everyone in the future will have the equivalent of an on-the-ball girl Friday to help stay organised and on schedule.

With more and more information being offered at workers' fingertips, and more people collaborating across enterprises, more visual space is necessary. To address this, CIW features several possibilities.

CIW workstations feature two or three conjoined flat screens that work in conjunction with one another. One example is the StraTech, a curved, sprawling glass monitor split into three parts by two bevelled seams.

DigiDesk is a draftsman-style podium that is layered with one giant touch screen, in addition to having a large, upright monitor.

RoundTable enables 360-degree views for multiple venues to participate in videoconferencing. CIW first experimented with the system, due in 2007, as RingCam in 2003.

In the past, CIW emphasised use of integration among multiple devices. That experiment continues, as RFID (radio frequency identification) tags are attached to business travel accessories such as PDAs and Tablet PCs.

Microsoft sees Tablet PCs as a possible tool for biometric logins - authentications employing things like fingerprints, retinal scans and handwriting - in place of usernames and passwords. CIW contends that multiple biometrics could automatically apply as a means of controlling information access based on the priority settings attached to the user, as that user moves through multiple servers, platforms and even enterprises.

Previously, CIW dealt with a fictitious widget-manufacturing company and illustrated multiplatform operations within one enterprise. CIW's new scenario is a pharmaceutical company that interacts with many "beyond the firewall" components, such as research labs; government agencies requiring compliance; manufacturing; distribution; pharmacies; doctors; and patients buying their finished drug.

This new scenario allows CIW to test the use of software applications not just across platforms and servers but also across enterprises. It's also designed to experiment with compliance issues, something regularly dealt with by many industries going through development and testing.

The CIW fictional office space spans 3,500-square feet and anticipates hosting 10,000 visitors this year. Executives from Fortune 2000 companies, as well as dignitaries and journalists, have toured or interacted with the space since its birth in 2002.

Through immersion, visitors use the technology under guidance from CIW staff. Executives who visit the facility can engage in interactive role-playing to evaluate new CIW applications and provide Microsoft with feedback on improving technology.

Candace Lombardi writes for CNET News.com