I had a great conversation with Chris Congdon of Steelcase last week. Chris is Lead, Emerging Workplace Strategies and editor of Steelcase’s 360 Magazine.

Steelcase looks at the convergence of people, place, and technology and develops workplace solutions to help “people reach their potential.” From what I've seen and heard, it looks like they are doing a great job.

Some of their solutions focus on embedded technology – e.g. to enable shared presentation capabilities for a team with individual laptops, iPads, etc – while others create spaces that are more conducive to each of the three types of collaboration they consider (inform, evaluate, generate/co-create). I know that as someone who works at home, I need changes in my environment as the task at hand changes. In a group setting the dynamics of the physical space can be critical. For IT professionals, I think Peopleware is still the best reference on this issue (along with A Pattern Language, which is a great general reference guide).

I was impressed by their research, and plan to follow the 360 Magazine articles online. I’m sure we’ll find some great patterns for the wiki, and maybe some surprises, too.