Stuart Bailey is a private person – at least when it comes to work. In agreeing to speak with Unlimited about his job, for instance, he cheerfully and apologetically said, “I can only speak for myself, not for the government.” That’s because Bailey is an information management and privacy strategist for the Ontario Ministry of Finance, where he navigates the complex, sometimes intangible and often confidential world of data. Not that he’s necessarily trading in top-secret information – “I don’t have a lot of sensitive material,” he admits – but for someone whose work is all about managing, sharing (and sometimes not sharing) information, Bailey is sensitive to the challenges of describing what he does without saying too much. He gives it a try.

The Man Who Wasn’t There: Stuart Bailey’s official office at the Ministry of Finance

“My job is to help regular people in different program areas integrate practice and information into their daily work.” Huh? “Really, it’s helping people deal with information overload,” Bailey adds. Oh, right.

That could range from helping staffers manage email to helping colleagues understand the logistics and legalities around sharing information. “Storage is cheap, but finding it is very expensive,” Bailey says. A gigabyte of storage might cost only 20 cents, but a company will have to shell out another $1,300 or so to manage, share and protect that information. “It’s not just about an object sitting in a space.”

“The type of work I do is about understanding broad abstractions. Information,” he points out, “is always part of something else that you do.” In that sense, we are each de facto information managers, even though we might not consider this part of our real jobs. It is always, Bailey explains, wrapped up in our other tasks.

After earning a BA in cultural studies and philosophy from Trent University, Bailey went on to complete a master’s in information studies at the University of Toronto. Warm and engaging, his philosophy background quickly surfaces. “A large part of the work I do is – pardon me for lapsing into code – to understand basic metaphysics, entities, attributes and relationships. I have to operate in abstract areas. Privacy is not a monolithic object. It’s not a like a shoe,” he says. “A shoe will have certain dimensions, it goes on your foot, you can wear it in certain weather. But privacy could be a whole range of things.”

Bailey’s Virtual Office

Bailey, whose official mailing address is for the Central Agencies Cluster at the Ministry of Finance in Toronto, in actuality divides his time between three offices.

Bailey telecommutes from his couch-office

+ This office in the picture is where I’m stationed, but sometimes I work with the rest of the team in Oshawa. I also work at home. My employer has a great teleworking project and a lot of flexibility. I spend more time focusing on work and less on additional stressors like whether I’ll make it home in time to pick up my daughter before her daycare closes.

+ I have one computer and BlackBerry. It’s not like I produce a certain number of widgets a day. Where I’m located is sometimes not as important. I don’t always have to be tied to a desk, but I do have to ingest, analyze and provide comment on information for colleagues.

+ Yeah, sometimes I can’t find things. It’s like asking a ditch-digger where you put the shovel. Well, you can just find another shovel.

+ That’s a tennis ball on my desk. I bounce it around to relieve stress or think about things in a different way. Sometimes the best way to focus on an abstract problem is not to focus on it. You have to let the brain refresh and let your mind wander.

+ Those boxes are filled with paperwork. Although I work a lot with electronic media, I like the tactile quality of reaching for an article. I have to stay on top of new developments such as the use of wikis or policy development or a recent court decision. I make sure I don’t keep more around than I need. U

In spite of the freedom of setting your own hours, avoiding office politics and working in your slippers, a home office has its downsides. Where to meet customers for those appointments that you can’t schedule at the corner café? How to combat the isolation of being alone all day? Co-working offices – places that try to answer these questions by providing independent workers and entrepreneurs with the space and utilities of a conventional office (think meeting rooms and copy machines, for starters) while letting them keep their autonomy. Though few rules apply, these spaces generally apply the ethos of a social co-op to the business world. “It’s a bit like having roommates,” says Station C co-founder Patrick Tanguay. We check out four spaces across Canada, from an incubator for entrepreneurs in Vancouver to an office in Toronto’s Chinatown, that share not just spaces, but also ideas.

Desk jockeys in the airy office of the Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto

The Centre for Social Innovation (CSI), Toronto
What it is: Working and meeting space for about 180 organizations and freelancers with a social mission in a renovated factory warehouse in Toronto’s Chinatown. The building is as progressive as its members: along with indoor bicycle parking and a rooftop garden, the offices have solar water heating and even a biowall. Members include the David Suzuki Foundation, design firms such as BFdesign and media companies such as Spacing magazine.
How it works: Events are held throughout the year, but the best catalyst for collaboration between members remains informal chitchats. “It’s a really stimulating environment,” says tenant Chris Appleton, who works with design firm the Movement. “You might have a conversation in the kitchen that might lead to a collaboration project.” Joint initiatives include Jane’s Walk, a North America-wide event to promote walkable neighbourhoods.
What it costs: Membership packages range from $25 for a one-time pass to $75 per month for access to a shared workstation to up to $1,800 a month for a dedicated office.

Station C in Montreal

Station C, Montreal
What it is: A 2,500-square-foot loft with 19 workstations and three meeting rooms in Montreal’s trendy Mile End district.
How it works: It’s not all business; Station C handpicks members to create a friendly, social atmosphere. Though there most members are male and most work in the web industry, co-founder Patrick Tanguay hopes to improve the selection process as the space receives more applications.
What it costs: $350 a month for a desk, $250 to used a shared workstation and $3 an hour for non-members.

NEXT PAGE: A future home for Calgary freelancers and an entrepreneur’s dream office in Vancouver.

In the 18 years since Smart Technologies introduced its first interactive whiteboard, the company has gone from market obscurity (this was before everyone and their grandmother had a PDA, remember) to impressive market reach (175 countries and counting). Want to book a meeting with a colleague in Malaysia? No problem. After an early hook-up with Intel Corp., Smart Technologies has gone from one interactive whiteboard to an ever-expanding line of hardware, software and services.

But like the education, private business and government offices at which their products are targeted, they needed to find a better way to collaborate: the headquarters were in seven buildings scattered across Calgary. The company recently moved into a new global HQ that gives new meaning to the word collaboration, with more than 90 conference rooms (including one-person rooms where you can make phone calls and a glass-walled dining hall that doubles as a large meeting space). They’ve also tweaked the metrics of your typical office. Most workplaces have 80 per cent private space and 20 per cent shared space. Smart Tech new digs up that ratio to 60/40.

Linda Thomas, the vice-president of marketing, deconstructs Smart’s Extreme Collaboration Room, which she calls a “living lab” to test how clients might use the space.

Photo by John Gaucher

1. People can touch the board, write on it and share, store and email digital notes. The software recognizes the ink as a digital object, like a picture is in a Microsoft Word document. You walk up to that board – which could be projecting a diagram, chart, spreadsheet, anything really – pick up a pen and eraser from the pen tray and circle or cross out other people’s comments. The next time a person opens the document they’ll see your digital ink. You can also use your finger as a mouse to interact with the data.

2. A typical room has two interactive whiteboard systems with a board and projector that act as an integrated system. This room has eight of these systems. It’s great for any type of work situation where there is a lot of information and you want a visual of it all. It’s used heavily by our product development team.

3. Screen-sharing software lets you see thumbnails of all the eight screens at the same time. The information on that screen can be sent to any of the other screens in the room, or you can click on one screen to make it bigger and use it to navigate to others. It’s useful when you have a lot of information displayed at once.

4. The integrated projectors eliminate shadows so people can use the boards without interfering with the display.

5. I can look at the same screen in this room as someone looking at it in our Ottawa assembly facility in, honestly, 10 seconds. One of our customers had their Smart Boards on 24/7 and connected via video conferencing so that the team in the UK could see when people showed up and began working in their office in India. It creates a sense of teamwork by providing a closer in-person experience than talking on the telephone or flipping through PowerPoint presentation.

6. The absence of furniture encourages people to share their ideas at the board, walk around and talk to each other. Walking creates a more energizing environment than people sitting around a table staring at frames. We didn’t find it anywhere in formal research, it was something we thought, “You know what? This would be an interesting way to encourage collaboration.” U

More Great Spaces
Writer Malwina Gudowska and photographer John Gaucher take a curated tour of Smart Technologies and three other companies that reimagine the office.