The O-chair; an all-in-one office chair.

With office space expensive in a lot of area’s and people working mostly as digital nomads space can be used more optimal.

A comfortable office chair with small tablet as desk, a hydraulic arm with a second (large) screen that can be deployed from the back, plugs for any device and electricity plugs under the seating that get powered by batteries in the wheels that are powered by floor contact or through an additional plug for supercharging reduces desk space with a factor between 3 and 5. Furthermore when equipped with a GPS, it can anticipate constant movement. By including your calendar appointments, you will move automatically to the meeting rooms in time, without being distracted from what you do and thus save productivity time. Over time, more intelligence could be build in so it analyzes everything you and your colleagues work on in real time so clusters of work will group people more logically on the floor. Adding the layer of wellness (massage buttons, media center,…) makes sure you never want to leave it again. Except when you feel the urge to spend a penny… 🙂

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Organised and phased traffic streams.

The problem with traffic jams is that we all want to be in the same place at the same time… My idea of today is plain simple. We start with knowing how much cars a bottle neck (in traffic jams) can take and we calculate how many cars are going to arrive at that point. As soon as we know when that limit will be reached, no new cars will be allowed on the motorway so we avoid the traffic jam.

How? We can start simple and put traffic lights with counters at the motorway entrances and anticipate (calculate) the evolution of smooth traffic towards the bottle necks. You could then organise phased traffic releases. I can image people organising small business at the motorway entrances. As one would know when he is going to arrive at the bottle neck due to the waiting time that is displayed there, they will be more at ease. It would be quality time… 🙂 That could be done more elaborate and perfectioned if every car would send their destination to a system that calculates the best time to set of with the best route to arrive on time. Or even makes people make a little detour to make the whole traffic system run more smoothly.

I would also be more relaxed knowing that i will have a smooth ride, knowing my arrival time (and certainly when I get a coffee waiting…)

What if the Railways were run as a public/private club? #oipd

I have to admit I’m a real fan of traveling by train to work and back. I’m a forenzer who enjoys those 45 minutes to prepare some work, enjoy the Metro newspaper, catch up on my social media streams, watch people and make up stories around them or simply write this blogpost. Two days ago I took a new 1 year subscription and I was wondering why it did cost me so much. The service is quite often ok but not tremendous. Every now and than, I prefer going by car and not by train because of tight scheduled meetings in several cities. And I take holidays… I also believe i get my tickets inspected only around 30% of my rides.

What if the railways were run as a public/private club?

For the public part of service, everybody could come and get a transport ticket (not a guaranteed seat!) and take the train immediately to the destination of their choice.  The private part however is the subscription formula in which people pay a membership fee for using the services the railways offer (wifi, workspace, waiting rooms indoor, daily coffee …) In return the members of the Railways can reserve a guaranteed seat of the train of their likes and get the invoice of at the end of the month.

Although there are a lot of points to consider in this railway experience innovation, technology and infrastructure are the two main areas to invest in.

For instance; You can work with small screens in the seats or ceilings pointing out a seat is taken by mr(s) x or not at all. A small sensor in the seat notices whether a seat is taken and can be billed. The build-in mechanisme triggers a message to the member asking whether he has missed his train and would like to reserve a seat on the next one. Being a Railways member guarantees you your favorite spot at the bar while you can drink as much or as little as you like in benefitting from the extra services.

I would believe this is the vision Belgian Public Railways (@nmbs) and its new boss, Jo Cornu should aim for.
And I believe @kodel could help them with that!