European Telework Development
Michel Ickx born in Brussels on the 4th
of july 1935 (I am pleased that many fireworks celebrate this day on the
other side of the Atlantic)
I consider myself a Belgian improved in the South. Six years in Italy and 30 years in Spain, plus a long time association with institutions and projects in the U.K. U.S.A. and other countries, has taught me to be a little bit more adaptable to different cultures. What I lost in firm beliief in the tennets of my eduction and background has been repaid many times over in terms of flexibility and understanding.
A good knowledge of 4 languages plus conversation and reading in 3 or 4 more has helped broaden to some extent, what sociologist call "the comfort territory".
Professionally, I have practiced Consultancy and self employment for most of my active life, considerably helped in this by exceptional masters, among which some mining consulting engineers from South Africa and Rhodesia whose experience from past heroic times turned out to have far more value than the education painfully hammered, to no avail, by the jesuits in a well known and reputable college in Brussels.
Having thus utterly failed in my school years I have had to undertake my own education and accept many lessons from the hard facts of life. This has given me a passion for anything to do with learning and a special interest in teaching how to learn.
Clive Sinclair and his ZX81 have given me the "bug"; I hold him reponsible for any wrongdoing I may commit in matters related to computers and telecommunications. Anyone affected in ETD should address his complaints directly to him.
Finally I have always enjoyed working in new fields with creative people and, as far as possible, in a good teamwork. Positive thinking I hold in extreme value.
I have no guilty feelings for anyhting bad I may have done, having discovered that it was and still is due to ignorance more than than to sinfulness as some of my educators wanted me to feel. This leads me to believe that others also do their very best and do not deserve to be punished or to feel guilty for their mistakes.
Consultancy in many succesive fields, whilst our industrial society was slowly turning into a service economy and lately, fast into a knowledge economy, has made one feature quite clear. It always did, and always will boil down to one single skill:
"Problem solving, and, when problems cannot be solved by frontal attack, a bit of lateral thinking."
However it is to be hoped that, in the new ages we are entering, it will be possible to prevent rather than to cure, and to engineer a more ergonomic society. After all we have been very successful with machinery. (Not yet with software I am afraid)
If telework, multimedia, virtual reality, simulation, intelligent agents, expert systems,intranets and instant connectivity are the tools for achieving this, then those of us who are fully involved may consider themselves very lucky.
By the way, telework the way I experience it every day is quite different from what we are discussing and writing about, but how to express it?
Madrid January 1997 (three years away from 2000).