GAT (General Access - Telework) Chain

Chain Workplan for Telework Guidelines

Requirements and Priorities

• the technology development constituency
  
  
• the social/industrial and political constituencies
  
  
• the independent teleworkers and networked SMEs constituencies

1. a Guideline focused on interoperability, of interest to all three groups, but based on the perception of the topic, of primary interest to the technology development constituency;
   
   
2. a Guideline focused on access to telework opportunities by the self employed and micro-enterprises, of primary interest to the independent teleworkers and networked SMEs constituencies but also of increasing interest to the social/industrial and political constituencies, given the perception that small firms are the main dependency for future employment creation and economic success;
   
   
3. a Guideline focused on the role and impact of telework in the processes of job creation and job destruction, which will be of primary interest to the social/industrial and political constituencies.

Creation of Draft Guidelines

Template 1 - http://www.eto.org.uk/gat/guides/templ1.htm

For a "bottom up" approach, staring from a discussion of the requirements and focusing in on a Guideline through comment and discussion;

Template 2 - http://www.eto.org.uk/gat/guides/templ1.htm

For a "top down" approach, starting from a Provisional Guideline and refining this through challenge and discussion, which will also elicit rationale and supporting materials.

Telework: Interoperability Guidelines - online at http://www.eto.org.uk/gat/guid es/gat-g1.htm

This has been produced using the bottom up approach.

Telework: Access to Work Opportunities for Self Employed, Micro-Enterprises and Virtual Enterprises - online at http://www.eto.org.uk/gat/guid es/gat-g2.htm

Produced using the top down approach

1. A project proposes a particular Guideline topic and declares its intention of supporting the development process for that Guideline (the "owning project"). Any ACTS project participating in the ACTS Telework Chain may propose a Guidelines topic. Support to the development process entails provision of an initial draft and an editor - see below.
   
   
2. An individual (nominated by the proposing project) creates an initial draft and assumes ownership of the comments and editing processes (the editor).
   
   
3. The initial draft is placed online at a www site accessible by the editor, and is indexed along with all Telework Guidelines at the ETD website. The draft may be online at the owning project's site or at the ETD site.
   
   
4. A mechanism is provided on the www for making comments on the draft - by comments is included suggested additions, rewordings, deletions etc; comments should be constructive only please. Where possible comments should take the form of proposed additional or alternative wordings. Comments should be accompanied by the name of the person making the comment and their affiliation. The online mechanism will be provided by the ETD project unless the owning project is able to resource its own equivalent mechanism.
   
   
5. All comments will be visible to active participants in the Chain.
   
   
6. At a suitable stage (usually no later than a date announced in advance) the editor will re-draft the Guideline, taking into account comments received by that date. At least two weeks notice will be given of the closing date for comments. The mechanism for this will be the GAT notices email list.
   
   
7. At this point a decision will be made by the Telework Chain Chair as to whether the present draft is sufficiently advanced to be reviewed externally, so as to start the process of achieving consensus with relevant constituencies.
   
   
8. The main method for external review and comment will be the same as that for internal Chain review, namely comments by email displayed at the website; however in order to obtain comments that properly represent informed opinion in the constituencies most concerned it may be necessary to circulate paper versions and provide a paper mechanism for obtaining comments - the (ETD) Chain Secretariat will handle this, unless the Guideline is one within the scope of the DIPLOMAT project's outreach activities. Other GAT projects may also take on this role or participate, for example EPRIWATCH may provide mechanisms for comments from the European political constituences, FAIR from the economic analysis constituencies. All Chain projects should endeavour to make the Guideline known to as wide a relevant audience as possible. A forms-based process will be made available for the collection of formal comments.
   
   
9. Either the ETD Secretariat or the appropriate project will monitor and assess the scope of interests represented among the comments received so as to determine when a wide enough range of comment has been received.
   
   
10. When in the view of the Chain Chair a sufficiency of external comment has been received the editor will again re-draft the Guideline, which will then be made available to all concerned as a final draft

This draft Guideline is produced and made available for general information and comment by a group of projects working together in the ACTS Programme Telework Chain; all statements contained in the draft Guideline are the responsibility of the editor/project (see note) named in the Guideline and do not represent an official policy statement of either the companies participating in the projects concerned or of the European Commission. Comments should please be sent to (email and other coordinates of the editor).

Languages

IPR

Testing the Process