Amerikai Magyar Hírlap, 1993 (5. évfolyam, 31-51. szám)

1993-11-12 / 44. szám

AMERICAN Hungarian Journal about the virtual water cooler. "To be truthful," Mr. Möller said, "the only thing that makes some jobs bearable is the social con­tact." IBM plans to overcome the loneliness of its long-distance workers through regular open­­agenda meetings and video con­ferences. "The office is going to be much more like a club," Mr. Bell said. "The only reason people will need to go there is to have meetings and teamwork sessions." Mr. Bell said the opportunity to save huge amounts of money on fixed costs would drive com­panies into introducing flexible, nomadic work patterns and giving up space, even if many managers still look on the process with suspicion. "The next genera­tion of managers will be very com­fortable with the technology," he said, "and then we will see the virtual office being accepted as a normal form of business prac­tice." This could lead to a growth of smaller office buldings in the sub­urbs and beyond, where people will want to live, shop and play, as well as work, Mr. Bell added. There will be less pressure on rail and road links taking people in and out of city centers, and city center hotels could find themsel­ves with fewer clients. At the same time, cities will have to revise zoning laws so that redundant city center office buildings can be turned into living space. Editor’s Note: I spent most of the weekend on airplanes, traveling to New York and back. Browsing through international magazines, I found this news item, which I believe may announce one of the most significant changes in big­­city-dwellers’lifestyle at this turn of the century. / hope our Readers will find it as interesting as / did, even though it has no bearing on Hungarian events - yet! When it does, it may solve our native country’s chronic housing shortage. SJ. DEVASTATING FIRESTORMS This page written by ATA accredited translator SUSAN JANCSO HUNGARY Invites ASTA World Travel Congress to Return to Budapest in 1998 U.S. VISITOR TRAFFIC DOUBLED SINCE 1988 ST. LOUIS - The number of Americans traveling to Hungary each year is twice what it was prior to the 1988 ASTA World Travel Congress in Budapest, said Tamás Téglássy, president of the Hungarian Tourist Board. At the Society’s 1993 congress here, Téglássy handed ASTA President Earlene Causey a for­mal invitation from the Hun­garian government to hold the 1998 congress in Budapest. He said Americans represent the fastest growing category of visitors to Hungary, with their numbers increasing by 20 percent per year over the past three years. In the first six months of this year, 108,000 Americans traveled to Hungary, up 22.1 percent from the same period in 1992. Hungary has also seen substan­tial increases in the number of visitors from Canada and Japan, Téglássy said. Overall, he said, "The mix of business has shifted from neigh­boring countries to faraway countries." In terms of tourist appeal, 1996 will provide at least two reasons to visit Hungary. Between May and October of 1996, Budapest will host the World Expo. "It will be the last major World’s Fair of the 20th century and the first in Central Europe that I can remember," said Téglássy. That year marks the 1,100th an­niversary of Hungary’s existence as a nation, and there will be many events to celebrate the event. If Only Work Could Be Virtual, Too PARIS - The virtual office is here. Which raises the potential problem of what to do with a lot of redundant, old-fashioned of­fice space back on earth. In the next three to five years, hundreds of major Western cor­porations are expected to move out of real estate and into cyber­space networks. As a result, their physical space requirements will change. In­stead of supplying each employee with a desk or an office, many companies will find it cheaper, more efficient, more flexible and perhaps more agreeable to equip workers with portable computers and communications equipment and allow them to make their own working arrangements. When these employees need to work at base, they will use "non­­territorial" or "virtual" offices available to all, or book meeting rooms or videoconference facilities, a recent concept known as "hoteling." "It’s an office, not the office," said Michael Bell, director of Corporate Real Estate for Dun & Bradstreet in New York. The virtual office is no utopian idea. In the United States, a number of companies, including Andersen Consulting, Ernst & Young, Digital Equipment, IBM and Aetna Life & Casualty, have already introduced it. So important is the trend toward virtual offices likely to be, some experts say, that inner cities will have to be redefined and redesigned as work habits and transportation needs evolve. "We already have a huge excess of office space in the United States just because of overbuild­ing," Mr. Bell said. "Add the reduced demand by corporations that are going through downsiz­ing of people and then add the nonterritorial office concept. This is not good news for the traditional office building in­dustry." On top of this, many companies are further reducing their space requirements by transferring paper files to compact discs, ac­cording to Chris Möller, manag­ing director of Home Office Partnership, a consulting com­pany in Cambridge, England. Chiat/Day, a West Coast adver­tising agency, has modeled its new headquarters on a college campus built in the form of an ocean liner. The chairman said that the old conventional offices tended to become repositories for bad golf trophies, and that they discouraged creativity. The agency’s employees have free rein to drop in at head­quarters - which includes a video library, a "student union," diner­­style booths for client meetings and tiny offices built inside vintage amusement park cars - but mostly they work from wherever it is most convenient, whether it be home, a client’s of­fice, a hotel or an airport lounge. General Electric, which aims at reducing office space 40 percent to 50 percent, calls its program "the office of now" rather than the office of the future. In Europe, the leading proponent of the virtual office concept is IBM. "We wanted to be in the forefront," said Philippe Debacker of IBM in Paris. As an indication of the kind of revolution that may be just around the corner, IBM is in the process of squeezing the staff from 18 buildings in and around Paris into 6. Some 5,000 "nomad" workers will normally work away from base, meaning that some work groups have been able to give up 70 percent of the space they occupied. The 600 million francs the company saves annual­ly in rents will enable it to avoid having to lay off staff next year, according to Claude Andreuzza, the president of the board of IBM-France. Mr. Debacker said early indica­tions were extremely positive, with off-base employees able to work more flexibly and spend more than half their time with clients, rather than 30 percent as before. Along with the concept of the virtual office have come concerns LOS ANGELES - The City of Angels was in flames again last week. Arson in a dry season devastated the city’s urban rim. Driven by fierce Santa Ana winds, 14 major brush fires ravaged L.A.’s suburbs, burning 152,000 acres and hundreds of homes. The disaster pushed firefighters to the limit and com­pounded the state’s ecological and social troubles. No one could remain untouched by the fires. From Ventura County to Altadena and south through Laguna Beach, all the way to the Mexican border, 14 major conflagrations turned the edge of the metropolis into a ring of fire. Accustomed as Califor­nians have become to the annual brush-fire season, no one in Los Angeles could escape the fact that this year’s outbreaks were as bad as they get. TV covered the multiple fires endlessly, and by Wednesday, the whole Los An­geles Basin was wreathed in a shroud of acrid smoke that turned the setting sun blood-red. What is sad about the fires is that all the material loss and human suffering, both physical and psychological, was caused in large part by arsonists. Although the immediate cause was arson, the real cause was the collision of man and nature - the steady encreachment of L.A.’s suburban sprawl on an ecosystem in which drought, wind and fire have al­ways played a major role. The total damage: 152,000 acres burned, more than 550 homes destroyed and property damage of at least $500 million. There were 84 casualties, includ­ing 67 firefighters. Astonishingly, however, there were only one or two deaths reported due to the fires, and for that the praise goes to the brave and well-prepared firefighters who protected resi­dents and saved as much property as was possible from the flaming inferno. BRITISH FILM PRODUCER DUNCAN GIBBINS was one of the casualties; he died of his severe burn injuries November 8. The American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals named an award after Gibbins, who suffered fatal burns trying to rescue his Siamese cat from the fire that swept the Malibu area of Southern California. According to firefighters, even on his way to the hospital he kept asking, "Where is my cat? Is my cat O.K.?" Incidentally, the cat suf­fered only minor burns and shock but otherwise was doing fine. INTEREX EXPORT Szállítás Los Angeles - Budapest között zárt konténerben, 5 hét alatt. *** Autóját, hajóját vagy bármi ingóságát, dobozait, garantált határidővel a legkedvezőbb áron szállítjuk. A házhoz szállítás is megoldott. Kérjük, hívják Tamást vagy Miklóst: Tel: (310) 634-9256 vagy (805) 527-4006 East Coast Office (407) 744-9832 East Coast Office Cíin: 7525 Rosecrans Ave., #221 PARAMOUNT, CA 90723 XJj fax számunk: (805)579-9611 JÁNOSI TRAVEL December 18: Budapest - Los Angeles - Budapest CSOPORT UTAZAS KÍSÉRŐVEL December 17: Los Angeles - Budapest - Los Angeles CSOPORT UTAZÁS Mi készségesen megvalósítjuk az Önök kívánságát, hogy az ünnepeket rokonaival tölthesse Tel: (818) 834-1145 945 S. Western Ave. #104 LOS ANGELES, CA 90006 DR. SZABÓ TAMÁS D.C. 7060 Hollywood Blvd. #520 (Great Western Bldg-ben, közel a La Brea-hoz) Derék, hát és lábfájdalmak * Zsibbadás kézben és lábban Nyak, váll és kézfájdalom * Fejfájás Idegfeszültség * Reuma GÉPJÁRMŰ BALESETEK, MUNKAHELYI SÉRÜLÉSEK, SPORT BALESETEK Készséggel állok ilyen, vagy hasonló problémájú honfitársaim rendelkezésére |Tel: (213) 464-1633 FAX: (213) 464-1674 Personal injury Immigration Válás Workman Compensation .Szerződések Végrendelet Autóbaleset Bűnügyek Real Estate 8484 Wilshire Blvd. #235 Beverly Hills, CA 90211-3245 Tel: (213) 653-4884 Fax: (213) 852-0845 ,, AMERIKAI Pfl Hfagyar Hírlap ED DR. SZABÓ GÁBOR ügyvéd

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