Connecting knowledge workers and managers through both technology and social practices is a management imperative of the new millennium. Sun Vice President of Open Work Services Ann Bamesberger shares with Sun Executive Boardroom readers ways in which today's managers can help their teams work effectively across distance and time.

Q: How do you define Open Work?

A: Open Work is an integrated work environment that brings together the technology, workspace and organizational enablers to support a 21st century workforce. It's about choices for individuals, managers, and workgroups that take advantage of virtual collaboration, distance collaboration, and global reach while opening the doors to intellectual capital that otherwise might not be available given proximity constraints. It's about an expansion of choices for work style.

Q: What does an Open Work environment look like?

A: There is no standard blueprint. Think of Open Work as an integrated network of people, places, and technologies that are systemically linked to meet the requirements of the task at hand. Physically, it could look like a home-office or drop-in facility on the residential side of a commute, or a main campus that we would call a hub. There can be drop-in centers, team spaces, or Open Work cafes.