GLOBAL – The Nokia Wormhole doesn’t enable you to take a neat sci-fi shortcut through space and time, hopping between galaxies, as the name might loosely suggest. That is of course unless you believe that webcam technology performs this function (granted it’s not perhaps cutting edge a concept, yet it remains smart technology). See, the Nokia Wormhole (pictured) is a new remote communication initiative that Nokia has launched within the company, creating an informal long distance face-to-face meeting place (via webcam) in the same vein as Nokia’s advanced Halo suites – the purpose being that it further enables employees to communicate better yet travel less, in turn helping Nokia employees reduce the environmental impact of the company via air travel and alike.
Read on to find out more about the Nokia Wormhole.
The first Nokia Wormhole offers a live audio and video link between Nokia House in Keilalahti, Espoo, Finland, and Nokia offices in Southwood, UK. Somewhat like a water-cooler, the Nokia Wormhole is designed to be one of those places within the company that folk gather to talk around – the difference here being that Nokia employees are engaging face-to-face despite being hundreds of miles apart, instead of a few feet. The Nokia Wormhole is one of the most casual tools that Nokia has implemented internally to improve communication options and cut down on travel.
Here on the Nokia Conversations team, we use one of Nokia’s most advanced remote communications tools, Halo (read about it here), for almost a year now – myself and James live and work out of London, while the rest of the Conversations gang live and work in Espoo, Finland. So Halo has proved itself an invaluable tool, that unlike other video conferencing tech we’ve used, genuinely makes it feel like you’re all in the same room. The Wormhole is obviously a hugely scaled back version, tailored for easygoing impromptu interaction, but early signs are that it’ll be a popular method for catching up on things.