Projects and Activities

2000 - 2002, Partner in EC IST project ASSIST, 
Achieving global Sustainability through Substitutive Information Society Technologies

1998 - 2000, Partner in EC ACTS project ASIS, Alliance for a Sustainable Information Society,  ASIS Brochure, Feb 99,  Correspondent for the Working Group on "Homes and Workplaces of the Future"    

1997 - 1999, Chair of ACTS "Chain" of 15 projects in 
"Telepresence and Shared Virtual Environments"

1995 - 1999,  Project Manager for EC ACTS project  RESOLV - REconstruction using Scanned Laser and Video,  Virtual reality copies of real locations,      RESOLV Brochure, Sept 1998

1995 - 1998,  Project Manager for EC ACTS project CICC - Collaborative Integrated Communication in Construction, Many explorations including of  video conferences between construction site and architects offices, a "google streetview" of factories for sharing expertise between factories in different countries and a "Facebook" social networking demonstration.

1993 - 1996,  Partner - EPSRC - DTI CSCW Project VirtuOsi
Explored applications of shared virtual environments for business and industry. Partners included Lancaster University, Nottingham University, GPT, BT Labs, and Division  as well as Balfour Beatty/BICC

1992 - 1995  Member - EC RACE II project BRICC - BRoadband Integrated Communications for Construction.The BRICC project evaluated the use of emerging communications services in the construction sector. One of the concepts explored  was the MultiMedia Hard Hat. Development continued in the MICC project.

1988 - 1992  Member - RACE I project DIMUN - Distributed Integrated Manufacturing Using Networks. Demonstration of the use of a virtual meeting room metaphor to support multimedia communications across all members of a distributed manufacturing enterprise, including factory shop floor staff.

Key Papers

Attachment and Collaboration,  to appear in Attachment: New Directions in Psychotherapy and Relational Psychoanalysis, October 2009

From a Psycho History to a Sane Future,  International Psychohistorical Association, 27th Annual Convention , New York, June 2004, revised July 2006

The Immaterialisation of Aspirations: Towards the Caring Society, ASSIST presentation at "e-Work and e-Business", Venice,  Nov 2001 

Collaboration and Shared Virtual Environments - from Metaphor to Reality     Presented at Joint European Commission/National Science Foundation Workshop on "Human-Centred Computing, Online Communities and Virtual Environments", Chateau de Bonas, 1-4 June 1999

Virtual Presence – Collaborative Integrated Communications for Construction  Presented at "Work Nouveau" session of IST 98,    "Living and Working in the Information Society" Vienna, 30 Nov-2 Dec 1998

Other Papers and Articles

The Cycle of Social Interaction as a Framework for Immaterialising Social Interaction Satisfiers   ASSIST Project Sept 2001

Editorial for Special Issue on Telework and Sustainable Development,  European Journal of Telework,  Winter 2000

Homes and Workplaces of the Future: the Immaterialisation of Aspirations ASIS presentation, FAW, Ulm, October 1999

From Telepresence and Shared Virtual Environments to a Sustainable Information Society, 1998

ACTS project ASIS, 1998  -  ASIS Homes and Workplaces Action Group 

Inner Space - the Final Frontier  Keynote speech at conference "From Desktop to Webtop", Bradford, April 1997

Retreat from Reality (not my title!),   On-Line Guardian Article, March 1997

A Virtual Environment to support Multimedia Networking  Adapted from a talk at Unicom Seminar on Collaborative Work, July1993

David Leevers, CEng, MIEE,        Curriculum Vitae

I graduated in physics from Cambridge University 1964 and then spent 8 years with GEC Computers leading the team that developed the first European interactive graphics CAD system for printed circuit board design. In that time I spent a year at Imperial College modelling self-organising processes in embryo development and then adapted the algorithms for laying out components inside computers.

The 1970’s were spent on design, consultancy and software management in telecommunications. This included 2 years with the ITT Europe Technical Centre and 3 years at PA Management Consultants on technology forecasting for new communications services. The decade culminated in inventing a combined telephone, personal organiser and "internet" (Prestel) terminal, the STC Executel - the first Personal Digital Assistant to reach the market, albeit desktop in size.

In 1984 I joined BICC (Balfour Beatty) to lead the development of a wide range of communications and video systems. This included demonstrating the concept of a Virtual Meeting Room as a metaphor for integrated communications services and demonstrating this approach in manufacturing and construction.

Between 1995 and 1999  I led two EC funded ACTS projects that explored the potential of networked virtual environments to support distributed collaborative work: CICC (Collaborative Integrated Communications for Construction) and RESOLV (Reconstruction using Laser and Video), and participated in MICC (Mobile Integrated Communications for Construction). This decade's invention was the MultiMedia HardHat that helped to break  down communication barriers in the construction industry by allowing site workers to particulate in distributed video conferences.

In 1998 I set up my own consultancy,  VERS, Virtual Environments for Real Society, reflecting the fact that my work was of much wider relevance than the construction and manufacturing activities of Balfour Beatty.

I then contributed to ACTS project ASIS, Alliance for a Sustainable Information Society. This explored how the ubiquitous multimedia information environments that had been prototyped in the above projects could contribute to reducing non-renewable material  needs and building a fairer, more fulfilling and more sustainable global society

I was a partner in IST, Information and Communications Technologies,  project ASSIST,  Achieving a Sustainable Society through Information Society Technologies 2000-02.  This project identified how higher level human needs are satisfied in the western consumer society of today, and explored how switching  from material-intensive to IST-intensive satisfiers can contribute both to global sustainability and to a higher quality for life for all.

I am now the Social Systems Consultant at the Clinic for Dissociative Studies in London. The short term task is to explore the use of Information and Communications Technologies in supporting therapy for Dissociative Identity Disorder. The long term research is exploring how globalisation is affecting attachment processes and the development of belief systems and collaboration skills in childhood, and proposing how new technologies can improve quality of life and stability of society  in coming decades.  My most recent paper proposes a unified perspective for different types of communication failure in early and middle childhood.