  Despite the fact that outside is becoming the frontier of indoor workplaces,
a large amount of real-world work like road construction has to be done by
outdoor human activities in open areas. Given the promise of the smart
workplace in various aspects including productivity and safety, we decided to
employ smart workplace technologies for a collaborative outdoor project both to
improve the work efficiency and to reduce the worker injuries. Nevertheless,
our trials on smart workplace implementation have encountered a few problems
ranging from the theoretical confusion among different stakeholders, to the
technical difficulties in extending underground devices' lifespan. This
triggers our rethinking of and discussions about "smart workplace". Eventually,
considering the unique characteristics of outdoor work (e.g., more
sophisticated workflows and more safety-related situations than office work),
we argue that "safety-centric and smart outdoor workplace" deserves dedicated
research attentions and efforts under the umbrella discipline of smart
environment. In addition, the identified technical challenges can in turn drive
different research dimensions of such a distinguishing topic.
