Working with People You Can't Be With Daily Report (July 16, 2008)

The People Part of Working with People You Can't Be With

• Andy lives the lifestyle of global business nomad, and talks extensively about how he makes it work. "Since last October I've been living the life of a Global Nomad, learning more about what works and what's best for people who need more than just email and voice mail. As a home office-based business owner, with 20 virtual team members across the USA and a client base that spans from Israel to Sydney Australia, knowing how to work virtually and successfully has led to some of the best of breed companies becoming our clients because we don't just "talk the talk," we actually "walk the walk," every day." Key tools: Covad (high-speed DSL), SightSpeed (video conferencing), VAPPS (hi-definition audio conferencing), PhoneFusion, OnSip, and more. Andy is a lead practitioner of working with people from anywhere; see what you can learn from him.


• A couple of good reminders about the problems of remote work: not everyone should do it, and face-to-face interaction is still essential. And for government agencies, data security is another one.


• Here's one way to make remote work even more green: the treadmil workstation. You know, don't drive to work while at the same time generating power for your computer by walking the treadmill. Shoe manufacturers and deoderant vendors will be the winner if this takes on!

The Technology Trends of Working with People You Can't Be With

• WorkflowPerfect released a web-based workflow tool for coordinating collaborative work. "WorkflowPerfect has an answer to that question: of course you don’t. Instead, you can use their free, multiuser, web-based business process tool to create and manage all the multiuser workflows you need. Its tools allow you to both build and manage workflows - coordinated sets of tasks that get handed off between team members and updated with custom forms." See WorkflowPerfect. Workflow has always been about (a) keeping everyone clear about what they are supposed to do next, and (b) making processes more repeatable and error-free. Using a tool like WorkflowPerfect can definitely assist virtual teams.


• Larry has been trying out Flowgrams, a new way of doing a screencast about a series of web pages, photos, etc. "The blogflow I created with Flowgram reviews several posts available to this date that cover the topic of collaboration. This was a first pass effort. However, I’d be interested in what anyone who takes the time to review it thinks of the concept as a media resource for blogs." Looks like a good tool ... I'll be signing up. Thanks Larry!

Comments

[Larry Irons]

Michael,

I can give you an invite to the beta if you want to try it out. I only have ten but will be happy to share one. Contact me at my email if you are interested.

Larry

[Michael Sampson]

Thanks Larry ... I actually requested my own, and it arrived today!
M.