Wide Teams

Episode #85: Allen Maxwell of EmpowerIT

Jun 12, 13 • In Featured, Interviews, Podcast

In this episode, Allen Maxwell of EmpowerIT, talks about several remote tools and resources, collaborative drawing and design, and making remote working work. Show Notes: Allen Maxwell (twitter github [email protected]) 00:36 – Allen Maxwell Introduction 03:09 – Working Remotely 06:46 – “A Day in the Life” 07:24 – Working with Team Members 10:17 – The Evolution of Remote Tools and Pair Programming 14:25 – Making remote working work 16:43 – Collaborative Drawing & Design 21:10 – Face-to-face meetings and nonverbal cues

Podcast #38: Vassilis Rizopoulos of Zühlke

Jun 27, 12 • In Featured, Interviews, Podcast

Vassilis Rizopoulos, of Zühlke, talks about what it is like to handle equipment that can be remotely operated, working within a company’s IT limitations, and the importance of setting boundaries when working from home. Show Notes: Twitter: @arcandros Google+ EuRuKo Zühlke 01:20 – Vassilis’ history and background 05:30 – Embedded hardware development 08:49 – Structure of Vasillis’ remote teams 11:17 – Iteration meetings 14:36 – Daily stand-ups 15:24 – Interaction with co-workers 18:30 – Information radiators 22:41 – Working with IT limitations 26:00 – Advice for working remotely 27:00 – Positives and negatives of working remotely

Podcast #28: Shane Pearlman of Shane & Peter

Mar 23, 11 • In Featured, Interviews, Podcast

In this episode I talk to Shane Pearlman of Shane & Peter, a fully dispersed software consultancy. We talked about recruiting the right kinds of people for a distributed team, and how to stay connected as friends as well as coworkers. Show notes: Shane Pearlman is @justlikeair on Twitter Shane & Peter Check out the Shane & Peter Lifeblog Redmine Adium Coworking Freelance Camp

Wide Links #19

Mar 18, 11 • In Links

The latest and greatest news and resources for remote workers, from all around the web. Set Up Remote Colleagues With the Apps They Need Using Ninite: Online Collaboration « Ninite has a selection of many of the most commonly used apps, including browsers, IM clients, media players, office apps, Flash, PDF readers, security tools, utilities and even some of WWD’s favorite tools, like Dropbox, Evernote and KeePass. The installer installs the most up-to-date version of the apps; running the installer again will update the apps to the latest version. iPad 2: The Best Tablet for Distributed Teams Just Got Better: Online Collaboration « I’ve talked about the importance of a “comms appliance” for remote workers; the iPad 2may just be the best device yet for that role. tags: communication videoconferencing ipad People who think

Podcast #27: Susan Tenby & Jessica Dally of TechSoup

Mar 16, 11 • In Interviews, Podcast

This podcast is a departure from the dispersed software development teams I usually cover. I interviewed Susan Tenby and Jessica Dally of TechSoup, a nonprofit focused on providing other nonprofits with the technology they need to better accomplish their missions. One way they assist nonprofits is in helping them to use Second Life, a massive on-line “virtual world”, to collaborate and build community online. I talked to Susan and Jessica about why TechSoup is a distributed organization, and why organizations are using Second Life to meet, network, and do their work. For someone who spends a lot of time doing remote collaboration, it was eye-opening for me to discover this whole new frontier of online interaction. After listening to this interview you may just be inspired to add a virtual world meeting space to your

Encouraging Involvement in Distributed Teams

Mar 14, 11 • In Basics, Featured, Practices, Tips & Hacks

One of the biggest challenges in remote work is simply making sure everyone has a strong sense of involvement. In this article Steven Baker, a veteran of dispersed agile software development teams, shares his experiences and recommendations for keeping the communication, camaraderie, and personal connections alive in a distributed setting. When you don’t occupy the same office for the same period of time every day with your co-workers, you can’t walk to your co-worker’s desk, or turn around in your chair to have a chat about what you’re working on. There is no water cooler to mill around get in the loop on what’s happening, and having lunch together is difficult. Differences in location, timezone, and working hours, can all combine to make you and the members of your team disconnected from each other. This

Podcast #26: Sahil Parikh of DeskAway.com

Mar 8, 11 • In Interviews, Podcast

In this episode I talked to Sahil Parikh of DeskAway.com, a web-based collaboration tool for distributed teams. This is another episode recovered from near-disastrous technical malfunction, and as a result all of my audio has been re-dubbed. Thankfully, Sahil’s insights into he advantages of a dispersed team have been fully preserved. Show notes: Sahil Parikh is @sahilparikh on Twitter. Check out DeskAway at DeskAway.com / @deskaway

The Well-Equipped Remote Worker

Mar 7, 11 • In Conferences

Slides, notes, and links for the talk “The Well-Equipped Remote Worker” delivered on March 5th at the Daycamp 4 Developers 2 virtual conference. On March 5, 2011 I had the great pleasure of delivering a talk entitled “The Well-Equipped Remote Worker” at the Day Camp 4 Developers 2 virtual conference. I’d like to thank Cal Evans, all the other organizers and speakers, and especially the attendees for making the conference possible.I really enjoyed participating, loved the IRC chat, and got a lot of good advice from the other speakers’ talks. As promised, here are slides, notes and links to more information. But first, if you attended the talk, I would greatly appreciate it if you would rate it on SpeakerRate. Thanks! Slides The Well-Equipped Remote Worker View more presentations from Avdi Grimm

Podcast #24: Derek Wade

Feb 15, 11 • In Interviews, Podcast

In this episode, a conversation with Derek Wade, a collaboration expert and Team Coach at Kumido Adaptive Systems. We talk about building “high-gravity” distributed teams, work-scapes, and the benefits of simple, free-form tools for collaboration. This episode is “back from the dead” — all of the audio from my side of the interview was lost, but I reconstructed and re-dubbed my questions so that I could share this interview. Show notes: Derek can be found at derekwwade.net, and is @derekwwade on Twitter. Slides for the presentation “High Gravity Distributed Teams“ The #lrnchat hashtag on Twitter I did a video demo of the Cardmeeting tool

Wide Links #17

Dec 10, 10 • In Links

Some of my favorite reading on dispersed teams from the last week. In this edition: investing in your home office; staying in touch with your team; agile software practices for distributed teams; giving a presentation over the internet, and much more. Where to Invest for the Biggest Productivity Gains You can save a lot of money by working remotely, but that doesn’t mean you should skimp on the tools that really matter. A few strategically chosen expenditures can dramatically increase your productivity and connectivity. tags: wideteams Remote workers can’t escape talking on the phone, or its modern day equivalents. I personally have a fairly expensive handset hooked up to my landline, which I use when it’s important to have great call quality and a connection I can depend upon. You might not consider a landline