Adventures in home working

Ed has written a well considered response to my comments yesterday, the comments to his post are just as interesting.  I think I learned a few useful things today:

• A lot of people think Ed has pitched his blog just right, and really appreciate the frequent Microsoft related postings.  In fact Alan Lepofsky makes the point that he has had a lot of great feedback on a similar blog entry where he describes his reaction to what he has seen at TechEd.  That’s great feedback for Ed and probably means that my feedback – asking for more positive information about IBM value –  won’t have as much impact as I would have liked.
• My commenting system (actually Blogharbor’s) is not very easy to use
• I should have been more careful about the way I made my points,  I mixed up two issues in my post which definitely confused the resulting comments
• As David DeWell points out,  an Email to Ed would probably have been better than a Blog post,  however it would probably not have generated as much discussion

There are some other useful comments:

• Brian Benz pointed out that I had referred to Robert Scoble in the past tense,  which I had not really noticed.  I had done this because I felt that his departure from Microsoft meant that the nature of his blog would change as he moved on to a new phase in his life,  but it does read a bit strangely!
• Doug Irvine makes a great point,  rather than just commenting on Microsoft, Ed might consider commenting on the Web 2.0 threat,  however I think the reason Ed writes a lot about Microsoft is to offset some of the mis-information that some analysts/Microsoft are sometimes guilty of.  The motivation to clear that up is more understandable than the motivation to open up a debate around the whole competitive landscape, but it would be interesting.
• Gregg Eldred believes that there is good coverage of Notes/Domino,  after reading his comment I am still not really convinced,  I would like to see some links to blogs that describe the products, the impact on business and the impact on the people who use them
• The Technocrat believes Scoble should have been more focussed on Microsoft news and Scoble agrees,  I am not sure I do,  I think that it would have become more like a blog of press releases.  Although I agree that Scoble’s blog is not a corporate blog, however it was a blog that talked a lot about corporate blogging
• I also liked the quote : When people ask me if IT is exciting, I tell them, “IT is kind of like working in a fireworks factory, if things get exciting, you’re doing something wrong.”
• David DeWell tells me to defend my position and to post on my own blog,  well I did post in my comments, but just for David I took the time to write another summary post as well.

Ed Brill has one of the few blogs that evangelize what IBM is doing in the collaboration space, and it really bugs me that there are so few and that they rarely show much passion for the great products that IBM has in this area.  Ed recently compared his blog to Robert Scoble’s and I am afraid this comparison doesn’t work for me for many reasons, for example:

• Robert was often brutally critical of Microsoft’s products
• Robert often invited controversy by talking about areas where Microsoft was weak and needed to improve as a company
• Robert truly evangelized new technologies, ways of working and cultural change not just within Microsoft but across the industry
• Robert pushed hard to make Microsoft more open and transparent
• Robert blogged on his own time and followed his own, not Microsoft’s agenda
• Robert’s blog was very comment rich,  in fact many people – including me – read his blog as much for the varied opinion and discussion in the comments as his own content

Ed I don’t see any of these characteristics in your blog,  for me your focus is on debunking Microsoft marketing, and I readily admit that you have some valid points to make there,  I no for sure that most people would prefer you and your peers to blog about your great products and processes, to encourage a whole host of passionate developers, users and consultants working with your technologies to share their passion and expertise.  Ed I want more blogs like Alan Lepofsky’s,  but please Alan not more posts like this one!

Don’t get me wrong though Ed,  thanks for writing,  you are one of my best sources of info on all things IBM collaboration!

I keep hearing people describe IT as increasingly commoditized and they are often discussing PC’s and office products at the time.  This gets me frustrated because in my experience these particular technologies are anything but commodities.  Although there are very many definitions of commodity I used to think that Peter Cochrane was getting close when he said:

It seems to me that we find commodity items and services useful by definition! But when the price has fallen sufficiently, we no longer value them. That is, we tend to take things for granted and at some point consider their availability as good as free. Water and electricity are two good examples. We turn on the tap for a drink and flick a switch for light without even a second thought.

However I now think this style of thinking takes us to a dangerous place, its very similar to thinking about the purchase cost, rather than the total cost of ownership.  I think a much safer definition of commodity goes as follows:

A commodity is something that has a total cost of replacement that is very close to the purchase cost of the replacement, ie ownership has no value and ceasing to own has no penalty.

Now this definition might seem a bit too subtle,  but let me give you some examples of commodities and see if it works:

I can switch electricity and telephone supplier in the UK simply by making a short phone call.  I can replace my fridge by unpacking it, sliding it out of the kitchen and sliding in another one and re-packing.  These seem to fit my definition is commodity pretty well.

Now lets look at my PC, which is often referred to as a commodity,  unfortunately by my definition we have a problem,  the replacement cost is very considerably greater than the cost of replacement,  not only might I have compatibility issues to resolve but I will have data to transfer, application licences to find, media to find, software to install and configure etc etc.  Whilst the hardware might be a commodity the working system is anything but.  When looked at in this way commoditization looks like a great way to go though,  I would love to replace my PC and for all of the “state” to just transparently restore itself to the device.  With enterprise management software we are getting closer to this situation,  but we are a long way away from it in the home.  As data volumes increase and the state definition becomes increasingly complex I also think we will also continue to struggle in the enterprise.

I recently had a discussion with Microsoft planners about requirements for Windows beyond Vista and this issue was high on my wish list.  In fact I said to them that my high level requirement was for Windows to meet my definition of commoditized, and for loss and upgrade events to cost me little more than the purchase cost of the replacement device.  A more concrete suggestion was to be able to treat everything like data, ie I can just copy my PC to another PC, or to a USB memory stick and ironically Microsoft’s acquisition of Softricity might be one of the stop gap technologies that makes this more practical.  However I think the long term solution will need a lot of work by the whole industry, Graham also comments on this. 

I really like simple models to communicate ideas, and I often see good ideas in the communications section of Ezine.  The following diagram illustrates one of their planning tools for communicating a new idea.  The text is a summary from the article but the graphic is mine.

Take a sheet of paper and divide it into about four equal parts by drawing a horizontal line across the page and a vertical line down the page.

Starting in the upper-left corner, write down the germ of the idea. Take just a few words and describe the basic idea. Don’t elaborate and don’t use any space beyond that square, which will force a certain amount of conciseness. For example, “Try invoicing occasional customers at mid-month and end-of-month, rather than just at month-end.”

Moving to the upper-right corner, concisely explain the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ of the idea. What will I gain by pursuing this idea? For example, “Could improve cash flow and reduce our line of credit cost by 5%.”

Now, go to the bottom-right corner and make notes about the ‘who’ and the ‘how’ involved in implementing the idea. For example, “Sales reps submit billing info by the 10th and 25th of each month, billing department processes and prints invoices by the 15th and 30th.”

Finally, in the lower-left corner, explain how you will know whether or not the idea worked. What will you measure or monitor to see whether or not you’re getting the benefits you identified in the upper right corner. For example, “Review the accounts receivable ratios and the costs of the line of credit each month.”

Larry takes issue with the fact that people always talk about “Blogs and Wikis” at the same time when in fact they are are very different.  To further the point Larry quotes Tim Bray who said in this post  “I don’t think blogs are really a new thing in the world; but wikis are”.   Whilst I don’t have a problem at all with almost all of Larry’s post which is a useful discussion on Wikis I do think it makes sense to talk about them together.

I have already written about my conceptual hierarchy of IT needs,  at layers 1 and 2 people are seeking reliable access to IT, then seeking to maximise their productivity.  The next two layers are where Blogs and Wikis come in,  layer 3 in my model suggests that people seek first to control their personal voice ie the way that their total contribution to the world is viewed.  This is pretty important in a work context as the way their contribution is viewed affects pretty much everything in their work experience including their pay check.  My contention is that Blogs are a great way for an individual to control their personal voice.  Layer 4 in my hierarchy is Team Success and of course this is where Wikis come in as Wikis are one of the best technologies to support collaborative working and that’s a big part of team success. 

In my previous posts on this subject I make the point that it’s important to address the layers in order,  my point being that if you try to implement a system that meets a persons need to contribute to Team Success,  but don’t have a solution for ensuring that their personal voice can be heard then you will be in trouble.  So if I’m right that’s why it’s important to talk about Blogs and Wikis and that’s why it’s important to do it in that order.

I posted a quick update on my experiences with home working yesterday, but  thought I would provide some additional details, particularly in terms of my technology setup and some of the technology shortcomings.

First off, when I work from home I really don’t want to be tied to my desk all of the time,  this is particularly important to me for health reasons, but its useful for everyone. 

Here are some of the techniques I use at home:

• I leave my desktop running all of the time,  that way a press of a key and the monitors power on and I can check email, IM messages, RSS feeds etc at a glance and then get out of the study and on to something else
• I use a great utility call Wizmo that I assign to a shortcut key on my Microsoft keyboard,  a single press of the key and my monitors all go into power save mode.  Wizmo does all sorts of stuff but the command to power down monitors is “wizmo.exe monoff”
• I synchronise my Tablet with my desktop,  so if I want to work somewhere else in the house I just grab it from its dock and go
• I auto-forward my Treo 650 to my analogue business line when I dock the phone,  that way I only need to carry one phone around
• I have a DECT phone and a speaker phone,  when I am not in the study I take my DECT phone with me,  it uses the same headset as my Treo and I have a strap that lets me hang it around my neck while I am walking around the house in conference calls
• My wireless network and my DECT phone work anywhere in the house and garden,  I use a pre-n wireless access point with matched PC cards that have a range extender mode to get the coverage
• When I am doing housework etc,  I tend to listen to podcasts on my Treo,  if I am backing bread etc then I watch web-casts or conference DVDs on my Tablet,  I have a spare docking station in the kitchen

When I am at my desk I want to be ultra efficient (In theory I only do 4 hours a day of desk work):

• I have three monitors and try to create workflows that make most use of the screen area I have available
• I always like to know whether my contacts are online,  so I use Trillian which gives me a unified interface to Yahoo, Sametime, MSN and AOL.  One of the best features of Trillian is that it can be docked in an “always on top” configuration, in my case on my left monitor
• I do a lot of web conferencing,  I use my left monitor for web conferences.  While I am in the web conference I can also see all of my IM contacts
• Because most of my contacts have screens that run at 1024*768 res and I use 1280*1024 I have set up my web conferencing monitor so that the application area is roughly 1024*768 as well,  the rest of my screen area on that monitor is taken up by a “3 task high” task bar at the bottom and a set of custom toolbars and docked Trillian window on the far right.
• I have all of my contacts in groups, so that when I start a conference call or web conference I open up the groups with the appropriate contacts
• While I am in a web conference, sharing my screen, or watching someone else’s screen,  I have two additional 19” screens that I can use to view reference material, hold IM conversations, make notes, check email etc
• I try to work paperless, which makes it much easier to work wherever I am,  I almost never have any paper on my desk except post it notes or index cards to scribble notes on and I have a whiteboard on my door, which I stick stuff onto with magnets as well as using it for reminders.
• I have a notice that I can hang on the door so that the kids know to be quiet when they come home from school or come bounding into the study full of enthusiasm when I’m on a conference call
• I have speakers that I use to listen to stuff while filing, scanning or otherwise moving around the study
• I have a headset that I use when I want peace and quiet or want to use Skype
• I use Skype and Pamela to record conference calls that are not interactive,  I then play them back while out walking or in the car
• I use Polycom PVX for video conferences,  it provides great quality video,  I also sometimes use Skype.  Video is important to help with the bonding experience with new contacts
• My Polycom Soundpoint speaker phone has two lines (home and work) and lets me seamlessly switch from headset, to speaker to handset.

I like to get out and about:

• I have a Laptop and a Tablet but I tend to only use my Tablet when I am out of the house
• I have a GPRS modem and I can use my phone as a modem to keep connected,  but most of the time I am happy to just get email on my Treo
• I have two batteries for my Tablet to keep me going for about 4 hours if needed
• I don’t use a case for my Tablet,  I just slip it into a division that’s built into my rucksack,  I used to use a case but in the end decided it was well enough protected without and I use it much more now because it’s so much quicker to get in and out, not a single scratch in 6 months!
• I have several wired headsets for the Treo so I can listen into podcasts or dial into conference calls in all weathers and still hear what’s going on,  if its windy I need to stay on mute though!
• I carry everything I have ever written or read (nearly) with me, although I just had to upgrade to a 100GB disk
• I have a waterproof mp3 player that allows me to listen to podcasts or conference calls while I swim

Collaboration Software:

• Lotus Notes and Quickplace for company email and databases
• Outlook for personal email
• FeedDemon for RSS subscriptions
• Maxthon for all browsing with extensive use of tabs and groups of tabs
• Groove for inter-company collaboration
• Net-snippets and OneNote for note taking and research
• Trillian for IM

Stuff I would like:

• a more seamless phone experience, allowing me to switch between mobile, analogue and Skype as required
• a remote that lets me easily toggle the phones mute on and off.  I use headset control at the moment that uses the Treo’s headset button to control the Pocket Tunes media player.
• high speed always on Internet when I am away from wireless coverage,  at the moment it’s too slow and expensive
• a way of cancelling out wind noise so I could do conference calls while out walking
• better mobile coverage in my house
• space for comfy chairs and a table in the study so I had a better place for chilling out and for meetings
• improved collaboration software that made it easier to see what’s going on within the teams I work in,  probably using a combination of absolutely everything being RSS enabled and some sort of persistent multi-party IM discussion
• IM while mobile
• my Tablet to act like an ink enabled touch screen extension to my desktop whilst it is in proximity to it and a stand-alone device when it’s out of the room.  That way it would be easier to use it for note taking and sketching when on web conferences
• when conferencing I would love software that handles different screen resolutions better and that can share applications on any monitor, not just the primary display
• an easier way to establish ad-hoc web conferences, Sametime is not configured correctly (in my view) in my company
• a tablet display that works in full sun,  I often sit in the sand dunes or in the garden and do conference calls,  but seeing my screen can be a real struggle
• symmetric broadband, even 2mb would be ok,  but ideally symmetric 10mb
• better video conferencing.  I would like full screen resolution and 4 people to a screen resolution,  with 3 screens video conferencing is definitely viable and useful
• every application I need to access to be Internet facing, I hate VPN,  I do sometimes need to use VPN and when I do I run up a virtual machine and VPN from that so that it doesn’t interrupt my other activities
• a whisper quiet printer, for when the kids decide to print in the middle of a conference call
• a system that monitors where friends are right now,  to make it easier to decide to meet up for an hour in a local Cafe

I was shocked to learn that Scoble is leaving Microsoft, but probably not that surprised.  I told him a few months ago that I was very impressed by the influence that he has had on the company and his bravery in achieving it.  I am sure that many other people should share in that praise, but for me it is Scoble who has been largely responsible for creating a completely different vision of what Microsoft is like and the way that it operates. I hope Microsoft are able to think through the implications of his loss and to consider how they continue his good work, especially his dedication to cutting through the marketing and being open and honest.  Chris and Dave write nice posts supporting his decision and I am always happy to see people making such decisions from their heart.

I consider myself to be very lucky to work from home.  Because my medical condition makes it difficult for me to travel at least a couple of times a week and I feel too ill to work for at least a few hours most days only a decade ago I would have probably had to give up work. 

However having reached the point in my career where I am now happy to use my skills and experience to support others around the world on their projects home working suits me very well for the following reasons:

• I have a 12 hour window within which to fit in 4 hours of desk work and a couple of hours of research,  this is possible on most days even if I am really tired or in a lot of pain
• I work with teams in the UK, Northern Europe, US and Australia so the extended working day is very valuable
• Not only do I spread out my work over a 12 hour period but in between work sessions I do a lot of gentle exercise which would be difficult to do in an office environment
• I often need to rest, read, nap, meditate etc again this would be difficult in an office environment
• The global nature of my work means there really is no office full of people that I work with anyway
• Although my wife also works from home because two of my daughters need to go to hospital regularly there are often times (every week) when I need to pick kids up from school or take them to after school activities
• Work life balance is much improved
• I have a trampoline at home!

Although home working is very convenient, there are definitely some down-sides:

• I miss the casual social interactions, for example the chats that don’t take place when you only ever talk to people on conference calls
• Most people I want to chat with seem to be busy on conference calls all day,  somehow when you work from home just chilling out for 10 minutes with a couple of team mates is more difficult than it used to be
• I observe much less the way that other people work, and therefore it’s more difficult to pick up new skills and broaden my experience
• There is some social isolation,  even though I get out a lot and meet people a lot,  it’s a smaller circle of people
• My work life and my home life are fully integrated,  it’s more difficult to switch off, but I am nice and relaxed so there is less need to switch off

I mitigate some of this using tools and processes:

• Blogs and blog comments provide access to a diversity of opinion and discussions
• Podcasts provide a way to connect to a broader set of views in a more social way than just reading, and I can listen to them while walking, swimming, ironing, gardening etc
• Presence and IM provide a relatively un-disruptive way to keep in contact with people
• Lunch time meetings provide a good social connection with the few people who live locally
• I am not addicted to always on email
• I keep my Tablet largely free of all work related activities except reading, and a small amount of reviewing

I have an extended version of this post here

HP recently shocked it’s employees and sent a few ripples through the industry when they decided to reign back home working.  Their justification seems to be that whilst home-working is great for many senior employees it makes it difficult for junior staff to build their skills and broaden their experience. 

I think they make a good point,  I agree that telecommuting does create more of a stable state in a persons attitude, they become less ambitious, find picking up new skills more difficult and get exposed to a narrower set of experiences.  This focus is fine for people who have already reached a certain level of expertise, although even then they are not as well prepared for disruptions that might come along every decade or so.

In a previous post I described research that indicates that working collaboratively in a co-located team is probably the most effective work environment provided productivity and sustaining innovation is the objective rather than disruptive innovation, so in HP’s case I would support office working if the following was true:

• Team working was essential to the work being undertaken
• The average team member didn’t have to commute for more than 1/2 hour each way
• The office environment was designed for collaborative work teams
• The environment was flexible enough to evolve with the needs of the teams as they change over time
• The teams in the office worked together for long periods of time doing similar work where the primary driver was productivity and continuous improvement

Unfortunately I find all too often that people are asked to work in offices where:

• They do not work in teams
• People often commute for 45minutes or more to get there
• The office is full of cubicles or fixed desking that makes it very difficult to work effectively as a team
• The fixed desks are very difficult to move around, certainly not something the team can do themselves over lunch
• The people in the office are not part of long life teams, ie they might switch from project to project every 3–6 months and often their new project team is not close to them in the office

All that said I also think it’s key that when you send people to work from home that you don’t think you’ve solved the collaboration problem by providing them with email, a team room , audio and web conferencing!

For other commentary on this topic check out Technorati here

I have been testing Office 2007 for some time now, seen lots of bugs – but hardly reported any of them – because the process for doing so was way too time consuming.  With office 2007 we get the opportunity to install a couple of taskbar icons smiley and grumpy.  Just click on the appropriate icon, write a few words and you’re done!  This is great, I have logged loads of comments, mostly grumpy ones and today the first follow up emails started to come through from Microsoft.

This utility is a clear reminder to me of the threshold to participation that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago.  previously the testers got the threshold way too high so got way too many bugs reported,  now they have it very low and hopefully getting a much clearer indication of the state of their software.  Well done Microsoft! 

This also appealed to me because years ago one of the first systems I developed had a little text box on the status bar where customers could type in a short comment and send it straight back to me,  I learnt a lot from that simple, immediate feedback loop!