Study: Teams work best when members are physically close together

Re:Study: Teams work best when members are physically close ... by JoeAltmaier on Sunday January 30, 2011 @04:35PM (#2159249)

I've worked remotely for 10 years. 5 different startups.

Its had its ups and downs, but its working better now that ever. We're using an always-on collaborative tool that removes all the friction: Sococo.com

Our project has taken 3 years and involved Engineers/managers in 4 states. We've interacted daily and in a ad-hoc manner. Now we're doing Agile development to some degree, and thats working too.

The article mentions Skype etc. We're way beyond that. Any conclusions may be stale.

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Re:Study: Teams work best when members are physically close ... by azimuthjm on Sunday January 30, 2011 @05:35PM (#2159393)

cough

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/joe-altmaier/6/38b/996

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Re:Study: Teams work best when members are physically close ... by fbailey on Sunday January 30, 2011 @04:57PM (#2159305)

Why do you use sococo. I just visited the site and it just looks like skype with a weird Office UI ? Is there more to it?

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Re:Study: Teams work best when members are physically close ... by Silhouette on Sunday January 30, 2011 @05:36PM (#2159397)

Possibly because he works there?

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/joe-altmaier/6/38b/996

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Re:Study: Teams work best when members are physically close ... by JoeAltmaier on Monday January 31, 2011 @09:43AM (#2161554)

You bet! I spent 3 years of my life consulting with these folks, helping with architecture, coding the network and voice components, recruiting for the UI and server-side.

It started being useful two years ago. We were our first users. Our productivity climbed, and our travel bill halved immediately.

Its nothing like Skype. No "phone call" model at all. You're instantly connected, can see everybody in your group at all times, you can tell who they're talking to, when they're done.

The map feature is more useful than it might seem. You can tell what your team members are doing, who they're talking to, whether the staff meeting has started, if Bob is in today etc.

I didn't call out my involvement this post, I've done that on half a dozen posts before, sorry.

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Re:Study: Teams work best when members are physically close ... by JoeAltmaier on Monday January 31, 2011 @12:19PM (#2162285)

Everything that has voice is not 'just skype'. Sococo is betting that the 'phone call' model will become obsolete, like email is giving way to chat and twitter.

Try it, its free. And only about 6Mb download (most of that graphics) because the app is essentially a 'dumb terminal' - the meat is on the server.

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