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November 22, 2006
Can the virtual office ever emulate a shared physical space?
Alan O'Rourke posts about the problems associated with the 'bandwidth' limitations of a virtual office setup. He examines how the distributed digital environment cannot emulate the serendipity of casual physical employee meetings.
A few years ago, when Alan worked with another company he....
"... never smoked, but I always accompanied the lads on a cigarette break outside.... it was where all the good stuff happened. It was where everyone relaxed their brains a bit, chatted about what ever problem they were having with code or tech. They could mention some seemingly little problem that was too trivial to organise a meeting about yet it was taking many man hours trying to solve. Almost guaranteed the problem would be solved in that 5 minute break with the collective brainstorming of the group. That is something we are missing with our current set up"
This is fascinating and I wonder if any kind of ‘fantasy IT’ solution could solve the problem? That is, if money was no object. Could ‘the perfect’ IM, VoIP, Teleconferencing solution get around it? Would Cisco’s amazing new HD Telepresence solution do the trick? Could a next generation Second Life ‘holodeck’ solve it?
Or must us web workers accept that virtual offices will never achieve some of the benefits inherent in a shared physical space?
Technorati Tags: virtual, office, telepresence, teleconferencing, voip
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Comments
It's the one thing I missed about giving up smoking.
Not sure any virtual system can replace coughing your lungs out at -2C on a December morning with your work buddies.
Definitely knew more about the inner workings of companies when I smoked than afterwards.
Posted by: Conor O'Neill | Nov 22, 2006 5:27:22 PM
Half of the best thinkers on the staff where I'm assigned smoke and share some of their best ideas while outside in the rain. You don't have to be a smoker to take a smoking break. I learn more from students and staff when standing upwind than by sitting across the table.
Posted by: Bernie Goldbach | Nov 23, 2006 5:33:26 AM
For six years, I worked remotely from my home in Italy for a Silicon Valley company. Phone conferencing just wasn't good enough, so I ended up flying there four times a year and, even so, felt vulnerable when staff turnover in California meant that I was working with people who'd never met me face to face. I found over and over again that new colleagues would never really trust me until they had seen me in person.
Now I work for a company, http://www.tvblob.com/ , that is trying, among other things, to bring "telepresence" into the affordable range even for small offices and freelance web workers.
Would love to hear your reactions - there's a link to a 7-minute demo video at the bottom of the home page.
Posted by: Deirdre' Straughan | Nov 27, 2006 3:24:58 PM
Interaction design tries to solve that problem. They are working on it in UL. If you ever go near the college, the people to talk to would be in the csis building.
Posted by: Mary Gilmartin | Nov 28, 2006 10:32:47 AM
Looks like an interesting solution Deirdre but I'm not sure that the camcorder requirement is a good idea. My mobile phone is my camcorder and I'd like to see the solution based on that recording capability or else a plain old webcam... but not an expensive camcorder.
CSIS in UL Mary? I'd no idea (I went to college there). Thanks, I might pay them a visit sometime.
Posted by: James Corbett | Nov 28, 2006 10:39:51 AM
I think they have a website too. Plenty of interesting things happening there. When I was studying in the same building as them, I used to here bits of what was happening in UL's lab, and we would learn about what was being done in the other interactive design labs around the world.
Posted by: Mary Gilmartin | Nov 28, 2006 10:56:42 AM
Global Virtual Office offer mailing addresses, phone and fax services in over 70 cities worldwide.
www.global-virtualoffice.com
Posted by: John | Jan 21, 2007 7:18:38 PM
"If you ever go near the college, the people to talk to would be in the csis building."
That i agree on
Posted by: Web Design Ireland | May 10, 2007 3:53:17 PM
