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I've been working remotely exclusively for about the past 9 months (before that I have been doing it off and on for about a year and a half), and I think the pi

I've been working remotely exclusively for about the past 9 months (before that I have been doing it off and on for about a year and a half), and I think the piece that really strikes a chord with me in this article is the "Communication" section. If you have a clear understanding of what you are building/creating then working remotely can be a boon; I think of it as working in some kind of hyper office. I can find times when I am hyper productive with heads down development, or pairing with another developer. What I think is difficult to reproduce are the shared working spaces/open-office floor plans. To be specific, I find meaningful collaborative communication to be the most difficult for me. The tips presented here will help, but still leave a lot to be desired. I think one of the hardest things with a distributed team is brainstorming. Maybe it's just a tooling thing, for example: I have yet to find a decent digital replacement for a whiteboard. Being able to scribble down idea, then go grab someone and talk through thoughts, erase, redraw, discuss. This all seems way more awkward than it should be online. It seems like a medium that could be much improved digitally, but I have yet to find a tool that really works. I also wish more audio conferencing software supported positional audio. Perhaps this is insane, but I miss being able to overhear other conversations, but I don't want them blaring directly in my ear (as if they are standing 6 inches away from ear. I want to be able dynamically group people, and place voices within a virtual spatial domain. Having every voice come from the same "place" is really unnerving for me.

lighthazard 12y ago
I agree with the shared working spaces being missing from a remote position, but that can be simulated by using things that support screen sharing, Skype comes to mind, as does Google Hangouts. Alternatively, you can use something like Join.me to have a full collaboration effort on one screen, together. The white board issue - this is something I haven't been able to reproduce either, but I think I've changed my workflow to follow it. Right now, for a remote position, I sketch out my ideas/structures on paper, take a picture, and share it with the team. If it makes sense to them, we're golden, if not, they can each modify the image and share with the team again (and now we have a 'version controlled' 'whiteboard.' In truth, I think the focus should be on finding an alternative workflow than finding a replacement for a whiteboard. Don't ask me though, I have no idea what an alternative would be. Finally, audio conferencing - I had my team set up Teamspeak which does a fantastic job with positional awareness in a ['3D' environment](http://i.imgur.com/pc3EG3b.png http://i.imgur.com/pc3EG3b.png). Of course, this is a setting that needs to be constantly changed/updated based on the conversations, but it works well in large groups where members need to talk to each other, but still hear other conversations that are happening on the side (or 'behind' you).
- 32bitkid 12y ago
  I pair a lot and, most of the time, I use ScreenHero. I think is a great tool, and before yesterday would have recommended it without hesitation. I have mixed feelings about the recent Slack acquisition, but I'd rather see a tool like that get rolled into another tool than run out of money and die. I do something similar for a whiteboard replacement. I use IPEVO Ziggi-HD High-Definition USB Document Camera [1], a sharpie and a nice sketchbook. I'll switch between my macbook webcam and that for sketching/drawing. Which helps a lot, but still feels very one sided; like I am presenting an idea rather than collaborating on an idea. I'm a very visual communicator, so there are times when I feel very handicapped by a lack of a good collaborative sketching tool. I've tried using TeamSpeak, but in my experience it was a pain to set up for non-gamers. It can be great once you get it tuned just right, however, I think there is a broader (more accessible) niche that could appeal to a lot of people -- they just don't know it yet. Having the ability to simply and quickly, spawn a side conversation within a bigger meeting would be ideal for me. [1] http://www.amazon.com/Ziggi-HD-High-Definition-Document-Camera-CDVU-04IP/dp/B008DBF5Z8/ref=sr_1_1 http://www.amazon.com/Ziggi-HD-High-Definition-Document-Came...

lighthazard 12y ago

I agree with the shared working spaces being missing from a remote position, but that can be simulated by using things that support screen sharing, Skype comes to mind, as does Google Hangouts. Alternatively, you can use something like Join.me to have a full collaboration effort on one screen, together. The white board issue - this is something I haven't been able to reproduce either, but I think I've changed my workflow to follow it. Right now, for a remote position, I sketch out my ideas/structures on paper, take a picture, and share it with the team. If it makes sense to them, we're golden, if not, they can each modify the image and share with the team again (and now we have a 'version controlled' 'whiteboard.' In truth, I think the focus should be on finding an alternative workflow than finding a replacement for a whiteboard. Don't ask me though, I have no idea what an alternative would be. Finally, audio conferencing - I had my team set up Teamspeak which does a fantastic job with positional awareness in a ['3D' environment](http://i.imgur.com/pc3EG3b.png http://i.imgur.com/pc3EG3b.png). Of course, this is a setting that needs to be constantly changed/updated based on the conversations, but it works well in large groups where members need to talk to each other, but still hear other conversations that are happening on the side (or 'behind' you).

32bitkid 12y ago
I pair a lot and, most of the time, I use ScreenHero. I think is a great tool, and before yesterday would have recommended it without hesitation. I have mixed feelings about the recent Slack acquisition, but I'd rather see a tool like that get rolled into another tool than run out of money and die. I do something similar for a whiteboard replacement. I use IPEVO Ziggi-HD High-Definition USB Document Camera [1], a sharpie and a nice sketchbook. I'll switch between my macbook webcam and that for sketching/drawing. Which helps a lot, but still feels very one sided; like I am presenting an idea rather than collaborating on an idea. I'm a very visual communicator, so there are times when I feel very handicapped by a lack of a good collaborative sketching tool. I've tried using TeamSpeak, but in my experience it was a pain to set up for non-gamers. It can be great once you get it tuned just right, however, I think there is a broader (more accessible) niche that could appeal to a lot of people -- they just don't know it yet. Having the ability to simply and quickly, spawn a side conversation within a bigger meeting would be ideal for me. [1] http://www.amazon.com/Ziggi-HD-High-Definition-Document-Camera-CDVU-04IP/dp/B008DBF5Z8/ref=sr_1_1 http://www.amazon.com/Ziggi-HD-High-Definition-Document-Came...