There’s been a lot in the press recently about matters of ‘national security’: think PRISM, Edward Snowden and release of release of NSA material. In fact I saw a great session on ‘Open Data Lessons from the US Shutdown’ at MozFest which covered the culture shift in the intelligence community from targeted surveillance to dragnet programs. All very interesting matters for debate, but here we are talking security on a slightly smaller scale.

Elvis Donnelly has written a guest post on what small businesses and people working from home need to know about their own cyber security. Elvis is a father of two who works from home and lives with his wife. He is a voracious reader and likes to keep abreast of current affairs on personal finance, technology and innovation, and takes a keen interest in environmental issues. In his spare time, he loves taking on home improvement projects and considers himself a closet chef.

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When the website of Novice to Advanced Marketing Systems (NAMS) was hacked, the small business had to shut down for six weeks and lose $75,000 in the process and recovery was not easy. NAMS owner David Perdew felt this attack was a “personal violation”. But there is nothing personal when hackers target small businesses. Why? Many small businesses have an online presence that runs on limited IT resources and are often the target of phishing attacks by scamsters, especially those looking to steal financial information of customers. Not just that, stealing passwords, theft of funds or intellectual property and paying up huge fines for not protecting customer information are some of the ways in which your business can be at risk, according to Forbes. Safeguarding your website against cyber-attacks should be the number one priority of a small business owner.

In a 2012 National Small Business Cyber security Study, jointly carried out by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and Symantec, even though 73 per cent of small businesses reported that the internet is absolutely vital to their business’ growth, 88 per cent of small business have no official internet security plan in place. Symantec also reported that a huge chunk of cyber-attacks are directed at small businesses. As a small business owner, you know much capital has been invested in your business. It’s important you also know that it can all vanish in a matter of seconds. Beware, cyber-attacks are increasing!

by Lulu Höller, Flickr

A Quick Guide to Staying Cyber Safe

Cyber-attacks do not come with a warning, as seen in the case of NAMS. Why compromise the security of your business with a shaky security plan? Here are a few pointers on what a small business owner can do to improve cyber security.

Train your employees

All employees, irrespective of their designation, should be trained to maintain a secure online system. Infecting a computer with a USB stick or downloading files with malicious content are some of the ways in which security can be breached. Employees must be trained to quickly identify content that can harm a computer as well as given a hacker’s dictionary to understand hacking ploys like phishing, social engineering or know what a Trojan horse is. The National Cyber Security Alliance has some training resources for small business owners wanting to educate employees in cyber security.

Secure your computer systems

Monitor all online activity and make sure malicious content is blocked before it enters the system. Incorporate appropriate firewall settings that will help prevent third party users from accessing your data. Password-protect all computers, online accounts and databases- never leave a computer unattended. Take back-ups of all data. Securing your systems and assets help in lowering your risk of an attack. Limit the access of sensitive information to employees. If your company has a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy, make sure you follow steps to ensure these devices do not make your systems vulnerable to an attack.

Get insured for data breach

Insuring your business can go a long way in reducing the risks associated with your business. While many small business owners purchase liability coverage for property, few opt for coverage related to data breach. With cyber-attacks increasing by the hour, insuring your business’ data is absolutely essential, especially if online financial transaction form a bulk of money transfers. Check with your insurer how you can incorporate coverage for data breach in your business insurance policy.

While an insurance plan is a strong safety net that can help a small business reduce the losses that accompany a data breach, it’s best to avoid such incidents by putting in place security systems to prevent such an attack. A report by The Hartford suggests that businesses should develop computer security tools to secure their systems from hackers, especially in the current mobile-oriented business platforms. In David Perdew’s words: “No computer is foolproof“, but understanding how you can be cyber safe can help lessen the risk of an attack to a huge extent. Make sure you are secure today!

Editor’s note: I’ve written posts about approaches to password protection (I now use Lastpass) and have advocated in the past for personal data management. I’d also like to hear from people who have had experiences of losing data in the cloud – I read this post recently on how someone had their entire account deleted by Box.com!

The LinkedUp Project that I work on has just launched the second of its competitions – Vidi. The competition is aimed at developers and is asking them to design and build innovative and robust prototypes and demos for tools that analyse and/or integrate open web data for educational purposes.

To support the competition launch we worked on a publicity video. I’ve created screencasts and videos in the past but have never had the luxury of a graphic designer to help me. Anyway the end result is pretty cool – despite it being my voice!

To create it I wrote the script and then recorded the audio using Audacity, saving it as an MP3. I already had some ideas for the visual story and shared these with our graphic designer, who created a story board. After some discussions we agreed on the ideas and he put it all together (he is a star!). At first it was just my voice, but then we added some openly licensed music and sound effects, to make it a little less dry. I finished the process off by uploading it to YouTube and manually adding captions for accessibility reasons. You can create your own caption file in advance (caption files contains both the text and time codes for when each line of text should be displayed) but as the video was only 2 minutes long it was easier to do this manually. If you haven’t got the time to do this you can just add a transcript.

All fun and games!

For those who want to create quick and easy videos there a plethora of tools out there right now. My children seem have a new app on the go each week. A few weeks ago I attended MozFest (I’ve written about what I got up to on the Open Education Working Group blog) – one of the tools they were keen to promote is Popcorn maker. This allows you to remix videos from YouTube and other sources. Someone also pointed out Videoscribe made by Sparkol, which lets you create those scribble type videos. It costs but you can get a free 7-day trial, which should be enough time in which to create a video. Anyone else spotted any good tools?

How you manage remote teams has been a frequent topic for discussion on this blog, but we haven’t had many posts written by actual managers – they’re normally too busy Today we’ve got a guest blog post on some tools to help from a colleague who wishes to remain nameless (he references his old job in the article and wouldn’t want his name picked up on Google relating to this blog post as he hopes to do some business with his previous employer in the future) – we’ll call him ‘Mr Manager’! The author, Mr Manager, has since left the large American company he mentions to start up his own Computer Support company in London. If you are in the UK and need any form of IT Support feel free to get in touch via his website.

Note – Mr Manager doesn’t mention timezone trouble but this is an area we’ve covered in the past. We could definitely do with an updated post though, so if you are working in a global environment and are effectively using timezone tools then let me know.

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From 2010 to 2012 I was working in Switzerland for a well-known American technology company. In my role as the Online Marketing Manager for Europe I was responsible for a web team who were all working out of different regional offices. So for example, I had a web designer located in the UK office, two programmers in France, social media staff in Italy, and a couple of developers working out of the German office. So in effect, we were all working remotely from each other, but working towards the same common goal and on the same projects.

The main issue wasn’t the cultural and language differences (thankfully everyone spoke English), but more the challenges of managing the staff from a remote location as my time was split between the central Swiss office, travelling through Europe to the different offices, and also a lot of time spent working from home.

The challenges were very much split into two camps; there were the classic HR difficulties in managing a team, and also the technology issues. I am going to focus on the technology side in this blog post and offer some insight into how I tried to manage workflow, meetings, and projects despites the geographical differences in the team.

Project Management Tools

In terms of keeping track of what everyone in the team was working on and offering a collaborative environment where we could add notes, comments, and how progress, I found a number of tools were invaluable.
The first was called BaseCamp. This was really great at nested discussion threads, code problem solving and more. The mobile version of the software worked great too meaning I could access it on the move and see how the team were progressing even when out of the office.

Another tool worth mentioning was Notable. My creative guys would upload their latest web designs to this app and then whilst visiting offices I could then get feedback from the stake holders and add annotations over the designs which the designers could immediately act upon.
I had tried using software such as Microsoft Project, but found it totally inappropriate and fiddly for a team where work turnaround was so quick and the projects came up thick and fast. I remember trialling the software for one month and seemed to spend one hour every morning just updating the thing – not for me that one.

Telephone Calls and Online Meetings

A couple of times each week, the team as a whole would have collaborate phone calls and online meetings. For the first year and a half we were using the excellent GoTo Meeting software. It would let me send out an email appointment to the team in advance which would include regional telephone numbers for them to dial as well as a web link so they could enter the online meeting.

During meetings I was able to share slides, annotate project notes, bridge another team member into the call, hand controls over to another team member – I can’t recommend it enough. It really worked well.

This software was probably the most invaluable asset I had when managing my remote team, so I was bitterly disappointed when the annual company cost-cutting meant we had to ditch GoTo Meeting. Instead, company policy was switched over to use a free (or lower cost) solution from Microsoft called Lync (which I am not even going to give the credit of a “link” to). It was terrible. Whilst I could set-up GoTo Meeting in a number of seconds, and never had any glitches, the Lync application probably worked only 50% of the time. Common issues were caller feedback, different team members being given the wrong number to dial so ending up in someone else’s call, and the screen sharing freezing.

Towards the end of the time working for the company we actually ended up (as a team) ditching Lync and moving over to using Google Hangouts. I won’t go into too much detail on how Google Hangouts work as it has already been covered on the Ramblings of a Remote Worker blog. All I will say is that we never went back to using Lync. I was also to work via SmartPhone into a Google hangout when on the move… so it gets the thumbs up from me.

Hardware Used on the Road

Whilst out on the road visiting the office I was armed with a Blackberry, which was subsequently upgraded to a Samsung. Give me the Blackberry any day of the week. The email integration was really easy to use compared to the Samsung. In fact, with the Samsung I ended up deleting my whole inbox by mistake due to the strange button configuration.

I would always travel with my laptop, but in the last month of my employment the company approved a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy so I started to use my own personal Apple iPad. This immediately cut down all the baggage and weight of my bag and made remote working just more comfortable generally. I found that most of the collaborative software the team used had a mobile app version meaning I could stay in the loop and my work wasn’t affected.

To conclude, the last couple of years has seen a real increase in the quality of software available for remote working and collaboration. I believe this is down to demand, and the huge increase in company employees using mobile products. In fact, recent research by Gartner states that by 2018, 70% of professional will conduct their work on mobile devices.

The other day I realised that Ramblings of a Remote Worker has been going for 5 years now! I was away at the time (19th September – I was in Geneva) and forgot to mark the occasion. I’m not sure if this blog has been particularly useful to anyone apart from me. [As a person who doesn't have a great memory I've found it invaluable to record my activities and thoughts - I often look back and say "aaah so I did attend that event"!] Nevertheless, useful or not I’ve kept blogging and so I should give myself a pat on the back for staying power. I wanted to create a great infographic to celebrate the 5 years and set out with good intentions using Easel.ly, a way to create and share visual ideas online. I got distracted and the results aren’t that exciting but never mind…

To compliment it here are few choice snaps from my Remote Worker Pinterest board.

There’s nothing like meeting up with people for a drink and a chat, and unfortunately remote working is nothing like meeting up with people! While I love remote working I also really enjoy face-to-face opportunities. At the Open Knowledge Foundation we use MeetUp.com to support us in organising local events.

“Meetup is the world’s largest network of local groups. Meetup makes it easy for anyone to organize a local group or find one of the thousands already meeting up face-to-face. More than 9,000 groups get together in local communities each day, each one with the goal of improving themselves or their communities.”

Anyone can use the Meetup site to set up their own group – though there is some cost involved.

Yesterday I went along to an Meetup at Supermarkt, a co-working space in Berlin. The theme was warming up for OKFest, the largest global open knowledge community gathering in the world that will be taking place in Berlin next July! OKFest is going to be be four days of participatory sessions, lectures, workshops, hackathons and satellite events. Something to get excited about and start planning for – hence the Meetup.

To get us in the mood we got to participate in speed geeking (people get 5 minutes to introduce their projects/initiatives/passions as the rest of us move round the tables).

The talks were:

• Open Knowledge Festival
• Code for All / Germany – Julia Kloiber
• Free Software Foundation – Lucile Falgueyrac
• Open Bank – Ayoub Benali
• Hacks/Hackers – Annabel Church
• Hackidemia – Stefania Druga
• Open Product Data – Katelyn Rogers
• AfricaHackTrip – Martin Stadler

It was great fun and very informative, so big thanks to Beatrice and Zara who organised it all. So now people just need to get ready to participate in next year’s OKFest!!

• http://okfestival.org
• http://facebook.com/OpenKnowledgeFestivall
• @OKFestival #OKFestival

Photos from the night are available on Flickr.

For those of you that missed it there was a great remote worker story in the papers over the weekend.

French businessman Gauthier Toulemonde wholeheartedly believed that “workers, given the right equipment, can labour more or less anywhere“, so headed off to a desert island to prove his point!

The Guardian writes:

“It took six months to identify a suitable island, a 700-by-500-metre island in the Indonesian archipelago (the Indonesians made him promise not to reveal its exact location) 10,000 miles from Paris, and a few more months to prepare.

Deserted Beach Saona Island by Ian Bruce, Flickr

On 8 October, he left his home in Lille with four towel-sized solar panels, a windmill, a laptop computer, a tablet computer and two satellite phones. He was also carrying two tents to protect him, and the equipment from the humidity and the seasonal heavy rains.“

He writes about his experiences in his blog (in French) Web Robinson.

The experience, on the whole, was a positive one though Toulemonde did live in fear of the electricity going off! He also had a lot of problem with the rats who co-inhabited the island (see this Daily News post which gives a slightly less positive spin on the venture.) He concluded that “it is indeed possible, though not necessarily desirable nor particularly cheap, to relocate staff “offshore“.

And after 40 days on his desert island his thoughts were that:

“Life can get a bit dull without someone to say “bonjour” to every morning.

Doing everything virtually has its limits. Working from a distance is certainly doable, and with the internet and Skype you are never alone. But I’d say 40 days is about the limit.

But it’s not the same as physically meeting someone. Nothing can replace human contact.“

Hmmmm, I think Ramblings of a Remote Worker came to that conclusion a long while back, but I still wouldn’t say no to a month on a sunny shore.

Help shape the future of the Open Knowledge Foundation

I’ve mentioned before that I now work for the Open Knowledge Foundation.

We are a global movement to open up knowledge around the world and see it used and useful.

So true to our word we are a transparent organisation.

We’d like to get people’s input on how the Open Knowledge Foundation can better serve you – the community. This community survey will take about 10 minutes to complete:

We’ll close it off on December 13th and share the results in the new year.

Please do participate.

Yesterday The LinkedUp team ran a webinar on the latest LinkedUp Competition – the Vidi Competition.

The Webinar was a way to allow us to engage online with developers who are interested in the competition but needed an introduction, and those who had technical questions to ask. We began with a brief introduction to the LinkedUp Challenge, the Vidi Competition and the new focused tracks (specific problems we’d like the developers to solve). There was then an overview of the technical support on offer and a Q&A session which gave people the opportunity to ask our technical team some specific questions.

After a trial run with Meeting Burner that didn’t go too well we decided to use Adobe Connect as one of the partner institutions have a licence for it.

The software worked brilliantly – the only issue was that for some of us the connection went at around 10 minutes in. Unfortunately I was talking at that point and dropped out of webinar – on the upside I was near to finishing.

After the initial presentation the technical team (Mathieu D’Aquin, Alessandro Adamou and Stefan Dietze) answered questions from the attendees and we discussed some possible applications.

I think running a webinar like this is a really easy and effective way to initiate developers to a competition. We had 22 webinar attendees, many of whom participated by asking questions, suggesting data sets and talking about their submission ideas. Dealing with these people on a purely one-to-one basis would have been much more time consuming.

The recorded webinar can now be found online and the transcript of the discussion is also available. The slides are also available from Slideshare.

So 2013 has been a strange, but exciting year. If changing jobs after 13 years in the same place doesn’t blow away the cobwebs, then nothing will.

The Open Knowledge Foundation online Christmas party: We were treated to carols, christmas outfits, tales of cheese eating and show & tell of Christmas presents – this is stabby man in the picture!

Many of the remote working trends that I once commented on now feel so normal that they aren’t even worth a whisper.

Most of you will be familiar with the concept of culture shock – when you visit a new country and find the new ways unusual and odd. I’ve travelled a fair amount and my most vivid memory of culture shock was when I returned to England after over a year abroad in Japan. Suddenly that culture that I had identified with felt unfamiliar. Starting my new job and being immersed in remote working culture felt a little like that. I was so used to being the one who was different and justifying my culture that when that culture became the norm it was me who felt out of place.

I joined the Open Knowledge Foundation in May this year. The Open Knowledge Foundation is a worldwide network of people passionate about openness, using advocacy, technology and training to unlock information and enable people to work with it to create and share knowledge. We believe knowledge can empower everyone, enabling people to work together to tackle local and global challenges, understand our world, expose inefficiency and challenge inequality and hold governments and companies to account. It is a young, vibrant movement that is a lot more than just its virtual organizational structure and to be honest I’m still adjusting. Call me old (I celebrated a big birthday this year!) but it’s taking a while…

But life is about change. I visited Berlin last month and was lucky enough to have time to visit the Berlin wall and the Eastside Gallery. Below is one of my favourite sections: “Wer will, daß die Welt so bleibt, wie sie ist, der will nicht, daß sie bleibt” or “He who wants the world to remain as it is, doesn’t want it to remain at all.“

Nothing stays the same; we must embrace change.

Anyway, I’ve really enjoyed joining the Open Knowledge Foundation and working on the LinkedUp Project and Open Education Working Group. My hope is that I’ll start to feel a little less like a foreigner as 2014 progresses, less like a foreigner but more like an explorer!

Happy Christmas and best wishes for 2014 to you all.

My son Zak as the angel Gabriel in his school nativity

Happy New Year to you all!!

I hope you had a great Christmas holiday. We had a lovely time, though it did seem to be very tech laden 2 weeks despite my best efforts to get us all away from computers and gadgets.

My children are really starting to get in to technology now. My youngest son (age 6) got Minecraft for Christmas and so we spent a lot of time trying to work out what was going on!? My husband received 2 Raspberry Pis (bad present co-ordination!) – maybe these offered too much of a busman’s holiday for him because he spent the entire week hiding from the PC and doing Sudoko puzzles…

…it is possible to enjoy yourself over Christmas without technology.

Anyway, a post Christmas lunch discussion with the in-laws got me thinking about how I really feel about the relationship between my children and technology. So apologies that this post doesn’t directly relate to remote working but I hope some of you find it useful and/or interesting.

My children don’t have a huge amount of technical kit of their own, they share a Wii and the two girls (aged 9 and 11) have an iPod touch each. They all have access to a PC, though we monitor use. They also see laptops, iPads and Macs in action (i.e. they can have a go but don’t own them).

My two girls tend to use their iPods to play games, make movies and listen to music. It is purely a leisure tool, and while they are a lot more computer savvy than my parents they aren’t doing anything ground breaking with their kit. I’d like my children to be rounded individuals who are lucky enough to experience lots of different aspects of life. Although they aren’t very outdoorsy they are pretty in to sport (dance, swimming, tae-kwondo), reading, art, playing, and music. However technology is an important part of life these days so there is no point in running away from it. Both my husband and I work in a tech world and I’d like my children to have good technical skills – these will help them whatever career they choose.

So basically I’d like to my children to use the time they spend on technical devices in a more productive way. Time to move on from Angry birds and in to a good understanding of how technology and computer programming works.

Scratch Cat

Over Christmas I also stumbled upon Learn an hour of code: “a non-profit dedicated to expanding participation in computer science education by making it available in more schools, and increasing participation by women and underrepresented students of color“. Over a week in December last year they tried to encourage everyone in the US, from children to OAPs, to spend an hour coding. The site offers some amazing resources including links to a whole set of hour-long tutorials. My children loved the games on Tynker.com. There are also great tutorials available using Light-bot and API Inventor.

I thought it might be useful if I listed some of the other tools we’ve tried out recently or have on our to-do list. I’d also like to mention some great initiatives that have sprung up looking at getting children into programming and beyond.

Kids programming tools

I discovered quite a lot a few of these tools while at the Mozilla Festival last year, here’s a post I wrote about education at MozFest.

• Scratch: As mentioned before, a great starter tool with some really good tutorials.
• Chrunchzilla: Has tools for younger kids and teenagers, helps by offering interactive tutorials where kids and adults can play with code, experiment, build, and learn.
• Robotmind: By programming a robot, students learn about logic, computer science and robotics.
• Minecraft.edu: Site looking at how Minecraft can be used in schools.
• Mozilla tools including Thimble (helps you write html), Xray Goggles (grab tool that allows you to hide elements of a web page) and Popcorn Maker (allows editing of video). Hackosaurus has lots of ideas on how to use the tools.
• Isla: a programming language for children, by Marie Rose Cook, beginner-friendly.
• Squeakland eToys: An educational tool for teaching children powerful ideas in compelling ways.
• Waterbear: Based on Scratch but for a variety of different programming languages.
• Ruby for kids: As it says – a way for kids to learn Ruby!
• Microsoft Small basic: Some of the examples are a bit complex but there is a nice curriculum to follow if needed

From Chrunchzilla

Wikipedia has a list of programming languages simple enough to be used by children – I haven’t tried any of these yet…

Kids programming initiatives

Here are some other code for kids initiatives (quite a few of these ideas came from a discussion that took place on the OKFN discuss list related to gender bias in technology and open data for kids):

• Make Things Do Stuff: The Mozilla campaign and website aimed at mobilising the next generation of digital makers through kid-friendly events and actions.
• TechEU: A site that looks at all the learn-to-code initiatives and other noteworthy computer programming education projects across Europe.
• Code Club: A nationwide (UK) network of free volunteer-led after-school coding clubs for children aged 9-11 – unfortunately none near me
• Prewired: Recently launched club for kids in Edinburgh, inspired by the Young Rewired State Festival of Code.
• Logo: Foundation to encourage children’s computer skills, US based.
• Young Rewired State: An independent global network of kids aged 18 and under who have taught themselves to program computers, not really for beginners.
• Jugend Hackt: Aspin-off of Young Rewired State, organized by OKF Germany – in German.
• Hackidemia: A global network that designs workshops and kits enabling kids to use curiosity, play, and empathy to solve global challenges. It tends to be more hardware and is beginner-friendly.
• Hive Learning Network: A New York based learning lab that engages youth around innovation, digital media and web-making – lots of projects and resources.
• CoderDojo: The open source, volunteer led, global movement of free coding clubs for young people. Utilises dojos as a location.
• Dwengo: Spin-off of a student group, focuses on promoting learning (adults and children) about microcontrollers / robots.
• Forum voor Informaticawetenschappen a platform in Flanders started by (mostly) teachers wanting to improve the level of IT-education at school – in Flemish.

So have you got any ideas you could add?

Last week was a bit special, I got to spend 4 whole days in Cambridge with my work colleagues at our work retreat.

I’ve mentioned before that the Open Knowledge Foundation is probably fairly unique in that it is a truly virtual organization. Our staff sit on 4 different continents and over countless timezones. We communicate primarily using online tools and face-to-face is rare for us.

So to offset our lack of physicalness we have all-staff meetups every six months. [Here's my post on the summer summit.]

These meetups, or retreats (the current word we are using to describe them) allow us to catch up on group meetings, chat to individuals about work activities and generally get to know each other better.

Hacking the agenda – not that dissimilar to a bank trading room! Video by Sander van der Waal.

Two of the days are usually dedicated to an all-staff session. During these days we are required to put away laptops and ‘be present’ by ensuring our full attention are on the tasks of the day. At last weeks retreat we were lucky enough to have the sessions facilitated by Dirk Slater, founder of Fabriders. Dirk has many years of experience supporting social justice movements, so really got our organisation. Facilitate is a word my community tend to use a lot, it is worth remembering that the true definition is to make (an action or process) easy or easier. Dirk definitely achieved that. He enabled us to be both honest with each other and incredibly productive – not an easy task.

I’m not going to document every minute of the two-days but wanted to pick out a few points just give a flavor of it all.

• I think what worked well was the swinging from focused tasks to bigger-picture thinking. I’ve been to many ‘away-days’ of this sort and there is always a danger that you will raise expectations and never follow-up on anything. Keeping it both forward thinking and practical made sense.
• We got to hack the agenda and say what was important to us. There is nothing quite like feeling responsible for your own schedule!
• There were quite a few sharing moments where we all got to say a few words or offer an idea. People felt included and everyone got to talk.
• Management worked at our level, they joined in the group activities and participated in the same way we did. There was no hierarchy during the two-days.
• We had a cheese competition – which was great! People brought cheese from their own country or region and then we got to taste and judge. All part of celebrating our diversity.
• There was a lot of love in the room. The retreat did make me feel incredibly British – saying awesome pains me and I tend to only hug after I’ve had beer. I also struggled with twinkling (apparently in California you can do a silent clap by doing a twinkle – holding up your hands and wiggling your fingers). However that didn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy the love. I’d much rather work somewhere where people show emotions that somewhere where they don’t. I can assume the ‘old skeptic role’ safely knowing that others are enthusiastic and inspired and will drag me along with them.
• Dirk kept reminding us to talk to people we hadn’t spoken to much yet. It’s amazing how keen people are to stick to what and who they know. Talking to colleagues you don’t know so well is important, it gives us new perspectives and stops us feeling isolated.

Cheese competition

Having F2F events makes all the difference to us as an organisation. They are costly and time-consuming but they are what keeps us focused and united. Big thanks to all those who helped organise the retreat.

A quick plug. On my way back from the retreat I attended the Speakerthon day in London. The event brought together over 30 people to create voice samples from the Radio 4 archive and upload them to Wikipedia. The event was part of the BBC Voice Project initiative and organised in collaboration with Open Knowledge Foundation, Creative Commons UK and the Wikimedia community. I’ve written more about the day on the Open Education Working Group blog.

We all have our own ways of surviving remote working. Learning from the wisdom (and mistakes!) of others has been a huge help to me over the past 6 years.

Remote Crowd offer a free, weekly cheat sheet of tips and trends for remote workers. If you sign up you’ll get one email every Thursday.

“Never spam. Just a finely tuned collection of tips, trends, locations and insights for remote working and location independent business.“

The list is curated by Luke Ryan who works remotely in either Stockholm or Sydney (nice!). Luke has also experimented with remote work in Bali, Spain and the UK. Next on his list of future locations are San Francisco, Santiago, Hawaii, Denmark and Vietnam.

Remote Crowd is really just like my Delicious links – but better! Get signed up!

So it’s Saturday and maybe time for some light relief!? Rheney Williams has written a guest blog post for us on how you can boost remote productivity by having beautiful home office plants and flowers. Rheney enjoys sharing her DIY craft window ideas with others and writes about her projects for The Home Depot. Rheney has been busy this past year updating her Charleston, S.C., home with all manner of custom lowcountry touches.

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When you’re a remote worker, more often than not, you’re working online from a home office. And even if you have the most conducive conditions for working remotely (peace and quiet!), we’ve all experienced that part of the day where you just need a boost. Whether it’s a mental boost because your brain has been working overtime or a creative boost because your imagination’s well has run dry, sometimes all you need is a bright pop of color to push your productivity back into forward motion.

Basically, when you work and write online, it’s important to surround yourself with an environment that fosters free-thinking and a potted ‘office mascot’ may be just the thing you need to cheer you up and spur you on during the day! In addition to the bright burst of color that the blooms provide, plants are notorious workhorses in the air purifying department. And when you’re cooped up inside all day, a little bit of fresher air goes a long way! I’ve been considering candidates for my own home office mascot and I’ve finally narrowed it down to the perfect choice for me: African violets!

I have a casement window that is just begging for a bit of windowsill dressing and the violets are it because although it is a bright window, its placement and direction on my house means it almost never receives direct sunlight. This is important for these little violets as they love bright conditions and indirect sunlight. Even if you don’t have a large, indirectly lit window, violets could still be the perfect choice for you too because they are some of the easiest indoor flowers to grow and don’t require full-on sunshine (or two green thumbs) to keep them alive. Their needs are a bit unique but once you address them from the beginning, the ongoing maintenance for African violets is minimal. Here’s a glimpse into how I planted my home office mascot for my windowsill and a few tips for establishing one of your own.

Inviting Violets

Purple and blue are two of my favorite colors and two great options in your working area. The rich depth of the purple and the calming brightness of the blue, in pastel shades of lavender and sky, respectively, provide just the right amount of inspiration and creative spark when you need a pick-me-up but they don’t demand attention or scream at you the way other bolder colors seem to do. So I started building my mascot’s ‘home’ by painting a clean terra cotta pot with blue and grey chalkboard paint.

*Tip: For African violets, make sure you use a shallow pot (or one designed specifically for African violets) because the more standard height pots are too deep to provide their optimal growing environment.

After that dried overnight, I gathered everything else together and started adding the colorful details. Using the Frog tape as a guide, I taped off alternating segments around the rim and painted the insides with white craft paint. I removed the tape and painted over the remaining grey strips underneath with lavender craft paint. Finally, I painted a thin line of the grey in between each of the white and lavender stripes.

Allow the rim to dry thoroughly before moving on to planting your flower. Cover the drain hole(s) with a flat stone to allow for the water to enter and exit while keeping the soil in the pot where it belongs. Fill the pot 1/3 or ½ of the way with potting mix. You can use the kind designed for African violets or make your own with an equal parts mixture of peat moss and perlite or vermiculite. Carefully place your plant into the pot and gently scoop soil around the edges, tamping down with your fingers as you go. Continue filling and tamping until the soil is about ½” below the rim and be careful to avoid getting dirt on the leaves and fuzzy stems.

To create the most accurate representation of the African violets’ natural moist, humid habitat, line the bottom of a deep saucer or dish with pebbles for the pot to sit atop. To recreate my natural environment, however, I replaced the pebbles with shells I collected from my native South Carolina coastline!

The goal is to provide a raised bed for the pot that is filled with water to just below the pot’s base so that humidity swirls as the water evaporates below. This is also how you should water your violets ñ from below, never above.

*Tip: If you ever do get water on the leaves or petals, do your best to dry it immediately as this can damage and burn them (if in direct sunlight). Keep an eye on the water level and when it drops, simply refill the base. When you first plant your violets and every couple of weeks, add several drops of African violet food to the water to ensure it receives the proper nutrients.

And that’s all you need for a freshly potted, bright office mascot that’s sure to boost your spirits and your creative productivity in no time. What type of flowers do you want to plant in your remote office?

I need to start with an apology.

I’ve been neglecting this blog of late. My excuse is that I have been a bit too busy working to think about the way in which I work. I guess it’s a common problem. Being busy often means that we carry on doing what we know rather than switching to a new and potentially better way of working. Sometimes I feel like I’m all out of ideas too. That’s no good.

Anyway a colleague shared this great post with me yesterday. It’s called Making Remote Work Work (nice title – feeling a little jealous I didn’t come up with that one – so have stolen it in homage!) and is by Christopher Groskopf from Source. He shares some great tips on how to work effectively from far away. Some of them ‘’m doing already and have never put down on paper, others are actually new ideas – and I’ve felt a little inspired.

I mean look at this one:

Pro tip: if you’ve got school-age kids, schedule yourself for the half-hour they get out of school for the next ten years. In practice nobody will even notice you’ve done this and it will save you the hassle of having to reschedule a meeting because you have to pick your kids up.

I’ve recently started doing this and it makes complete sense. I can be pretty flexible time-wise but 3- 3:30 is a no go area for me, I just can’t do calls or anything, so I may as well be upfront about it.

He also suggests getting a multi-timezone clock. This is such a good idea, I use apps galore but time-zones are like a black hole for me. A clock would be brilliant – it’s on my birthday list.

Curioso elemento el tiempo by leoplus, Flickr

Anyway it’s a post definitely worth reading! If only I had the time to write one as good

In other news apparently “Commuting makes you ‘unhappy and anxious’” – unsurprising really, but now there is data to back it up. This recent article in the Guardian reports on a study on the wellbeing of workers led by the Office for National Statistics. The research was based on data from the Annual Population Survey in which people were asked where they worked, how long they travelled for, how satisfied they were with their life.

“The research found that when compared with those who worked from home, commuters were less satisfied and happy, and when compared with each other, for each extra minute they travelled commuters became less satisfied.”

So I’m still happy working remotely, and I’m still trying to make it work, just sometimes I’m too busy to report back.

Hangs head in shame!!

I’ve recently had a guest blog post published on the Digital Epiphanies blog about how we at the Open Knowledge Foundation facilitate virtual informal discussion.

I’ve mentioned the Digital Epiphanies Project before when I was interviewed as part of their research. It’s an EPSRC- funded project that is attempting to enhance understanding of the “paradoxical and double-edged effects that new technologies and digital practices are having on work-life balance“.

I’d like to repost some of the thinking in behind my blog post here, for those who missed the original.

As those of you who read my blog will know the Open Knowledge Foundation is probably fairly unique in that it is a truly virtual organization. Our staff sit on 4 different continents and over countless timezones. We communicate primarily using online tools and face-to-face is rare for us.

To support our remote/virtual working we have a suite of tools that we utilize, some are for administrative purposes, such as Xero for expenses and Toggl for timekeeping, others are to help us with our work, such as Google drive for documents and Google hangout for meetings, and Trello for project management.

Watercooler moments

The area that always proves to be the most tricky to facilitate is discussion, especially informal discussion, or the ‘watercooler’ discussions as people like to call them. In the past the term ‘watercooler moment’ referred to a controversial event in a television programme that people would discuss at work the next day. These discussions took place next to the drinks dispenser or watercooler. Being able to discuss those exciting TV moments in a group has slowly disappeared as an activity due to changes in television watching (the rise of streaming services and playback TV), but the need to chat hasn’t. Every organisation continues to need a watercooler.

Prior to my joining the Open Knowledge Foundation they had tried out other IRC chat services. Most had faded by the time I started. People do use things like Twitter and Google Plus but these tend to support discussion with external people, not internal colleagues They’d been trying for some time to answer the question: how do you create a chat space internally?

The current service of choice is Grove.io. Grove is an IRC server that has rich functionality. It gives you archives of your chat history, search, user accounts, channel access management tools, GitHub integration. You can also chose to use the web client or a desktop app, and get notified when someone mentions you by name.

At the Open Knowledge Foundation we have quite a few ‘chat rooms’, some for work team chat, some for cross-team chat for example on community or tech, and we have a watercooler room. The watercooler room has the byline ’100% social chat. No work stuff’. I’d have to say that this isn’t always the case primarily because the boundaries between work and pleasure are pretty blurred for many of us. This is partly because most of us work for an organisation that is fighting for a cause we passionately believe in: the opening up of knowledge. Politics, technology and the state of the world are fair game. However there are cat pictures, silly web links and lunch dates on there too! The quality of the conversation aside encouraging informal chat remains difficult – people are busy and prioritise work activities. Unfortunately, as many of us know, the bonds created by ‘just having a chat’ are those that build better working relationships.

After our last all-staff meet up the subject of social chat came up (again). Suggestions were made that we use a more feature rich platform for our non-work related communications (Diaspora or an inhouse tumblr were mentioned). There seemed to be a reluctance to change platform, but people were all up for social chatting.

So the question isn’t how do you create a chat space internally? It is how do you get people to use a chat space and share a side of themselves that isn’t work facing? Or how do you get people to take their eye off work even for a minute in a virtual organization?

OK, so here are a couple of things that bright sparks at the Open Knowledge Foundation have been doing. One of our team is a DJ on the side and he shares Spotify playlists with us most Fridays. These playlists are great and get us talking. We even ended up with a staff-playlist at our face-to-face event.

Someone else has started a form of virtual Chinese whispers called ‘Eat poop, you cat’ (don’t ask!), which requires people to draw a picture for a sentence. The sentence gets passes along a virtual queue of people and there is lots of silliness involved. We are almost ready to complete our first game, the results hold be interesting and hopefully funny!

We also had a virtual Christmas party in Google hangouts with virtual party hats and real Christmas carols.

These activities can result in more chat on Grove.io and actually give us a much needed break from work.

So what activities and services are you using to make sure that the watercooler remains an important destination?

So which one do you prefer? Netbook or tablet? Or is it horses for courses? Here’s a guest blog post exploring the issues in more detail.

Jamie Lee lives in Charleston, South Carolina, in the US and works for Telogical Systems. He is a full-time tech consultant as well as a writer for eBay (where as Jamie puts it “you can find the world’s best selection of new and used tablets, netbooks and other travel friendly computing devices“). You can catch Jamie on Google+.

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I am a laptop kind of guy. Always have been, and, well, I will be for the foreseeable future. I use my laptop in the office and when working from home. I listen to music on it and it’s my go-to device for business and recreation.

Even though I feel like I have found the device that fits me and the work I do, it’s difficult not to acknowledge new technology in the marketplace that makes laptops look old and clunky — namely, netbooks and tablets. If you are in the market for a small computing device, you may find yourself looking at the options and scratching your head. I know … I have been there. Given that I have used both fairly extensively, I find that, like my laptop, it really boils down to personal fit.

Following is a breakdown of each, along with their pros and cons.

Netbooks: Netbooks are really just smaller, more portable versions of laptops, complete with keyboards and screens. Current models tend to range from 10-inch screens at the smallest to 15.6-inch screens for the largest. Not only are most of them smaller than your average laptop, but they are less expensive. Lower-end models, like models of Acer’s Chromebook series, can be purchased for less than $200, and higher end models can cost up to $1,000. You can buy a popular mid-range device, like the Lenovo ThinkPad or the HP Pavilion TouchSmart, for less than $500.

• Netbook PROS :
  Much like laptops, netbooks provide a combined screen and keyboard setup, enhanced usability of word processing applications like Word and Excel, and they are intended for more basic tasks – like checking e-mail, browsing the Internet, light entertainment and light productivity – albeit in a smaller package. Given the increase in popularity of tablets with touchscreens, some netbook manufacturers are making devices with similar screens that eliminate the need for a keyboard or mouse. Like tablets, extended battery life for these devices is a plus. If you conduct virtual meetings regularly or use programs like Skype for phone calls, netbooks often provide webcams.
• Netbook CONS :
  While netbooks are great if you are looking for a mini version of your laptop, including similar functionality and operating systems, size can be a detriment. Smaller devices have tiny keyboards that can be difficult to use. Keep in mind that these aren’t intended to be high performance machines and generally have less RAM (Random Access Memory) and HDD (Hard Drive) space than their laptop counterparts. These performance constraints aren’t a big deal for users who don’t expect a lot from their netbook, but power users and gamers may quickly find that a netbook doesn’t meet their needs.

If you are looking for a device somewhere between a laptop and a tablet, consider a netbook. You will have limited functionality, but a similar look and feel on a smaller scale and at a lower price. Keep in mind the limitations when it comes to RAM, HDD, and graphics capabilities. If you are fine with these aspects, a netbook may just be the device for you.

Tablets: The iPad started a tablet revolution, and these rectangular computing devices with touchscreens and apps galore are only increasing in popularity. Top tablet manufacturers often offer a “mini” version of their primary model, and screen sizes can range from 7-inches for Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD and HDX to 10-inches for Google’s Nexus tablet. Tablets and netbooks are priced similarly, and you can spend anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to nearly $1,000, depending on the size, memory, connectivity, and other features.

• Tablet PROS:
  Tablets tend to be smaller and lighter than netbooks, and manufacturers are focused on usability and versatility. From the touch screens and scrolling features to advancements like high density display that Apple introduced with its iPad 3, they are great for watching movies, reading books and entertaining kids. While netbooks rely on programs, much like a laptop, tablets allow you to use apps that are easy and cheap to install, and the selection is extensive and ever-growing. You will also find additional functionality in some tablet models, like the ability to take photos or HD videos.
• Tablet CONS :
  The one area where tablets tend to fall short is productivity. Most don’t have a built-in keyboard, but rather a touchscreen. This can be remedied by purchasing additional equipment, but even then, I find it to be a subpar experience when using word processing software. Like netbooks, size can negatively impact your user experience if you purchase one that is too small.

Tablets are currently the “in” device, and it’s not surprising. They are easy to use and extremely versatile. That said, if you are looking for a device that supports your productivity, or even your creativity, you may be disappointed in a tablet. It is not necessarily that the tablet won’t allow you to do the work or access the programs, but rather you may find it more challenging to complete tasks efficiently on a tablet instead of a netbook (or laptop).
It is clear that a tablet is the best bet for many in the market for a small, lightweight computing device, but don’t make the decision to hastily. It is important to consider what you plan to use it for, as well as your workflow preferences. You may just find yourself sticking with that good old laptop.

So we are all pretty familiar with Google Hangouts and Skype, but it seems there is a new kid on the block. Sqwiggle is an “always-on online workplace for your remote team to work together throughout the day and feel more connected“. Its features include file-sharing, chat and instant video, though it currently can’t support file sharing. Sqwiggle is optimized to use minimal bandwidth throughout the day with even the largest teams and unlike some of the alternatives puts a lot of emphasis on presence, for example it sends photo snapshots throughout the day to keep you connected to your team. There is a useful feature comparison sheet available from the Sqwiggle site.

Sqwiggle in action

Unlike Google Hangouts it costs (think Skype premium) but then for that cost you get user support. There are some nice testimonials on the site from Zapier, Go Fish Digital, Terracoding, Hippo Education, Gamevy and others.

The team have just released a music video showing you all the places you can sqwiggle from. You have to admit – it is a good verb!

Brian Kelly was the line manager who consented to my working from home and who encouraged me to write a blog about my experiences. Now 6 years down the line he too has started working from home and I’ve managed to persuade him to write about his lifestyle change for the blog.

Brian works for Cetis, an organisation that specialises in technology innovation and interoperability standards in learning, education and training, as an Innovation Advocate. He previously worked at UKOLN as UK Web Focus from 1996-2013. Brian has worked across the UK higher education sector, having previously worked in IT service departments at the universities of Loughborough, Liverpool, Leeds and Newcastle.

Brian is a prolific blogger and has also published peer-reviewed papers in areas including web accessibility, standards, digital preservation, institutional repositories and open practises.

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My former colleague Marieke Guy kindly wrote a guest post on my UK Web Focus blog which was published during Open Education Week as part of a series of guest posts covering a variety of issues related to open education.

Marieke invited me to reciprocate by writing a guest post on her Ramblings of a Remote Worker blog about my experiences of being a home worker. I am happy to respond to that request by writing this post.

My Move To Home Working

Changes!

On 24 April 2013 I announced that “My Redundancy Letter Arrived Today“. On the 31 July 2013 myself and many of my colleague at UKOLN were made redundant.

In my final week at UKOLN I wrote a post on Life After UKOLN: Looking For New Opportunities. I’m pleased to say that on 28 October 2013 I was able to write a post which announced that I was Starting A New Job! That was the day I began work as Innovation Advocate at Cetis, University of Bolton.

I’m enjoying my new job. However there has been one significant change: after working in an office at the University of Bath for over 16 years I am now a home worker.

House Renovations

Between leaving UKOLN and starting at Cetis I did do some consultancy work and updated my professional skills by completing a MOOC.  But I was also able during the three months to complete the renovations on my house.  As well as replacing bathrooms which still had their original 1970s decor one of the bedrooms was converted into my office.  My office is now just 10 metres from my bed – there have been no 45 minute bus trips  on cold and wet winter mornings for me this winter :-)

During the house renovation (which included a new kitchen and bathrooms and new ceilings in the bathrooms and living room, dining room and kitchen) I was able to use the work to have computer cabling installed with network points provided in most of the rooms throughout the house.

On the advice of a former colleague I also had a cupboard build which housed various IT boxes including the router and a NAS (box). This was build in the living room, so that the WiFi router was more centrally located, with a strong WiFi signal being available throughout the house.

This box is shown. What can’t be seen are the network cables (CAT-6) which go into a void behind the wall and are then hidden behind the coving (which was installed during the renovation work). The cables go up into the loft and then down into all of the bedrooms so that a network point is available in all of the rooms. Note all of the network points are currently enabled, however, as I only have a router with 8 network points and three of these are located by the TV and are connected to the TV, YouView box and XBox.

It’s not all fun and games though! The bedroom which is now my office contains a Dell All-in-one PC with a large screen and small printer as shown.

The office also contains IKEA bookcases around two of the walls. I also had wooden shutter blinds installed in the room which can provide an additional level of privacy. The upstairs office, incidentally, is located on a ground floor since the house is built into a hill. Next to the office is a door located at the end of the upstairs corridor which opens to a parking area.

In brief, I am very happy with the work which was carried out to the house last year. In particular my office is a pleasant place to work.

The Software Environment

Although my physical environment has changed significantly my online environment has many similarities to my previous working environment. I am continuing to make use of several Cloud services to support my work, such as Google Docs and Dropbox, although I still also make use of MS Office products.

I am finding that I am using Skype much more than I did previously (it is interesting that this proprietary system is now a de facto standard for many). In addition to Skype I am also making use of Google Hangouts with this tool being used for regular online meetings with my Cetis colleagues.

Working Practices

I have been aware for some time from reading Marieke’s posts on her Ramblings of a Remote Worker blog that the biggest challenges in remote working (and especially in home working) are concerned with issues such as the lack of regular face-to-face meetings with colleagues and the ad hoc meetings with others and, on another level,working in the place one lives.

I do continue to feel the need for intellectual stimulation from interactions with my peers. But this is a reason why I have felt it important to cultivate my online professional networks. Channels such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn help to provide such intellectual stimulation as well as the social intercourse which is needed.

In Marieke’s blog posts she has given her thoughts on working in one’s home environment. I try to ensure that my work does not completely dominate my life. One decision I did make when I was offered the job at Cetis was that I would work four days a week, with Friday as time for myself or for other professional interests. I do try and take regular exercise; I try to take a walk to nearby shops to buy some milk or bread two or three times a week.

To sum up in a tweet:  ”My experiences of being a home worker: enjoying it; need to be disciplined; don’t think I’d like to go back to being an office worker!“

I now work on an EU project leading on dissemination and community building.

This basically means I travel a lot (this year I’ve been to Luxembourg, St Petersburg, Athens and am off to Helsinki next week). This is probably not as much as some people but a lot more than I used to. Also most of this travel is in Europe rather than in the UK.

St Petersburg

As I move kicking and screaming into the frequent flyer bracket (I don’t like flying and it’s not doing my eco-credentials much good!) there are a few lessons I’ve learned that I thought I could share with you…

Apologies if some of these are obvious but I’ve learned the hard way!

Data

Data Roaming is still bloomin’ expensive!

I turn off every mobile data switch the moment I sit down on the plane. So this means switching off mobile data, 3G, data roaming, Bluetooth, push data and all related things. I also switch off updates – updates always tend to pick their moments! This stops me accidentally accessing data when confused and lost in foreign cities. This has meant I’ve avoided ‘bill-shock’ (this is apparently an actual word now – unpleasant surprise of a very large phone bill) so far.

I do use wifi on my phone if available – but even then feel a little bit paranoid.

If you do want to use data roaming there is apparently an EU cut-off regulation you can opt in to. EU regulations mean providers have to warn you when you’ve nearly used €50 (approx. £50 incl VAT) of data in a month when roaming overseas. When you hit this mark, your mobile provider will cut off your mobile internet service until the next billing month begins, unless you have already pre-arranged a higher limit.

Lower costs are likely to come in by December 2015 if legislation approved by members of the European parliament’s industry committee is rubber stamped by full parliament on 3 April.

There is lots of useful guidance on data roaming about, I found the Roaming Expert website helpful.

I also now use Mapswithme on my phone – this allows you to download maps of cities in advance and then navigate them as if you are online.

I always check a hotel has wifi before I book. I connect with home using Skype or facetime. I try to never call.

Money

I warn my bank where I’m going. I’m with Lloyds and there still doesn’t be a way to do this online but I visit the bank every now and then and tell them about my forthcoming trips.

I also have some spare Euros that I keep so I don’t have to rely on a cashpoint as soon as I arrive. I take 3 bank cards as a back up. I store all my receipts in a particular place and photograph them too. I upload photos to online storage while away in case I lose my camera or phone.

Work

I prep in advance so that I don’t have to do too much complicated stuff while I’m away. So I draft blog posts, papers etc. and have them pretty much ready to go. You can’t rely on the quality of a connection when away from your computer. I now use LastPass (after a disaster a few years back) – this means I don’t spend hours trying to figure out passwords because I’m on my laptop. I ensure updates on my laptop are all done before I go!

I now have several adaptors and sometimes take an extension lead if I’m going to a conference.

Food

I’ve finally got BA to realise that I’m a vegetarian after selecting this option on their website many times, but I always take a few snacks with me just in case. I also empty my water bottle out for security and fill it up when I get through – saves cash! I try and find veggie friendly restaurants in advance.

Travel

If I’m arriving late at night I now get the hotel I’m staying at to book the taxi. This saves me having to fork out lots for a dodgy taxi. Planing routes from airport and hotel is useful too!

With work colleagues in front of the Accropolis

Entertainment

I download iplayer programmes on my laptop so I can watch them in my hotel room – beats foreign programmes and BBC World news on a loop. I also stock up on my laptop on downloaded papers I’d like to read.

I try to schedule my travel so I have some time to have a look around, there is nothing more soul destroying that visiting a beautiful place and only seeing the airport.

And finally I have a gig glass of wine on the plane – this stops me worrying about crashing and all the things I’ve forgotten to do!

Travel suggestions from other people have been published on this blog before. Take a look at:

• Have laptop will travel by Stephanie Taylor
• Travelling Kit for a Remote Worker by John Kirriemuir

Last week brought us yet another piece of research on the personality traits needed to be a home worker.

The article in question was published in the journal Computers and Human Behavior and written by Thomas O’Neill from the University of Calgary. The conclusions (here reported in inc. by Laura Montini) offer nothing “earth shattering” however…

“One unexpected finding, the researchers said, was that people who indicated that they have neurotic tendencies actually work well remotely. O’Neill had predicted this group of people would have trouble concentrating, but that wasn’t the case.”

This got me thinking about the ‘bad’ idiosyncrasies that I now demonstrate after 7 years of remote working. Some are an intrinsic part of my nature, but others I’m sure have developed over time.

My cat being quiet

The Good

Before I go in to these I wanted to group the characteristics mentioned time and time again when it comes to remote working.

There are all those characteristics that you need to get the job done without someone looking over your shoulder: Focused, not easily distracted, self-disciplined, motivated, committed, an independent worker who requires minimal supervision, hard working, self-starter, management skills, organised, responsible, comfortable with self-imposed deadlines, decisive, a quick learner, prepared, productive, trustworthy.

Then there are those characteristics that stop you from feeling isolated: Sociable, extrovert, networked, positive attitude, communicative, articulate, collaborative worker, team player, forthcoming, frank, unreserved.

Then finally there are those characteristics that help you cope with a different way of working from most people: Adaptive, flexible, open-minded, innovative, creative, original thinking, cutting edge, tech savvy.

So I think I have a fair number of those, however I also have a few that don’t seem so great.

The Bad

I definitely do have neurotic tendancies, I worry too much and my husband sometimes says he thinks I have mild OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). I am very driven to get stuff done, maybe too driven, and I find it hard to relax. I always have to have a project on the go, I always have to be busy. This article on 4 Winning Personality Traits of the Successful Telecommuter sums it up nicely:

“To be a successful telecommuter, you have the type of personality that feels compelled to finish what you start, no matter how much it may inconvenience you to do so. When you begin a project, you will never rest until that project is finished. You may be sick as a dog but will keep working until the job is finished, knowing that the deadline is too critical to miss. You simply refuse to fail. You are someone who will stay up all night if that’s what it takes to complete a project.“

Related to this I tend to block out the world and get so focused on work that I wonder if I am letting my family relationships slip. I tend to take on too much and tend to say yes because I know I’ll fit stuff in – at the expense of all else!

I also wonder if I’ve become less of listener, maybe because I don’t have to listen quite so often. That seems strange as I spend most of my day with my headphones on in calls, but quite a lot of the time I work independently with no-one to bounce ideas off. Maybe I could do with spending a little more time letting ideas mull around, waiting for feedback. One of my biggest issues has always been that I act too quickly. That might sound like the answer to an interview question (“so what’s your biggest flaw?” “well, I’m just a little too perfect!“) but it can be a problem, Over the years I’ve learnt to let things rest for a little longer – don’t publish that report yet – you’ll get some more feedback in the middle of the night that it might make sense to include. Remote working doesn’t help here. You spend a lot of time waiting for people and you can’t pop your head round their door to ask them to hurry up. It can leave you frustrated and impatient.

One other strange thing – since working at home I now find that I work best in silence, in fact any noise drives me mad (this article on Radio silence and the remote worker picks up on this). I just can’t stand my cats miaowing or next door’s builder drilling. I wear noise reduction headphones most of the time to stop the non-silence getting in. I do wonder if I’d ever be able to return to an open plan office. As well as a silent room I also need a tidy room and find it hard incredibly off-putting if there is a mess around me – back to the OCD there.

My final concern is that I’ve become a bit of a ‘settler’. This article entitled Remote workers need more than just the right personality – they need ground rules talks about the possible negative effect on career advancement.

“The old adage out of sight, out of mind can be especially true for those who are working offsite. Telecommuters run the risk of being passed over for promotions and job opportunities. This can happen because of an unsupportive attitude on management’s part, who may perceive the choice to work from home as lack of career commitment. But it is also true that not all jobs, especially the higher up the corporate ladder, can be successfully managed from a remote location. “

Have I given up the ghost when it comes to career moves or are things just on hold for now?

The Ugly

And the worst thing of all…I’m now a serial snacker. Maybe it isn’t a personality trait or characteristic but it is an issue!

So what about you? What’s your good, bad and ugly?

References

• Radio silence and the remote worker
• Top 5 personality traits of successful web workers
• Your Personality Might Not be Suitable for Telework
• Personality traits of a successful telecommuter
• Is There a Virtual Worker Personality?
• 4 Winning Personality Traits of the Successful Telecommuter
• The Best Personalities to Work From Home (Think Neurotics)