TIBURON

Couple of software companies out there are starting to utilize the cloud computing concept. And staring to supports the New Way of Working paradigm. Store your stuff in the cloud and use it from anywhere, securely and using any device and share it with anyone else.

I just learned about Gravity Zoo.

A Dutch based company, which are currently working on a concept to store your music in the cloud and make it available on devices you assign.

They are also thinking about storing your contacts in this cloud. The idea being that if your phone gets stolen or breaks on you… you get a new one and your contacts are there again….

How about document sharing…..

Two ideas: first of all you want to store documents in the cloud somewhere and make it available on YOUR other devices as well…. Second, you want to share these documents (or some of them) with others.

Two options:

I’ve been working with Microsoft Live Mesh. Microsoft Live Mesh is currently in Beta but you can download and install from here.

An open source variant is also available ‘DropBox’ (also in Beta, but supporting more operating systems). Details can be found here.

Have fun

Ronald ‘Generation X’ van Barneveld

Tags van Technorati: New way of working,cloud computing,live mesh,mesh,microsoft,GravityZoo,Dropbox,open source,share.

You hear a lot of talking on 'The New Way of Working' (NWOW) and to be honest, I'm a strong believer in this! I think there is no way back, and all companies should be investigating their options to let their information workers utilize the benefits of NWOW.

Implementing NWOW in many companies is far from just a technical project, but impacts the bases of an entire organisation (e.g. HR - from hiring to evaluation - to management skills, to assuring that all your staff is utilizing the NWOW).

Being attractive to new hires

First of all, without some form of NWOW in your organisation, you will have a hard time being attractive to new hires. New hires (typically coming from the Generation Y - see below), tend to do things differently than 'Veterans'. One could argue about whether this is required and all.... but the fact remains. Generation Y are not looking for a manager that looks over their shoulder to monitor what they are doing. No... one would need to give Generation Y people an assignment and a deadline. Give them the tools required to do the job... and let them be. You will be surprised!

Management skills

One basis result of the NWOW is the fact that your employees will no longer be (as frequent) in the office physically, but only virtually. That's a big change for some companies! For some companies (and for that matter: management of those companies), the fact that you are physically present in an office building assures the management that you are working efficiently and are not distracted from anything else but your work. Although I understand where we're coming from, nowadays, your employees (specifically the information worker) are requesting some trust from their management. Trust in this context means, that in stead of you get a monthly presence allowance, you need to get a monthly deliverables allowance.

Assuring all your staff joins

I have talked about Generation Y and the different way of doing things in your company, but most likely your company has more than just Generation Y on staff. How do you get these generations to fully utilize the NWOW? That's an interesting question. Not doing so might result in a huge social gap between the generations.

Some ideas:

• You would have to start with respecting every generation. Pushing any generation into doing things the way that another generation would do it, will result in unhappy employees.
• Allow people to choose their workplace that best fits their needs. Assure that the tooling they use to communicate are integrated and people (from different generations) can easily find each other.

The generation differences.

I found this great article on FDU Magazine which clearly describes the different way of handling / managing different generation groups. Very interesting and worth a read!

The article can be found here: http://www.fdu.edu/newspubs/magazine/05ws/generations.htm

The full impact of NWOW for organisation goes far beyond a single article. I'll give more focus on other elements in future articles.

Ronald 'Generation X' van Barneveld

I still see companies that are reluctant to investigate the opportunities on the 'Generation Y' talks and the new way of working as they see this as 'technical bla bla' and some additional 'toys' for employees that will result in lost focus on their actual work. But in fact, if companies introduce tools and technology which result in improved internal communications, as a result your external communications (and thus your business results) will improve as well. Your employees know where to find the knowledge easier, faster and more efficiently improving your time-to-market, your answering time etc.

In line with my view on todays companies that are getting less attractive to new hires, an article has just been posted on: CIO.com
(http://www.cio.com/article/449639/Generation_Y_in_the_Workplace_Digital_Natives_Tech_Needs_Are_Changing_Companies_Forever?contentId=449639&slug=&source=nlt_cioinsider)

The article describes how Digital natives enter the workforce demanding the technology they've grown up with. To stay competitive and recruit top Generation Y talent, companies better meet those demands.

A definite read through for companies looking for another business requirement to allow people to communicate differently... and more effective.

Kind regards

Ronald 'Generation X' van Barneveld

Sounds like there's lots of work to be done.

http://www.cio.com/article/448763/Study_Social_Networks_Not_on_Many_Enterprises_Radar?page=1

  Vandaag op een congress (Passion4ICT) geweest, hier is me opgevallen dat we met ons landje echt in een nieuw tijdperk belanden, namelijk 'de stroploze'. Ongeveer 80% van de aanwezigen (waaronder mijzelf) hadden geen stropdas meer aan. Vergelijk dat eens met een paar jaar geleden, waar de gevestigde orde toch vooral strak in het pak (MET stropdas) aanwezig was.

De dresscode voor dit soort evenementen is veranderd! Een net pak, maar dan zonder stropdas. Het zit dus ergens tussen suit en business casual. Ik ben zelf overigens een groot voorstander van de 'tieless'. Het straalt een soort zakelijke rust uit.

Zou e.e.a. komen door de invloeden van het nieuwe werken? Ik denk het er zeker mee te maken heeft - aan de andere kant wellicht gewoon een modehype. Maar, de manier van werken wordt anders, meer relaxt, meer open, meer op afstand, maar toch betrokken.  

Los van het feit dat ik zelf graag die 'zakelijke rust' uitstraal, sta ik 's ochtends voor de kast en merk ik dat ik nog altijd twijfel.... met of zonder. Afhankelijk van het soort afspraak van die dag, strop ik toch nog steeds dat stuk stof om mijn nek. Het e.e.a. heeft natuurlijk te maken met het feit dat niet iedereen zich bezig houdt met deze nieuwe manier van werken en in sommige gelederen wordt het als zeer ongepast ervaren als mensen geen stropdas dragen. Toch denk ik dat er een cultuurverandering aan zit te komen, waarbij het niet dragen van een stropdas algemeen geaccepteerd wordt. 'Laten we het hopen!'

Verder heeft het ook nog een 'groen' aspect: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8046182/ ;-)

Ronald 'Generation X' van Barneveld

Situation: you are working from home and do what you're supposed to do (the NWOW paradigm). Work hard, but at flexible hours (i.e. not 9 till 5). At noon you pick your daughter from school and have lunch with her. An hour later you take her back to school, after which you can continue your work. At 3 PM, you leave your desk in order to go fetch some diner at your local store.

While in the store, your manager or customer calls and ask you what you about the status of a particular assignment.

Question: What do you say?

This is an interesting culture change that we have to go through. Cause in this new age, it wouldn't really matter where you are at that time. As long as both your manager and your customer trust you and are confident that you get the job done in the set time-frame (or sooner :-). Although all of the above are true (trust and confidence), I still feel that it's not done to go out or stop working for some time (between the 'regular' hours) and thus I find myself doing awkward things to avoid mentioning I'm not currently working.

Anyway, I guess that it requires some additional practice to say: "Well dear customer, I'm currently not online and do not have all data with me as I'm in a local store fetching tonight's diner. Can I call you back later?" It still feels as though this is 'not done'.

I'm going to start practicing on this a bit more.

Ronald 'Generation X' van Barneveld