Late last year, Celine shared some tips on avoiding conflicts within a teleworking team. Around the same time I came across UK-based “business psychology” consultants, Psycuity, a company that asserts that it can help design better teams through understanding the underlying psychology of individual team members. Could this type of understanding be useful in figuring out how distributed web workers could work together more effectively?

Using psychometric testing and a long pedigree in psychology, Psycuity has codified a lot of the personality types, compatibilities and behaviors we might ordinarily find difficult to measure. Using these measurements, we can make helping more informed decisions about our teams.

After completing a short online questionnaire — it took about 20 minutes — I was called by one of Psycuity’s cofounders, Ian Hudson, who talked me through my test results. Ian had no prior knowledge or understanding of my work or personality, but spent half an hour or so breaking down his analysis of my interpersonal style, thinking style, coping strategies, leadership qualities, influencing styles and where in teams I would best fit. Frankly, I was astonished at Ian’s insights, which he later provided to me as a printed report. They accurately reflected probably around 90-95 percent of my self-image.

Psychometric testing is by no means a new tool for those managing and recruiting personnel, but the Psycuity guys have managed to package and streamline the experience to require minimal input from the test subject, while still providing a rich and very detailed analysis of their capabilities and qualities.

Circling back to Celine’s original thoughts on avoiding conflicts within teams, I wonder if it’s possible to use a company such as Psycuity to predict how well a group of untethered workers will work together. There are some interesting questions to consider:

• Could Psycuity-style tests help prepare guidelines on how best to coalesce a diverse group of people into an effective team?
• How would this type of screening be applicable to assess the “fitness” of a coworking community?
• Can it only really work for people that work together in the same organization — or  would it also be useful for a group of collaborating freelancers.

Individually, I found a great deal of insight into my own behavior, but I’m curious to hear what others think. Can business psychology be used to enhance team spirit between disconnected, untethered, web workers?

Do leave your thoughts in the comments below — I’d love to hear everyone’s views on this.

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Here he talks about why he uses Paint.net and Plurk.

What’s Your Favorite Web App, Wagner James Au? from WebWorkerDaily on Vimeo.

For updates from WebWorkerDaily, follow us @webworkerdaily on Twitter.

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Go2Web20 recently got a major overhaul, which increases its usefulness immensely. It also adds considerably to the number of things that have the potential to distract me on any given day. That said, the productive potential of Go2Web20 is also significantly improved.

By default, you’re greeted with a grid view displaying 47 different web application logos. They seem to be arranged by how recently the’ve been added to the directory, since I can’t find any other logic governing their organization. Right away, I spoted PDFVue, an app I recently covered here on WWD.

Holding your mouse cursor over any app will bring up a brief description of just what that app’s all about. I appreciate the brevity, and all of the descriptions I’ve come across so far give me exactly the information I need for a broad, top-level search. Clicking on any app logo brings you to an expanded view for the web app in question.

The full entry gives you a longer description, a link to the app’s web site, mentions of the app on blogs via an RSS feed, a tweet stream if applicable, and a variety of links to let you share that app on Facebook, Friendfeed, etc. User comments and ratings are also supported.

You can also install a convenient browser search plugin that’s compatible with Firefox and IE, so that you don’t have to visit the actual site every time you want to find an app. Anyone can also suggest an app for inclusion using Go2Web20′s own convenient form, and there’s no cost for listing with the service.

This is a great resource for comparing and contrasting a variety of web apps quickly and intuitively, especially with the recent update. Even if you’re happy with your current web app load out, I’d recommend heading over to Go2Web20 and either adding services you use that are missing, or adding comments and reviews for ones that are there, since some community involvement will really help it blossom into a fully featured tool.

How do you find the perfect web apps for your needs?

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Photo by Patrick Fitzgerald

As I sit here working on blog posts, I can hear my next door neighbor, aka @crazyneighbor, carry on loudly through the wall of my home office. He seems to be alternating between mowing the lawn, making very loud whooping noises, and fixing his car. Needless to say, it can be pretty distracting.

When I worked in an off-site office, I had plenty of distractions, too. Usually in the form of one of these interesting characters: Mr. “I talk loudly on my phone in the cubicle next door,” Ms. “I love my speakerphone all of the time,” Mr. “Drop in and chat even when people are busy” or Ms. “I make very smelly food in the microwave.”

Becoming a web worker has a completely different set of distractions. Kids are an additional distraction for many of my friends, and while I’ve avoided that particular one, I have plenty of my own. Loud neighbors, a significant other who is also a web worker, household chores, Twitter and many other things pull me out of the zone and into a distracted state.

I have, however, a few ways of dealing with distractions and the reduced productivity that come with them.

Music can help drown out many noises. While I am a fan of really bad 80′s pop music, it can also be a distraction if I’m trying to do strategic consulting or writing, so I frequently turn to music in foreign languages. Since I can’t understand the lyrics, I find them less distracting. My favorites are Latin Jazz (Pancho Sanchez and Tito Puente are good choices) or Rammstein.

Embracing the chaos can also help. If I’m not going to be able to concentrate, it can be a great excuse to work on invoicing, entering expenses and other tedious tasks that have to be completed, but don’t require much concentration. It might also be a great time to get out of the house and grab a quick workout and hope that the distractions will be reduced when I return.

Relocating to another room on the other side often works, too — assuming you have multiple rooms where you can work. A local coffee shop, library, coworking space or other location might also be a good way to get away from the distractions.

What are your biggest distractions and how do you deal with them?

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Mathews is another big fan of Google Docs. Here’s how he uses it.

What’s Your Favorite Web App, Dave Mathews? from WebWorkerDaily on Vimeo.

Look for upcoming video sound bites from SXSW by following us on Twitter at @webworkerdaily.

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Now, I’m not a CPA, and the closest I’ve come to taking accounting is being a professor’s assistant in an online graduate program course. However, I must do something right as I’ve been on my own for over four years and my business tax payments remain on target. So here I’m going to share what I do, as it might work for you or give you ideas on how you can keep on top of your business finances.

I keep it simple by having just two tools in my accounting toolbox: QuickBooks and Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS). Substitute QuickBooks with your favorite accounting application to make this process work for you. I tend to pick up new software fast, but not so with QuickBooks. Regardless, it takes care of all of my invoicing, expensing and tax needs. But we won’t go into that. My way is just one way; check the comments on this post to see a bunch of great ways to handle your taxes.

There are two things you need to do:

• Track income and expenses.
• Pay quarterly taxes (otherwise known as 1040-ES).

Track Income and Expenses

How do you invoice customers and track payment? What about tracking things you buy for your business? Applications like QuickBooks make it easy to create reports to see your income and expenses by quarter, year, fiscal year or customized period.

Keep all of your receipts for expenses related to your business. Don’t worry about organizing them. Grab a cheap expandable folder and throw them in there. Write or label it, “Business receipts.” For electronic receipts, create a folder in your email account with the same name. Or if you’re an organized freak like me, scan your receipts and save them in a folder.

Remember that anything related to web working counts as an expense, including your home office space (but verify this with your accountant) and family printer, along with its toner or cartridge replacements. Any time you take the car to buy supplies or to attend an event where you meet with folks on business, track the car’s mileage. Tax law allows you to deduct a set amount for mileage (again, check with an accountant as this varies per year). Paying for parking at the event also counts. Magazines and books related to your profession make the cut as expenses. Add the cell phone, landline phone and any other communications services. Record all purchases in your accounting software on a regular basis so you can deduct the expenses when quarterly tax time rolls around.

Pay Quarterly Taxes

It definitely helps to have a good accountant you can go to, especially for advice on state laws. Or you can brave it and do the research yourself (but I’ll wish you luck decoding bureaucrat-speak). My family has relied on an accountant since before I went into business for myself. They can find deductions you might not think about. A good accountant is worth way more than what you pay them.

Unless you’re a full-time employee with a company that already does the deductions for you, you need to pay federal taxes (1040-ES) on a quarterly basis. EFTPS Online makes it very easy for American web workers to pay online or over the phone. The service costs nothing, stays open 24/7 and accepts payments in advance.

According to the IRS:

Estimated tax is the method used to pay tax on income that is not subject to withholding. This includes income from self-employment, interest, dividends, alimony, rent, gains from the sale of assets, prizes, and awards. You also may have to pay estimated tax if the amount of income tax being withheld from your salary, pension, or other income is not enough.

As a sole freelance web worker, I pay 1040-ES on a quarterly basis. The due dates for the quarterly payments are as follows, along with the periods they cover:

• April 15: Jan. 1 – March 31
• June 15: April 1 – May 31
• Sept. 15: June 1 – Aug. 31
• Jan. 15: Sept. 1 – Dec. 31 of the previous year

For those payment days falling on a weekend or holiday, the payment is due the following Monday.

EFTPS lets you set up an account with your taxpayer identification number, which is either your social security number (SSN) or employer identification number (EIN). You also provide your bank account information so you pay your taxes directly without writing a check. I’ve been doing this for years without problems.

So how do you know how much to pay? My method is simple, but it may not apply or work for you. For me, I base the amount owed on my household’s tax bracket. Here’s an example for someone who falls in the 20 percent bracket.

1. Figure out earnings for the quarter. From Jan. 1 – March 31, you bring in an income of $10,000.
2. Figure out the expenses for the same quarter: $500.
3. Take the income and subtract the expenses for the final number of $9500.
4. Multiply the final number by the bracket. Here it’s 9500 x .2 (20 percent) = $1900.

$1,900 is what Mr. Example owes for the quarter on April 15. I use this formula and it has yet to fail me. Your tax bracket may change, as it has for me. Just change the percent part of the formula as needed. The IRS web site also provides illustrated examples using its worksheet.

Take advantage of your accountant’s time and find out your tax bracket percentage and what deductions to consider for the next tax year. For example, if your family plans to take a summer trip (lucky you! May I come?), find a way to do business while on the trip so you can deduct parts of it.

How do you manage your taxes?

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• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
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Social Actions has created an open database of over 60,000 actions from more than 40 sites — including GlobalGiving, Change.org, DonorsChoose.org, Kiva.org, Idealist.org and VolunteerMatch.  Now it’s looking to get those actions out there on the web sites, blogs and social networks we visit every day, and that’s where you come in.

The Challenge is to create web applications and widgets that draw on Social Actions’ database and help people connect to actions on blogs, web sites and social networks — you can see some examples on the Social Actions site.  Apps and widgets entered to the contest will be voted on by the public, with 20 finalists being judged by an expert panel. Winners will share $10,000 in prize money. Submissions close April 3rd, so get your skates on!

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The problem with Zoho, until now, has been one of constant improvement. That may not seem like a problem at all, but when that improvement involves adding more and more features, but keeping the interface the same, it can get a little unruly. The new redesign tries to make sure Zoho doesn’t overwhelm you visually, which in turn makes it easier to work with.

The old Zoho Writer menu

While some liked the old UI, I found it too cluttered, because I normally like to edit in full screen, and like as little chrome as possible in my browsers. The changes to the top menu give you a bit more room, but more importantly, they group and hide a lot of commands so you aren’t left feeling crowded. The new “MenuTab” feature groups similar commands under general headings. You can access these commands either by clicking the tab, which changes the button set available on your toolbar (much like Microsoft’s “Ribbon” UI for Office) or by clicking the little arrow next to them, which opens a drop-down menu without changing your toolbar.

The new Zoho Writer 2.0 "MenuTab" interface

It makes sense, and it suits multiple tastes. You’ll be comfortable if you’re used to working with Office, or if you’re used to working with drop-down menus like you’ll find in a lot of web apps. Zoho plans to use MenuTab in all of its other applications in the future, too, so even if you don’t like it, plan on getting used to it!

I won’t go into detail about Zoho Writer, since we’ve covered it before. It’s not new, but I still love Zoho’s tabbed management of open documents. I much prefer it to Google’s opening of new browser tabs for each document, although that makes much more sense when you take into account Google Chrome’s handling of each tab as a separate process. And I still miss Google’s full-screen edit mode too much to make a permanent switch.

Still, if you’re a Zoho user, or if you tried it out before but didn’t like it because of the interface, Zoho Writer 2.0 gives you ample reason to take it out for a second spin.

Do you use Zoho Writer? What do you think of the new UI?

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• The Future of Work Platforms: An Overview
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So is Microsoft Online Services a viable option for web workers? As the UK is now included in the list of countries it’s available in, and there is a 30-day free trial, I thought I’d take it for a spin and see.

Online Services offers access to a range of products. The Business Productivity Online Suite is basically a hosted version of Exchange Server, SharePoint Server and Live Meeting, available for a subscription fee of £10 ($14) per user, per month in the UK.

The collaborative features of SharePoint and Live Meeting, in particular, are very good and might be handy for web workers with distributed teams, especially if your team members are used to using Microsoft products. However, the upfront costs of the standalone products — running into the thousands — are hugely off-putting for any small business or independent web worker, so a monthly subscription is attractive.

The first step is to get signed up with an administrator account. The experience here could be better. Rather than simple registration, you have to jump through numerous hoops. Particularly annoying is the compulsory password reset. Be prepared for a lot of form-filling and jumping from screen to screen.

Once you’ve managed to get signed up, you’ll find Online Services fairly easy to use, especially if you’ve used any of the standalone products before. Administration of user accounts is straightforward, and setting up a new site collection in SharePoint is simple. However, I found the admin experience to be quite sluggish, with some frustrating delays.

Online Services administration

Once your users are set up, email, calendaring and contacts become available, either though Outlook or Outlook Web Access, and they can start working with any SharePoint site collections that you have set up. Microsoft recommends each user downloading a special Sign-In tool, as without it you’ll have to keep re-entering your username and password.

From a users’ point of view, the apps served by Online Services run reasonably fast — the delays that I experienced as an administrator were not evident while using Outlook Web Access, for example.

Outlook Web Access

SharePoint is an excellent browser-based collaboration tool, and it works well when served by Online Services. You can use it to run an entire intranet, including wikis, blogs, messaging, event calendars and shared document repositories. It’s a very powerful and flexible solution, and, again, seemed reasonably fast in my test.

SharePoint

If you’re looking for a collaboration solution for your distributed team, you might like to check out Online Services, particularly if your team members are used to working with SharePoint or you have a client who’s looking for Microsoft solutions. The cost is not prohibitive, it’s quite easy to use and the services work well.

However, for smaller companies and teams, Online Services is probably overkill, and there are plenty of other services that provide similar functionality — Google Apps for domains and Zoho, for example — that might be cheaper or more suitable.

Would you use Online Services?

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• The Future of Work Platforms: An Overview

It’s a matter of reducing the steps to the bare minimum in order to allow a piece of content to “go viral.” BurnURL does its part by with something called the “ShareBar.”

BurnURLs are created in the same way as other URL-shortening tools. Head to BurnURL.com, or grab the bookmarklet so it’s a simple one-click operation, enter the URL, “burn” it, and you’re provided with the shortened URL (for example, here’s the link to the announcement on the Official Readburner Blog: http://burnurl.com/ejwnvF) so that you’re set to fire off the BurnURL via Twitter, e-mail, instant message, and so on.

The real power of this tool presents itself when you click a BurnURL and find the ShareBar that runs at the top of the destination page. While services like Adjix and Linkbee use a header space on destination pages to run ads, BurnURL carves out a social media and redistribution area that has the potential to be highly effective for web workers.

Front and center at the top of the screen is a share area that easily allows recipients of the BurnURL to reshare the web page that they’re using via Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Mixx, Reddit, Delicious, and StumbleUpon. I’d like to see BurnURL expand this area to aid people who use such tools as Yammer, an enterprise version of Twitter that includes task management tools, and ididwork. Again, the ability to quickly and efficiently find important content and then pass it along to colleagues and clients (who then, in turn, are empowered to do the same) is a powerful web utility. It would be especially interesting and useful to see a simple “Shared” meter, noting the number of times a web page has been “burned.”

That said, we are told how many “hits” a page has received, which I presume to mean the number of click throughs an individual instance of a unique BurnURL has received. It would be all the more useful to be able to see this number, as well as the aggregate number of views that the page has received through the total number of instances in which a web page has been burned and shared.

There’s also a really simple ability to vote a BurnURL page up or down, which helps to tally the percentage of people who “liked” the page. Again, I’d love to be able to see the individual page statistics vs. the aggregate here.

But even as it stands, this tool provides a strong means for organizations of all kinds to track data usage. For example, I can find an online article, burn it, share it on Twitter with a note saying, “What do y’all think, vote up if you like it.” Then later in the day I can check back to see how many people visited the story via the BurnURL link, and the percentage of them that liked it. This is pretty powerful stuff in terms of the lightning-fast ability to distribute content on the web and receive feedback in real time.

And finally, if I may add one more item to my BurnURL wish list: Google Reader-style “share note” comments, which would allow people to leave short notes on web pages that can be added to as they are redistributed.

What URL shortening services do you use?

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First, let me clarify that I’m looking at the Windows version for the purposes of this post. For more info on the Mac version, check out this post over at TheAppleBlog by Matthew Bookspan.

The first thing I noticed about MindView 3 is the redesigned user interface. Like a lot of software that’s designed to be used alongside Microsoft Office, the new look resembles Office 2007′s UI, right down to the ribbon-style menu, the location of common commands, and the use of the “Start” button to access advanced options. People who don’t like Office 2007, or those still using older versions, might not be comfortable with the new interface, but in my opinion, it’s a great improvement.

Another improvement comes by way of the great collection of built-in templates, which can take a lot of the grunt work out of setting up a mind map. I used a basic web site template for the purposes of this review, since I actually have to set one up anyway for a friend’s new small press publishing venture.

Using MindView is incredibly easy. You can add notes in the bottom frame for any item, and you can switch views in the main pane from Mind Map to Top Down, or select from a number of other choices. Each branch you add to the root can be customized with a picture of your choosing, and you can add a built-in or custom icon to any item in your map. All of these options can be found in the ribbon, pretty much exactly where you’d expect to find it if you’re familiar with Office 2007.

You can also quickly reformat your entire map with pre-set styles, in much the same way that you can in Word and PowerPoint 2007. Files and hyperlinks can be attached to any and all items, and you can even package attachments with your mind map so that they’ll be available to others you may want to share your file with. And if they don’t have MindView, you can export to a variety of formats, including PowerPoint, Word, and HTML.

Any web worker would probably benefit from getting to know mind maps and how to use them, and MindView 3 is a great tool for doing this. It’s easy to learn, especially if you’re already comfortable with using Microsoft Office 2007, and its templates provide great starting points for novice users, while its customizability ensures that experienced mappers won’t feel limited.

However, while it does offer a 20-day free trial to download, the cost of the full version is a fairly hefty $279 for a single user license, so I’d only recommend a purchase if you’re a heavy user of mind maps or if you know you will be able to use this tool for revenue generation.

What tools do you use for mind mapping?

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I took the beta version of DocVerse for a spin today, and first impressions are good.

DocVerse promises easy document sharing and collaboration and it does just that: you get one-click syncing of documents from with Office and the ability to collaborate on documents with people who don’t have Office installed. Notably, it’s currently limited to PowerPoint 2007 users; DocVerse plans to roll out support for Word, Excel and Office 2003 later this spring.

You start by downloading and installing the software, and setting up a DocVerse account. DocVerse installs an add-on for PowerPoint, which adds a new pane to your PowerPoint window:

DocVerse pane in PowerPoint window

To start sharing the presentation, you just click the large “Add to DocVerse” button. The file gets uploaded to your DocVerse account. From now on, every time you save the file, it is synced with your DocVerse account. Here you can see that I’ve created a presentation and added it to my DocVerse:

Presentation ready to be shared using DocVerse

There are a couple of options for sharing the document. The first is to enter the email addresses of other DocVerse users into the “People” box, which means that any changes your colleague makes will be synced with your document and vice versa. DocVerse has a built-in resolution system to deal with any potential conflicts.

The second option is to use the document’s DocVerse URL. The great thing about this option is that you can use it to share the document with anyone; they don’t need to have PowerPoint or DocVerse installed.

Here’s my presentation in a browser window:

My presentation in Chrome

Although they can’t edit the document directly, people viewing the presentation in a browser can add comments that are then synced back to the file on my computer. This kind of simple cross-platform sharing and collaboration will make DocVerse really useful. I can’t wait for it to roll out support for the rest of the Office suite, for while I love Google Apps, I still need to use Office (particularly Word) from time to time.

DocVerse is currently in private beta. If you’d like to try it out, we have 200 invitations to give away to WWD readers .

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• The Future of Work Platforms: An Overview
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Fast forward to 2009. The functionality which I found so amazing in Outlook Web Access in 2000 I take for granted now. I no longer work in an office, something which is true of many of my peers, as you might expect of people who work in tech. But now, even my mother, probably the least computer-literate person that I know, can access her work emails and do work from home. Does that mean that we’re all web workers now?

I may be biased, but I would argue that, to a certain extent, yes, we are. Lots of people use the web to work for at least a small part of their jobs, even if they don’t have what we might think of as the typical “web worker” lifestyle: working from home or a coffee shop, tapping away on a laptop. Teachers, for example, use the web to research and gather new teaching materials; farmers communicate with customers and suppliers over email and file their accounts using web apps.  It’s hard to think of a profession that doesn’t use the Web in some way now.

Web working is getting even more common, thanks to a few trends we’ve seen over that past few years:

The Gig Economy

Over the past few years more and more people have turned to freelance work (the “Gig Economy“); it’s a shift that will likely be accelerated as companies shed jobs over the coming year. While it’s never good to hear of people losing their jobs, we’re all adjusting to a new way of working that will continue into the future. The current dire economic climate is just accelerating something that was happening anyway. oDesk has been calling this trend “homeshoring” (as opposed to offshore outsourcing, see Freelance Job Growth Accelerates in the U.S. on the oDesk blog). Companies and individuals are realizing the benefits of being flexible: not being tied to a particular job, and moving from project to project as needed.

Falling Costs, Better Connectivity

Another driver is falling costs and better connectivity. All of the costs associated with web working have dropped to the point where it’s now accessible to nearly everyone. Back in 2000, there was no way that I could have afforded Exchange, let alone the server to run it on, but now my needs are met by Gmail and Google Calendar. Likewise my home Internet connection is cheaper now, not to mention many times faster. I can access the Internet over Wi-Fi from many of the coffee shops near my house, and even when I can’t find a Wi-Fi hotspot, through my iPhone. My laptop is way more powerful and was cheaper to buy, in real terms, than my old desktop PC was.

Increasing Functionality

There are web apps to do nearly anything today. If you had told me, back in 2000, that you could shift not only Outlook, but the whole Microsoft Office suite, onto the browser, I would have scoffed. But now I no longer use Office day-to-day: Google Apps does everything I need. Many more of the desktop apps we used to have are moving into the cloud, and with that shift comes the benefit of shared data and collaboration.

The Future?

So yes, we are all web workers now, at least to a small extent. I think it’s pretty safe to say, looking at these trends, that in the future — maybe not all that long from now — more of us will lead the “web worker lifestyle” and the web will be such an integral part of working that life without it would be unthinkable.

For many of us, we’re already there.

Are we all web workers now? What about the future?

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• The Future of Work Platforms: An Overview
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Here are two notable examples, where you can show your stuff.

Zooppa has been referred to as a “YouTube for advertisements.”  The site works like this: Regular contests seeking grassroots online advertisements are held, and they are sponsored by large and small companies around the globe so that winning entries get cash prizes. A typical prize is a few thousand dollars, and site officials claim that over $300,000 in prize money has already been awarded.

At Zooppa, you work with your own grassroots tools–such as video editing software, graphics applications, and the like–to build an advertisement. Guidelines for content are typically provided in short creative briefs, just as they are for big Madison Avenue ad firms. Then you upload your advertisement to the site, which encodes video, and winning entries are determined from the pool of submissions.

You can find out more in Zooppa’s blog. The blog notes that the Doritos advertisment that ran during the Super Bowl was created by two “nobodies” who won a million dollars for their creation.

In another example of this trend, SpotMixer recently secured $9 million in venture funding for its site encouraging templated creation of viral videos.  The site supplies tools and templates for producing advertising and marketing content. When your advertisement is completed, you upload it to YouTube and SpotMixer’s business model, starting at $49 a month, is built around helping you reach customers online or through cable outlets. If you’re a creative type and know your way around video editing and graphics applications, these sites could spell opportunity.

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