Comments on: Where Web 2.0 Works

By: Margi

Margi — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 03:50:12 +0000

Good GOD those Fog Creek offices are nice. That’s what I would love to do here at home. *snort* Shyeah. Right.

By: mike

mike — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 12:20:49 +0000

i’ve worked the last 5 years for a large bank in seattle… you can put 2+2. :)

our web application development teams were moving more and more to a collaborative work environment. conference rooms were booked solid for development sessions.

why? when there’s more than one person working on an application, especially across disciplines or in some case, across business units, email/IM/telephone round-trips just take too long. being able to say “hey bob, what class should i be using for this element” or “where did you put that account object you created yesterday” speeds the whole team toward the finish line.

there are times when members of the team break off to go back to their cubes and dive deep, but the collaborative atmosphere is not just a social thing, it’s a productivity tool when working in teams.

now that i’m trying to start up my own business working from home (on the entirely opposite coast) i admit i miss being able to bounce ideas off of people.

By: COD

COD — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 00:18:52 +0000

I suspect a lot of the programmers at these companies are working remotely anyway and don’t get into the office regularly.

By: Lance

Lance — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 23:59:58 +0000

Just to clarify, I’m not against offices, but I’d prefer a shared table with a great workstation over a waste of space cubicle with a average workstation. Basically, I hate cubicle hell.

By: Justin Pease

Justin Pease — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 23:59:34 +0000

I guess everyone is different. I can’t listen to music with words in it if I’m trying to concentrate on programming. If I’m doing graphics, or something pretty mindless it is OK. But if I have to concentrate I need music with no words, or ideally silence.

By: Jillian

Jillian — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 23:31:26 +0000

I agree, I can’t see myself getting any work done in any of those places. I’d much prefer deathly quiet and a closed door.

By: Lance

Lance — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 22:11:00 +0000

I may be making a slight generalisation, but I think Web 2.0 people are more about doing something interesting than hey look at me, I’m an important person with an office. Also, imho, I think it’s pretty smart to cut the reoccuring cost of office space in favor of getting better tools. Almost all of these places run either huge single screens or two large screens per machine (and a lot are Apple notebooks).