Minutes.io is a simple, well-designed web app that makes taking and distributing meeting minutes quick and painless — no more transcribing handwritten meeting notes, or cobbling together a minutes email from typed notes. It’s free, and no sign up is required in order to use it. Read more »
For innovative teams — those in startups as well as those innovating within established organizations — traditional professional development, or PD, has become an anachronism. Rather than being an after-hours, formal, institutionalized proposition, successful professional development in innovative teams is holistic and always-on. Read more »
The use of the iPad by mobile workers is on the rise, and that brings with it both boons and challenges for productivity. Here’s how you and your remote staff can stay on top of iPad usage, lest iPad usage controls you and your organization instead. Read more »
“Untethered,” for most of us, isn’t technical jargon, but rather the ability to work unrestrained, able to jump from one activity to the next without cumbersome tools slowing us down. But to become untethered, we must be willing to move away from old ways of working. Read more »
It’s being rumored that Windows 8 could make its debut next week, even though release isn’t actually slated to occur until 2012. Here’s a list of the features that are likely to be included in Windows 8 that I’m most looking forward to seeing: Read more »
The sort of “Let’s Get Away From It All” vacation immortalized in the popular song may be a thing of the past. A new study confirms that web workers are increasingly accepting of being contacted for work while on vacation. Read more »
Not long after starting an online marketing company with his partner, California-based David Chan realized that his growing business demanded more manpower and set about engaging a team of remote workers. WebWorkerDaily spoke to Chan to find out what’s worked for him and what hasn’t. Read more »
“If you’re bolding the bullet points in your email” said a friend of mine recently, “your email’s too long.” Few web workers would disagree. But that comment made me wonder whether the tools we’re using to communicate are becoming more important than the communications we’re having. Read more »
The Telework Enhancement Act is designed to increase telework opportunities for federal employees. Agencies are now winding up the process of complying with its requirements. What lessons do their efforts hold for businesses interested in starting their own web work programs? Read more »
j2 Global, the company behind eFax, is extending its telecommunication offerings. For clients who do not need fax, email and web conferencing, j2 offers eVoice, which competes with the likes of 8×8 Virtual Office Solo and Google Voice in offering a business telecoms for smaller organizations. Read more »
The proliferation of cloud storage providers has led to many of us storing our documents in a variety of different locations: Google Docs, Zoho, Dropbox, Box.net, etc. Primadesk is an app that wants to be a desktop file manager for the cloud. Read more »
Mobile workers just don’t put the phone down, according a new report from iPass, which provides Wi-Fi and 3G network access to enterprise clients for use by their employees. The results of the report are illuminating, if not also a little scary. Read more »
Most of us have social networking profiles these days, and though survey results differ on the exact percentage, a whole lot of hiring managers and recruiters can’t resist taking a peek at them. But do people get an accurate picture of others’ personalities from their profiles? Read more »
So far, tablet computers have been more useful as “data consuming” tools, rather than genuine work devices. One stumbling block is the inability to easily edit documents stored in the cloud. Soonr is the first service to offer integrated editing of Office documents for the iPad. Read more »
Cloud document storage app OfficeDrop has become known for bringing filing into the modern era, helping users to get away from those pesky manila folders. The company is hoping to make traditional scanning software equally outdated with an upgraded version of its scanning app ScanDrop. Read more »
Spending plenty of time in your chair at your home office doesn’t sound like the kind of thing that is good for your health, but there is one aspect of the web worker lifestyle that may make it healthier than life at a traditional office: autonomy. Read more »
like the dinosaurs, which scientists tell us live on as chickens, the office building of the past is unlikely to become completely extinct, but rather to evolve to meet the demands of new kinds of workers. So what will this new paradigm look like? Read more »
One of the problems with collaborating with people in multiple time zones is figuring out suitable times to hold meetings. There are apps that can help, but they’re often clunky and tricky to use. Enter Word Time Buddy, an app that makes selecting meeting times easy. Read more »
Gone are the days when creative work was always done by teams operating from the same location. Yet there’s a a great deal of creative collaboration that still relies on our being able to “workshop” concepts together. What does remote work mean for creative collaboration? Read more »
HomePipe is a service that allows you to securely access and share files remotely to Windows, Mac, and Linux machines, through a web app, and through free mobile apps. The service has announced several features that will make it more attractive for business collaboration. Read more »
With more and more organizations relying on team members who don’t come into the office, companies will see a greater number of support requests from telecommuters. One such request is for a stipend to subsidize the cost of using a coworking space. Read more »
I’ve been given a sneak peak at an Elance study that investigates the attitudes of “millennials” to work, their careers and job searching. Perhaps the most interesting finding in the study is how positive the millenials are about freelancing as a career choice. Read more »
Coworking is a great way for freelancers to work in an office setting without having to sign up for office life, but it can also be a useful for remote teams. Some companies are now supporting remote staff with a coworking stipend. Here’s why. Read more »
It’s not only work that goes on at work. A portion of the office day in is taken up with complimenting new hairstyles, joking about a colleague’s sports team and the like. Web workers tend to miss out on these quick doses of human connection. Read more »
How much more you could get done if you had just an extra hour a day? While I can’t magically transport you to Bajor, where they have 26 hour days, I can share a few tips that will help you to take control of your schedule. Read more »
How can you prepare your business for a forced closure? In recent weeks in my home state of Louisiana there’s been a threat of severe flooding. When you’re anticipating a natural disaster, you can’t help but get a little nervous. Read more »
OfficeDrop, an application for scanning, accessing and sharing paper and digital files via the cloud has been rolling out onto a variety of platforms. OfficeDrop Paper-to-Go app for Android is now available, in addition to applications for Mac, PC and iPad. Read more »
In the course of writing about different tools, I often make a point of asking about them on various social networking sites. The responses I get sometimes include comments about how much much users absolutely loathe particular tools that they have to work with. Read more »
You’re an experienced manager and have been shepherding your in-office team effectively for years. And then things shift, you change roles, or a new project comes along, and suddenly the people you work with are scattered across the continent. Does all your old management wisdom apply? Read more »
While there’s probably no single provider that provides an exact like-for-like replacement for all of Skype’s features, there are plenty of companies offering great VoIP and video calling services; some of which are even better than Skype’s. Here is a list of my favorites: Read more »
The reality is that truly productive teams tend to be close-knit. There’s a strong sense of rapport between the team members. Let’s face it, in a productive team, it’s the teamwork — willingness to problem-solve together — that often ensures the productivity. And teamwork depends on rapport. Read more »
One of the problems with most cloud collaboration apps is that you need to have an Internet connection in order to do your work. LucidChart, a web-based visual communication and diagramming app that offers real-time collaboration, has announced that it is now providing offline capabilities. Read more »
When we discuss telecommuting dilemmas for businesses, we often jump to talking about management issues. But many other parts of an organization can also have concerns about telecommuting; one of them is the human resources department. Here are four issues that your HR department may face. Read more »
When it comes to remote work, is the point cost savings or employee motivation? Maybe it depends on the continent, suggests a ZDNet Asia article. It notes that while telecommuting is frequently used for cost saving in the U.S., in Asia it’s used for employee morale. Read more »
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Ahead of the Google I/O developer conference this week, Google Apps reseller Cloud Sherpas is announcing some updates to SherpaTools, a companion product for Google Apps. The most significant change is an update to its Delegation features, providing greater control over permissions. Read more »
I’m a huge fan of anything that can make me more productive, so I’m always looking for ways to accomplish more while not killing myself doing it. It’s easier to excel if you can do more than your peers while still having time to recharge. Read more »
If you have a one-person office and are looking for an affordable telecommunications package, provider 8×8′s new Virtual Office Solo may be worth a look. Calls may be sent and received through most web browsers. When you’re away, calls can be forwarded. Read more »
Every day, it seems, there are dozens of new applications available to help with different aspects of web working. It got me thinking. What is it we really need as web workers these days, and is anyone working to find solutions to those problems? Read more »
Sitting on the beach and sipping an umbrella drink doesn’t sound like the kind of task that requires an instruction manual, but it’s hard for web workers know when work ends and vacation begins. How can you switch off without appearing to slack off? Read more »
Working remotely means not having the easy access to the machines and systems you used to when you were cubicle-bound. Here’s a list of five basic categories of tools you should have at the ready, and a variety of options to consider for each category. Read more »
