Midmarket Clan Chat: Meet Me in the Clouds

Thanks Kim! Thanks Nicole.

I'm excited. Thanks for the chat guys!

Well, cloud security coming up on Friday.  We'll be chatting again then.

I think this is the  model or group of models we should focus on when talking about the future of the enterprise.

Well, surely there will be more on this to come.

Gotcha, Kim. Thing is, there are security concerns introduced by this model. Lots of them.

I think we may be exhausting the subject for now, although it relates to so many topics we've discussed recently.

And it does seem to me to fit neatly with independently contracting workers. 

I think what I was getting at is an environment where there just isn't an office, a headquarters, a home base any more.  You are just out there, in touch in various ways, sharing a pool of data and tools also not housed in an office.  This is already the reality for some enterprises I'm sure.

I think that's one of your points, anyway. Don't mean to speak for you.

I didn't see it either. But the point you're making Kim is really that remote workers are likely to share a sense of their virtual environment.

Accountability isn't dispensable, of course.  "Up in the Air" is really good.

I didn't see Up in the Air. Now the whole chat has been lost on me!

I mean to say, accountable. Called on the carpet with just as much frequency!

Don't think for a moment that being in a gazebo in Cape Breton means I am any less responsible than those of you in the dire NYC office.

It just means the meetings may take place in a differnet medium.

@Kim: I think mobility implies fewer face to face meetings. But that does not mean workers won't be responsible for meeting with their employers.

Suddenly I'm reminded of the scene towards the end of "Up in the Air" when George Clooney's boss says he sending him "out there" indefinitely.  Just keep flying.

Remote workers are often expected to come into the office for meetings.  No more office, no more face-2-face meetings?

@Mary.  Oh, I worry.  There's just less I can do about it.

There are great reasons to encourage worker mobility -- less office space to pay for, a better carbon footprint for employers, lower operational costs.

I do think the move is toward mobility in the office and everywhere else. Consumer mobility will also be part of the trend.

Those of us born between 1944-1964 worry about things like this.

But overall do we think that workers are going to be increasingly mobile? I mean with the availability of so many tablets, this idea is making more sense.

Perhaps it's just the boomer in me.

I wish I could participate more fully in the hair and make-up concerns.

I'll be embarrassed.

Even if my makeup and hair are not done.

@Mary.  I am sure that's the idea, but surely it could all be done online.  I've now had experience of collaboratively editing docs on Google Docs.  Okay, it's not smooth, but it's getting there.

I like to think that rules have to be set for video chat, and that such events will have to be planned in advance, but I have a feeling it will begin to be used as IM is. In other words, when I want to talk to you, I will just video chat you, and you'll be ready to receive it.

Especially if a group is programming a game or something. You'd need to make sure all the coders were on the same page, so to speak. No?

@Kim: I think in the tech realm, it has to do with collaboration.

Hm. If your colleagues did not want to use video chat, it would be up to the group to determine what instances warranted its use.

Interesting (to me) that even tech companies, while creating environments which resembles playrooms, still seem to like to have their staff on campus.

Not for nothin but I don't think the Internet infrastructure is ready for all corporations to suddenly leave video chat running all day long.

@Mary.  How is it different from the phone or instant messaging?  You could even have an availability indicator like IM which you could put on red when you're eating hard candy or doing your hair.

Perhaps I am being unfair on larger corporations.  I am imagining well-established brick and mortar locations, dozens of conference rooms, hierarchical management which relies on addressing groups of people.  I am sure that image is becoming outdated.

How would a person know when to use video chat? When not to?

@Nicole: Yes.

Like instant messaging.  It's always available, but not always in use.

Me too... I don't want video chat on all day long!

Oh I was always assuming you'd have to pick up a  video chat like you pick up a phone.

Oh, you mean if the video chat was kept on all day long?

It's really a sobering thought.

There was a time I would have said face-2-face was key to good management, leadership, efficient communication.  But the world is starting to change my mind.

How Mary?

Imagine if I popped up on your screens, either of you, chirping about something. And maybe looking at your hairdo.

haha

In a way, video chat seeks to duplicate the experience of open plan offices for remote workers.

@Nicole.  I agree that it would be even stranger for us to start video chatting than instant messaging.

Ha @Kim.

Oh yes.

Hm. I know about the video chat. Perhaps if all three of us were in our own remote offices, then it would serve better.

Good to know there are lines about what is appropriate in an open office.  They could even be drawn more tightly.

I video chat with friends all the time, and we're supposed to be using video chat for meetings, ideally, but it just doesn't seem to comfortable or appropriate in an open office.

It will be a big deal for me. Oh, and I do have a webcam!

I think it will come to seem no more of a big deal than having to answer the phone with your mouth full.

seconds* sigh. typos make me sad.

Maybe I should arrange a mandatory videoconference between the three of us and tell you 30 second before, just for fun.

I actually have hardly ever used my webcam, but I do have one at home.

Well Walmart sells them.

People love wearing pajamas in public.

Does that make me really out of step? A dork?

I have not yet used the webcam.

Sometimes I see pajamas at the airport. And at Walmart sometimes.

Mary, did you ever use a webcam just built into your screen?  People are just going to see your face unless you go to some effort to show more.

O dear.

@Mary.  I think I have seen pajamas in the office.

Not sure what you mean, Kim. What does a Webcam have to do with casual dress?

I've worked in pajamas. It's liberating.

If we are talking about a webcam, I think casual dress becomes less and less an issue.  Unless you plan to back away from the camera and show your dance moves.

Important distinction, Kim. Thanks

BTW, I am not among them. I have never, ever worked in pajamas.

@Mary.  I wonder if it is better to think of this as instant messaging, group-based, with the option of video.  It seems to me much more agile and accessible than group video conferences where everyone has to crowd into a room and try to be on camera.

The pajama crowd.

But many of those objecting to video conferencing seem to be midmarket types, aka work at homers.

Especially if more of these tools make it more possible and likely that workers will be remote.

Yuk. Hmph!

Mary: I know you're not into it, but it seems like that's where we're headed.

I did some research on Skype for the article and I hadn't previously been aware how developed it is as a business service.

I mean, especially for those in remote (home) offices.

BTW, despite hangouts and GroupMe/Skype, I'm not sold on the idea of video conference calls.

Yes, these developments seem made for the midmarket.

Seems that midmarket firms also rely on cloud services because the flexibility is important -- ie, having the ability to use GroupMe in Skype, etc.

Still haven't used Google+ hangouts.  Good for groups, good for video, also good for mobile?  Sounds like the same direction. Maybe not as clearly targeted at enterprise as a Skype Business tool would be.

Do you think Skype/GroupMe competes with Google+'s Hangouts feature?

A cyberslice is good for productivity, a whole cyberloaf not so much.

@Mary:  Yes, of course.  I am just seeing a thematic connection. 

Mmm cyberloaf.

@Nicole.  Two sides of the coin there and related to Paul's blog on cyberloafing.  The playday is extending too, workday and playday becoming less distinguishable. Especially if you are on your own mobile platform from the backyard.

Well, you can have a mobile workforce and virtual offices without relying on cloud services. You could have a private cloud.

What concerns me is less the idea of the scaleable workforce and more the idea that the workday just extends.

Obviously work forces have always been scaleable, but I am thinking of workforces where location doesn't matter.  No office, no conference rooms, no desks.

The other side of the coin (not necessarily good): scaleable work forces.

I think those borders have been steadily disappearing.

@Mary: I see a conceptual link.  Of course, we've been able to access data held in the office from remote locations for years.  But data in the cloud, employees attached to mobile platforms, even for meetings.  What office?

No, hadn't heard.

@Nicole.  Barely a year old.  I am guessing at what Skype sees in it.

So really, Kim, you think that cloud services go hand in glove with mobility?

I guess, in summary, the question is whether we are rushing much fast than we thought into a radically different workinf environment, where borders between work time/play time, office/out of office, etc cease to make sense?

I hadn't heard of GroupMe before Skype bought it. Had you guys?

Good times at Internet Evolution!

Well this has been a fun half hour.  Site down, then up again; then delayed playback of my own audio.

Thanks Kim

Hello Mary.

Indeed.

Kim squared!