Off-topic remote worker tip
Recall my earlier musings the use of chat for the remote worker… well …. just to show that that’s not the only dead horse I beat, here’s another, non-chat/IM suggestion for when working from home/remote. Get yourself a mimio whiteboard capture tool. No need to buy the $1000 fancy new ones at retail. You can get an old serial-based model on ebay for $50 and they still work just fine. Put yourself a regular ol’ whiteboard in your home office. Attach the mimio and calibrate it. Aim a webcam also at the whiteboard. Lassoo the whiteboard session in the mimio software with VNC or LiveMeeting, and then “broadcast” your whiteboarding session to your colleagues/customers across the net. Oh – and a speaker phone, which I’m assuming most everyone has these days now anyway.
The mimio gives excellent high-resolution fidelity of your drawing, and captures it digitally. LiveMeeting makes it possible for others to see it in real time. The webcam session, which you’re also broadcasting in parallel, adds an important spatial dimension. You can point to areas on the whiteboard, gesture, etc. and your audience is right there with you. For under $100 you’ve just built a very inexpensive and effective collaboration/presentation solution.
Cheers,
Eric
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