It’s clear that video is booming on the web.  Video sharing sites like YouTube and portable camcorders like the Flip have exploded.  Also, as I’ve discussed in previous blog articles and in the recent Businessweek Video Webcast - video conferencing is growing in leaps and bounds.

I’ve seen significant growth in the desktop video conferencing space with services like Skype, Tokbox, and ooVoo being used for everything from virtual meetings and remote collaboration to friends and family keeping in touch.   Thanks to the increase in broadband and wi-fi people can meet face-to-face virtually from almost anywhere.

Well now it looks like video chat/conferencing is about to get even more mobile.   Last week Apple released the iPhone 4 which includes a forward facing camera and a built in program called FaceTime that allows video chatting from iPhone to iPhone.  Also Sprint released the EVO 4G which also includes a front-facing camera and the QIK video chat software. It seems like the natural next step . . .

There is no mistaking that the time is ripe to get into the mobile video chatting game. It is already big enough with tools from Skype, Google (Talk) and others, and it’s only going to get bigger. There are already millions of notebook owners in the mix, and when you add what is likely going to be millions of smartphone and tablet owners, the potential market for video chat offerings is going to be huge.

via Is a Mobile Video Chat Revolution Imminent?.

I’m sure these two phones are only the start of this trend.  In fact you can be sure that once Apple starts to push this envelope others will be soon to follow – much the way that the iPhone invigorated the smartphone market and the iPad has woken up the sleeping tablet market.  I’m still shocked that the iPad didn’t include a camera on it for video chats – but I’m almost certain the next generation will include that feature.  In fact it’s one of the main reasons I didn’t run out and buy one – I’ll wait for the second generation so I can tap into the video.

The stats seems to back up this prediction in a recent report, entitled “Can You See Me Now?: The New World of Consumer Visual Communications,”  by GigaOM Pro. (subscription required):

Although many people feel remote collaboration is all about technology – the truth is virtual team work is a human endeavor – it’s about people working with people. Sure the tech is important as it enables people to work together while apart – but the strategy behind which tools you choose and how you use them is easily just as critical.

As Jason and I often say it’s about “the right tools thoughtfully applied”. Yesterday I came across a great blog post by Isaac Gube (@IAMTHEGUBE) about the tools and strategies he and his brother put into place when they launched their latest venture DesignInstruct.com – a regularly updated web magazine for designers and digital artists where you can find and learn design tips and tricks. The Brothers Gube clearly share the same philosophy as the Brothers Montero:

Design Instruct is our first real venture together. It is the first time my brother and I sought to actually build something of our own (unless of course you count all the make-believe forts we built when we were kids).

There are many challenges associated with working with someone over a long distance. However, we found that there are solutions to those challenges, and so far, we’ve managed to make it work.

via How to Make Remote Team Collaboration Work.

I love the way the post breaks down the 5 main challenges they had and describes the solutions they came up with.  When technology was needed they used free or low cost tools that can be embraced by any small business owner, solo professional, or entrepreneur.

The important thing is they did their own workflow analysis, tooks a step back, and developed a structure and approach that worked for them. The spirit and philosophy they brought to this approach echoes my own:

Working on the Internet over a long distance is definitely different than working together in the same physical location. But being different doesn’t mean that it’s a worse way to work.

Of course, it’s a different way to work, but it’s also a very effective way to work once you acknowledge the challenges and are willing to adapt.

Just think, a few years ago, working from such great distances would have been quite an ordeal, and today it is done with such great ease and effectiveness.

I strongly encourage you to read their blog post and please share some comments below about the tools and strategies you’ve found to help you collaborate and work across the web.

Video conferencing has changed.  What was once a very costly technology only used by large enterprise type organizations with dedicated IT departments is now easier to use and more cost effective. There are a variety of solutions to fit almost any budget.

This was the topic of discussion a few weeks ago when I joined Bloomberg Businessweek in their New York Studios for a live Video Webcast called “Video Breaks Out of the Boardroom”.  The show was hosted by Jim Ellis, Assistant Managing Editor of Bloomberg Businessweek, and I was delighted that they invited me to join Marc  Beattie from Wainhouse Research to be part of this episode.  Here is a photo from our broadcast:

The Bloomberg building was amazing and everyone I met there was extremely friendly and helpful.  We had a wonderful discussion and looked at what’s involved with implementing video conferencing including how much technical know-how it takes, how and why companies using it, what it costs, and what are some of the stumbling blocks. We also took some great questions from those that were viewing the live broadcast.

In case you missed it you can now view the entire Video Webcast live.  Just register here and you can watch the whole show.  We discussed the topic for about 20 minutes and then had about 10 minutes of Q&A.  If you’re currently using video conferencing, or thinking about it, you definitely want to catch this.

A big thanks to everyone at Bloomberg Businessweek for having me be a part of this event. I hope to join them again for future shows!

Please post a comment below and let me know what you thought of the webcast and feel free to ask me any questions you might have about using video to connect with your virtual teams and remote workers.

I’ve been invited by Bloomberg BusinessWeek to be a panelist on a free live video webcast this Thursday (June 10th) all about video conferencing -  I hope you can tune in! Here is the description:

Video Breaks Out of the Boardroom
Thursday, June 10 at
10am PT | 1pm ET | 6pm GMT

Video is changing how companies interact with employees, suppliers, partners and customers. It’s an important area for growth and an essential tool for global businesses.

Join us as we speak to executives and thought leaders in the video collaboration space about emerging technologies and how these tools offer so much promise for business.

• Build & sustain business relationships
• Broaden the scope of your markets
• Strengthen customer relations and loyalty

Our expert panel, moderated by Jim Ellis of Bloomberg Businessweek, includes Marc Beattie, co-founder, Managing Partner, and Co-Manager ofUnified Collaboration Practice at Wainhouse Research and a recognized expert on the collaboration services market and Phil Montero, CEO of Montero Consulting, Founder of YouCanWorkFromAnywhere.com, and the spearhead of the remote work movement for more than a decade.

You will be able to participate in this live discussion through interactive questions and answers with our industry experts – all from the comfort of your desktop.

Click here to register today!

I’m looking forward to a great discussion. I’m also excited to see what the Bloomberg news studio looks like – it should be lots of fun! I hope you’ll join us and be sure to submit some questions.

If you can’t catch it live I will be posting the video here at The Anywhere Office after the event.

In consulting with companies off all different sizes in a variety of industries I’ve found one of the biggest challenges they need to overcome in order to embrace flexible work is management resistance.

Despite the long list of benefits to virtual work or telecommuting many managers are simply uncomfortable with the thought of managing remote employees.  That’s why a recent article by Fast Company really caught my eye. It describes 3 recent scenarios where managers didn’t want to provide workplace flexibility and the unfortunate results:

Managers, sticking your fingers in your ears, closing your eyes and saying “La, la, la, la” when a valuable, competent current or prospective employee presents a plan for flexibility doesn’t make it go away.

via Dont Let “Flexibility Just Doesnt Work for Me”=”I Dont Care If You Leave”…Because It Will | Fast Company.

The article shares some excellent suggestion for what managers can do when approached by employees proposing a flexible work agreement and also what employees can do if a managers shrugs off the request with the “that doesn’t work for me” rebuttal.

Managing virtual teams and offsite employees is not really a choice – it’s a reality in most business (or soon will be).  So the question isn’t will you do it – but will you do it well . . . or will you do it poorly?

I strongly urge managers struggling with this is to get some training on strategies and best practices for managing virtual teams. We’ve seen a sharp increase in the desire for this type of training which is why our workshop The Art of Virtual Leadership is now available on-demand. So no more excuses . . . learn how to lead your remote employees so you can hire and retain the best talent for your organization despite their location!

What are your thoughts?  Share your story or experience in the comments below!

Work happens everywhere – virtual offices, client sites, home offices, coffee shops, airports, hotels, and any number of remote workplaces.  However, despite all the advantages of flexible work – most companies struggle when making this shift.

The biggest problem is that most organizations take an ad-hoc approach to workshifing, which has been thrust upon them. The business landscape began to change; they increasingly found themselves working across time and distance with team mates, remote offices, clients, vendors, and other outsourced professionals. And they mostly left individual employees, project teams, and offices to decide for themselves how best to conduct business. Virtual teamwork was not deliberate, and not undertaken with any real strategy.

If you’re in this boat – what are you to do? You can’t just stop the flow of business and start over with a brand new plan. But you also can’t just lumber forward and say to your people, ‘Work virtually better.’ What you CAN do is take a step back to get a perspective on your process and workflow in order to isolate and highlight areas for improvement and adjustment. One way to accomplish this is by conducting  my ICC Workflow Audit™ which helps you take a look at your needs for Information, Communication, and Collaboration in order to guide you in choosing and throughtfully apply the right technology and guidelines for your organization or team.

I recently partnered with Citrix Online to discuss this topic in a free webinar – Work Unchained: The Competitive Edge of the Anywhere Office®. We had a great turnout for the event and some interesting discussions.  If you missed it you can watch it on-demand.

For more information on how to implement the ICC Workflow Audit™, read my white paper or my guest post on their blog Workshifting.com

I’d love to hear your thoughts on how you or your organization have adopted to virtual teamwork.  Please post a comment below and share your stories and feedback!

If you have employees working remotely or are just getting started with telecommuting, virtual teams, or workshifting you won’t want to miss the free webinar I’m delivering next Thursday, April 29th:

Work Unchained: The Competitive Edge
of the Anywhere Office®
Thursday, April 29 at 11 AM (PDT) / 2 PM (EDT)

Business as usual no longer involves working in a traditional workplace at set hours. Today’s workforce is more mobile than ever, and every day more people are working from virtual offices, client sites, home offices, coffee shops, airports, hotels, and any number of remote workplaces. Companies that take an ad-hoc approach to this work-style struggle, while those with a strategic, planned approach reap the benefit and flexibility of distributed work.

I partnered with Citrix (makers of GoToMyPC) to deliver this free Webinar. Learn how to evaluate your own organization’s workflow to strategically turn your ordinary office into The Anywhere Office®.

Attend to learn:

• Why workshifting provides a critical competitive edge
• Common mistakes to avoid when enabling a mobile workforce
• Best practices for evaluating your organization before implementing a workshifting strategy
• And more…

Click here to reserve your complimentary seat

I’m looking forward to the presentation and I hope you’ll join us!

It’s not unusual in these days of webworking and remote collaboration to have the need to share large files with colleagues, clients, or even family members.  Not only do we have large reports but there are also the ever growing collection of photos, audio, and video files.

While Gmail allows you to send attachment up to a generous 25 MB in size – there are times where that just isn’t large enough as you may have files that are 100 or more MB to send. Here are 4 great services I’ve found that will let you easily send large files to others:

YouSendIt – The free version of this service will let you send files up to 100 MB with a 1 GB monthly download limit. The file will remain available for 7 days to download.  Simply go to their website, fill out a short form (with your email address, the address of who you want to send the file to, a subject line, and short message), then click the browse button and choose which file you want to send.  It upload the file to their servers and emails a link to the person you are sending the file to. If you want additional features including the ability to send files up to 2GB in size you can choose one of their paid services (including pay per use if you only need to do this once in a while).

Dropbox – Dropbox not only lets you easily share files with others but it also allows you to sync your files online and across your computers automatically. They give you 2GB of online storage for free and you can pay for up to 100 GB. You need to download a small program but it’s free and work on Windows, Mac, or Linux systems. It creates a dropbox folder on your computer where you can easily copy files to upload them or share them with others.  What I love about Dropbox is that you can share an entire folder and make it public or just share it with a group of people. There are some other great features:

• Shared folders allow several people to collaborate on a set of files.
• You can see other people’s changes instantly.
• Automatic backup of your files.
• Web access. A copy of your files are stored on Dropbox’s secure servers. This lets you access them from any computer or mobile device. They even have an iPhone App.

You start with 2GB for free but they will give you up to 8 GB free for referring other people.  Here is my referral link so if you want to try it out please click here to share the love!

Drop.io – Similar to Dropbox, Drop.io is a simple, free way to swap files. Users set up a “drop” for the files they’d like to share, set a password for it, and then anyone with access can add to the drop, download the files, and edit or delete files. What’s great is without even setting up an account you can create as many 100 MB drops as you want with a few clicks.  If you want more space or additional features you can upgrade to one of their paid accounts.

Pando –  If you have certain individuals that you often need to share large files with Pando might be the best option for you.  This service will let you email files and folders up to 1 GB in size. The only catch is that while the other three services I mentioned don’t require the person you are sharing with to download or install any software (you just send them a link) Pando requires each person using it (the sender and the receiver) to have the Pando software installed.  However if you send someone a file and they don’t have Pando it will inform them they need the software and provide a link where they can install it.  While this is a bit annoying the ability to easily send files as large as 1 GB to those you often work with make it a small price to pay. Like the other services you can upgrade to a paid or pro version for enhanced features.

What do I use?

I used to use Pando a few years ago when Jason and were collaborating on a song with some other musicians remotely. It worked great because there were about 4 of us that were constantly sending files back and forth so it was no big deal to have us all install the software. That being said I like the other services because the person I’m sharing files with doesn’t need to have anything installed. I can just send them a link. These days I tend to use Dropbox or YouSendit. I haven’t used Dropio but I have received files others have sent me through that service and it was quick and easy to access them.

Sending large files is often a stumbling block for working with others – but now it doesn’t have to be.  There are a lot of other services that offer similar features but these are the 4 I recommend.

What do you think?  How do you transfer large files with others?  Post a comment below and share your tips!

I’m always surprised that more people don’t use instant messaging as one of their key business communication tools.  Sure everyone uses email (probably too much) but IM is often relegated to chatting with friends or family.  That’s why this recent post by Jerry Lattimore on his excellent Refocusing Technology blog really caught my eye.

Are you using instant messaging?
Instant messaging is a fantastic tool and should be utilized by many businesses to allow for greater communication between their resources. It fits a need that isn’t completely served by email or phone communication.

In this post he gives some excellent examples of how companies are using IM – even some using it to communicate between different floors of the same building. My wife and I use to work down the hall from each other in our old apartment and we used it rather than yelling down the hall.

I use it all the time with Jason when we are collaborating on something or just have a quick questions.  It’s also a great way with co-workers or team members to share files and create a sense of “presence” being that you can “see” each other online even though you are not in the same place.

What about you?  Do you use IM for business communication and collaboration? Please post a comment below and let us know!

On Wednesday, February 17th we had our first Flexwork Chat on Twitter.  I was joined by Jasper
Westerway (@JasperWestaway), CEO of OneDrum, and Lokesh Datta (@LDatta) of AllCollaboration.com as well as a bunch of other great twitter folks who were eager to discuss and debate the current state and challenges of flexible work.

The discussion centered around some of the findings from One Drum’s recent flexible work study.

We discussed a number of topics including:

• How can flexible/remote working can make you more productive?
• What are some of barriers to productive remote working?
• What should businesses consider when choosing tools to facilitate remote working?

View this post on the One Drum blog for a summary of some of the key points and a full transcription is available in PDF form here (Thanks Chip!).

It was fun, exciting, and informative and we are planning to make this a fairly regular event.  It looks like we will be doing one again next Wednesday so I hope you will join us!

What is a tweet chat?
For those of you unfamiliar with this online discussion format, a tweetchat is simply an organized group chat that takes place using the Twitter platform. Participants use an assigned hashtag (in our case #flexworkchat) for their tweets during the discussion. For more information on Tweet chats check out this short article.

You can follow along, or participate, by visiting http://tweetchat.com/room/flexworkchat or simply following the #flexworkchat hashtag on twitter.

If you want to know about upcoming chats (and other events) please subscribe to our email newsletter (on the right hand side of any page of this blog) or follow me on Twitter!