Starting soon

Well, it finally happened. I was informed last week that I'll be telecommuting every other week beginning September. As I get started, I'll post my experiences in productivity and what software and technologies I'm using.

The starting point

This is the start. I chose "The Sliproad" because, in the UK, a sliproad is an on-ramp to a freeway. This is, for me, and I hope others, the on-ramp to exploration of how to improve the way we work. I'm interested in teleworking, technologies for application development and how to improve the productivity of developing applications together with improving quality.

I'll start with teleworking. I'm currently consulting with a major systems developer who essentially prohibits teleworking. I'm looking to put together a suite of tools to aid with presence, collaboration, and "face time". Croquet is a very interesting concept. It's developed in Tweak, a dialect of Squeak, an Open Source Smalltalk implementation. There's a commercial implementation on the way by Qwak called Qwak Forums. This looks like the most promising use of software for development collaboration available. I see that Linux is in evaluation phase. I'm investigating the cost of operation and getting a demo to see if some of the hardline resistance to teleworking can be eliminated.

I'm also interested in Zimbra , an more conventional open source collaboration suite using calendaring, e-mail, contacts, etc. It's available from several hosting sites, so I'll set up an account and begin using it.

I'm a proponent of open source software. I'm not fanatic about it, preferring to use the best tool for the job, and sometimes that's a proprietary solution. But if there's a good open source alternative, I prefer it. I like the control open source gives you.