Web Worker Daily |
| Posted: 03 Sep 2008 03:00 PM CDT Sometimes I wonder whether anyone actually works a 40-hour week any longer. In the past we’ve looked (somewhat skeptically) at the 4-hour work week, considered predictions of the coming 20-hour work week, and heard from real world web workers who revel in 60- and 70-hour work weeks. Now, there’s another length to consider: the 4 1/2 Day Workweek, recommended by the team behind Wufoo. What’s interesting about this 4 1/2 day scheme, though, is not the choice of 36 hours as the appropriate length of the work week for a programming and product development team. The real novelty lies in how they structure their week: not all days are created equal. At Particletree, they spend Monday through Thursday working on their products - and nothing but their products. Controversial and unscheduled topics get pushed off. The goal is to accomplish 5 (inefficient) days’ worth of work in 4 highly-focused days. Then, when Friday comes around, they work a half day starting in the afternoon - and at someone’s home, rather than the office. What’s on tap for those Fridays? It’s a mixed list:
In other words, their Fridays are set aside for things that are a change of pace from the regular work week - and that work better as large chunks of time than as interruptions that sidetrack writing code. This strikes me as a very smart move; recognizing the potential for this sort of organization is rare. Is there something here that you can apply to your own web working career? It’s possible that you already have! Mondays, for me, are all about email and other written word catchup, and I deliberately avoid scheduling software deadlines on Mondays; I know from experience that I won’t get much (if any) coding done just as I’ve come back from a weekend. Does your work week lend itself to this sort of scheduling, regardless of how long it is? Are there things that are better handled in big chunks, rather than as interruptions? It’s worth taking a few minutes to step back and ask yourself whether you’d benefit from a work week where every day was not just a carbon copy of every other.           |
| Are You a Competitive Web Worker? Posted: 03 Sep 2008 02:00 PM CDT
Although I think I’m ambitious, the idea of backbiting or stepping on the toes of other WWD bloggers makes me laugh - it just seems so far-fetched and ridiculous. This could mean that I’m not aggressively competitive, but how does that explain my drive to succeed and do better? Is it possible that web workers aren’t competitive by nature? Or is there something wrong with the way we conventionally define competition? Reality TV Examples I’ve watched both “The Apprentice” and Joel Comm’s “The Next Internet Millionaire”, which are both reality shows about business - except the former is for the cut-throat world of real estate, and the latter was about creating your own online venture. I easily noticed how different those two shows were, especially in terms of the dynamic between the contestants:
Did it make a difference that the contestants for “The Next Internet Millionaire” were almost entirely work-from-home folks? Competition among web workers On the web, competition is most visible when several contractors are bidding for a project. However, in most of those cases, you rarely see who you’re competing against. It’s about bringing your A-game forward and hoping that the client goes for it. If you can’t see your opponent, how can you compete against them directly? We can’t expect that the traditional office competition style will translate exactly into the web working world. In some of the organizations I work for, competition is part of the work. Top performers are given commendations in front of their peers, almost like an online version of “Employee of the Month”. But praises are also given to those who have exceeded their personal best. I’ve even received surprise “pay bonuses” from clients who especially liked my work. If this happens, we can’t exactly say that recognition for our work is absent. It’s out there, and we need to hear it. Even then, our definition of recognition and success is as varied as how many web workers there are on the planet. Fellow WWD blogger Pamela Poole has mentioned how volunteer work in her field gives her the morale boost she needs. Personally, I turn to the kind comments and thank you notes I receive from complete strangers who found something worthwhile in an article I wrote. And, talking to other web workers, I get the feeling that most of us always strive to do better than our last projects. Although we don’t wear power suits everyday and engage in alpha-dog stare downs in the office, it doesn’t necessarily follow that we aren’t competitive. In fact, we face the toughest competition of all - ourselves. How competitive are you as a web worker? How does competition impact your performance?           |
| JOBLOGS Creates Web Workspaces For You and Your Clients Posted: 03 Sep 2008 01:00 PM CDT
JOBLOGS is what I would call a collaboration and communication manager, but one specifically designed for service oriented businesses. Encompassing CRM functionality with a private workspace for collaboration, JOBLOGS is a central place for all information related to a specific client, process, or project. Use JOBLOGS to capture events, actions, files, and notes and then quickly tie this information to clients, people or projects. They use the concept of Blogs which was a bit confusing at first, but they don’t mean Blogs in the traditional sense. In JOBLOGS, a blog is essentially a container for a project or transaction. It can be affiliated with a client or company and has its own set of actions and events. Publish it externally and it becomes a collaboration hub. The permission system dictates the level of interaction available. JOBLOGS looks and feels a lot like a desktop application. Different components of the application appear in their own resizable windows. You even have the ability to choose a wallpaper and retrieve items from a trash bin. I particularly appreciated how customizable the data forms are. I was able to easily create new data fields to capture the specific information I might need for my business. Fields can be dragged and dropped to change the order. The interface is comfortable and incredibly responsive. There are no page refreshes and no save buttons. Queries run quickly and it is terribly easy to customize the display of information. Data import and export options are plentiful. The folks at JOBLOGS really seem to have thought of everything a small group would need to communicate and collaborate. By combining disparate services into one package, it really does become a central hub for everything one might need to keep day to day operations as well as specific projects running smoothly. A demo video runs through things and should give you a good idea of how things look and feel. JOBLOGS plans start at Free for a basic single user option up to a $149 Pro option. A 30 day trial is available for all plans. Is there a place for JOBLOGS in your business?           |
| Oosah: A 1TB iPhone in the palm of your hand? Posted: 03 Sep 2008 12:00 PM CDT
The arrival of Apple and Intel’s foundation technologies are just one part of the infrastructure needed to support such a step change; as Apple’s own botched launch of Mobile Me has illustrated, appropriate and highly reliable services aren’t a trivial step. The recently launched Oosah is another service that aims to provide services ‘in the cloud’ for the emerging class of mobile internet devices. Optimised specifically for the iPhone at http://m.oosah.com, the service pitches itself as ‘1TB in the palm of your hand’ with its range of media storage features for photos, music and video. A defacto 1TB iPhone is a bold claim to make - and coupled with always-on access to media stored at Oosah, is a compelling proposition. The execution of the service seems a little mundane, organised into files and folders, requiring users to upload files one at a a time to the web service for later access via the iPhone-optimised mobile interface. How about a Googley or Spotlighty search metaphor? Living your life in the cloud requires web-based services to reach deeper into the guts of mobile internet devices; iPhones need to synchronise with services like Oosah and enable client applications to reach back into Oosah programmatically. My MacBook should sync up with Oosah as invisibly as Time Capsule continually backs up my hard drive. Conversely, iPhone applications such as ‘iPod‘ and ‘Photos‘ should be able to pull their data from remote sources. I won’t even get into the impact on unlimited data plans on telcos, though perhaps they stand to benefit from a PC-as-a-Service, or PCaaS, model… Ultimately, the ecosphere of technologies and services that’s neccessary to make for a useful mobile internet device requires all parties to commit to a sharp degree of openness. Right now, large parts of the iPhone are off-limits to developers, cellcos are still hobbling unlimited data plans and the iPhone developer programme can appear to be quite draconian to some unfortunate third party developers. However, I’m optimistic that as Apple evolves its developer relationships, services like Oosah might well evolve into extraordinary services, that do indeed bring 1TB to the palm of your hand.           |
| Amazon Has a Challenge for Start-ups Posted: 03 Sep 2008 10:00 AM CDT
The contest is open to any site or service that uses one of the AWS services are part of its solution: S3, EC2, SimpleDB, SQS, FPS, DevPay, Alexa Web Services, or even Mechanical Turk. You’ve got until October 3 to enter, and if you’re in the top 5, they’ll fly you out to Seattle for a dog-and-pony show.           |
| WWD Interview: Non-Disclosure Agreements Posted: 03 Sep 2008 09:00 AM CDT I’ve been having some fantastic conference calls with several people who are all independent contractors and qualify as Web workers in one form or another. Out of the blue, one of them asked if we’d be offended to sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) for a project she’s working on - and has already discussed with us pretty extensively. We’ve even given her our input on on the project. Yes, of course, I’ll sign the NDA, I said. I’ll sign it because I want this person to feel comfortable discussing her project openly with all of us. I have no interest - and no capacity - to steal her idea. And I understand that you have to protect your assets. This got me thinking more about NDAs in more depth. So I turned to a lawyer type to get some inside skinny on NDAs. Here’s my Q&A with Tate Stickles, Attorney at Law at Grossman Law Group in Miami. WWD: What is an NDA - in layman’s terms? Stickles: A contract between parties whereby they agree not to disclose the confidential information covered by the agreement. The kinds of information covered typically include non-public confidential, proprietary information and trade secrets. WWD: When a Web worker (developer, consultant, etc) is asked to sign an NDA, what things should they consider before signing? Stickles: What kind of information is covered, and is it clearly set forth in the NDA? What kinds of confidentiality obligations are you looking at? When are you allowed to disclose the other party's confidential information? Typically there are exceptions for when you're ordered to by court order or by law. How long is the confidentiality obligation? What happens to the confidential information at the end of the relationship? Is it returned, or does the NDA lay out the approved methods of destruction? Are any non-compete provisions also thrown in? WWD: When should a Web worker ask for someone else to sign an NDA? Stickles: If they have any valuable information of their own that they want to protect. For example, we commonly see developers that have their own set of development tools and trade secrets they've come up with over time that extremely valuable to them. That developer would not be out of line asking another party to sign a NDA in order to protect their assets. WWD: How enforceable is an NDA? Stickles: Generally they are very enforceable. Every contract is unique, but you should never sign a NDA assuming it's not enforceable. WWD: What is someone refuses to sign your NDA - what should you do/not do? Stickles: The obvious answer is to not disclose any of your confidential information to them. You're also going to be looking at a business decision on whether you can continue the relationship without the other party having access to your confidential information. WWD: How retroactive can an NDA be? That is, what if confidential info is revealed and THEN someone asks you to sign an NDA. Can that work? Stickles: It's not preferable, but it can work provided the NDA contains language that the term of the agreement and the confidentiality obligations start as of the date of first disclosure of the confidential information. WWD: Is there or should there be an expiration date on an NDA? Stickles: You can put a term on how long the agreement is binding, but the "expiration date" would actually be how long the other party is obligated to keep your information confidential. Two to three years is the norm, but there are exceptions. Trade secrets are another matter though, and if they are part of your confidential information you should ensure that the other party never discloses your trade secrets for so long as they remain a trade secret. How often have you been asked to sign and NDA and do you always do it? If not, why not? And how often do you ask others to sign an NDA? Has anyone refused? If so, what did you do? P.S. An interesting read on trade secrets litigations is The Trade Secrets Blog.           |
| Google Chrome: Is it Ready for Web Workers? Posted: 02 Sep 2008 04:09 PM CDT
Initial impression? Nice start. I’m certainly not going to shout from the rooftops because Google puts its tabs above the address bar. Yes, it’s different. But in some areas of the browser it feels different for different’s sake which does nothing for productivity. What sets Chrome apart, clearly, is how it manages resources. The browser is the operating system, and like with any modern OS each application is handled separately. I think of all us who live in Firefox know what it’s like to have 30 tabs open and be stuck because one is being ornery. The fact that Firefox has the ability to restore sessions after a crash or browser restart is great, but nothing beats the ability to close down the troublemaker tab and get back to work. Mac users, remember those System 7-9 applications that used to routinely crash and force a restart? That’s browsers today. Chrome wants to be the browser of tomorrow. What they’ve released today is a good proof of concept. But it’s not the workhorse Firefox currently is, warts & all. I’d recommend web workers wait and see how this develops before expecting Chrome to fit in a day-to-day workflow. I only wish I could do the impossible and take the wonderful resource management in Chrome and bring it to Firefox, rather than having to wait until Chrome duplicates some of what already makes Firefox so successful. I haven’t had enough time to really test how Chrome performs when it gets bogged down, but I like what I see so far. This is about rethinking how a browser is built from the ground-up, not about matching IE or Firefox pound-for-pound. There are a few other nice touches, such as an “Inspect element” window that gives a source view that you typically need a Firefox Add-On to match. Chrome also handles downloads nicely and has built-in Gears support, allowing you to save a web app to your desktop. Later, you can open it without distraction of other tabs and navigation. It may be a Google product, but I can’t see that Google apps behave any better or worse in Chrome than they do in Firefox. Unfortunately, Chrome feels crippled by its current lack of plug-ins. I simply can’t do Gmail for any length of time without the Remember the Milk extension or Lifehacker’s outstanding Better Gmail 2. Web workers have to consider that it’s a new product, and it may take a while for favorite apps to catch up. For example, our organization uses the time tracking application ClickTime which works just great in Firefox, but this messages now greets me when I log in with Chrome: For a browser that puportedly caters to the “cloud,” more robust password management is a must. I have 4 Google accounts, 3 Google Apps and one regular Gmail, and Chrome quickly got confused remembering which username/password went with which URL. Ultimately, If I stayed in Chrome I think I would miss some basic features like spell checking, bookmark editing, RSS rendering, sidebar and more. I’m not giving up Firefox anytime soon. Have you tried Chrome? Are you thinking of making a fulltime switch? Our sister blog OStatic has their own review of the browser here.           |
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