Monday morning is supposed to be a shock to the system. I am sure that you have experienced the agony of the morning commute after two beautiful mornings of sleeping in late and not touching a car key until sometime long after sunrise?

On the other hand, my Monday morning commute was great today!

Rolled out of bed, talked with Lucy, Dexter, and Caroline (dedicated staffers all, they were in the office before me), sat down at my desk, fired up the laptop, and looked at the pine trees through my office window following the rigorous two minute commute (the segment through the kitchen is always the most harrowing).

There is a lot to be said for on-line collaboration.

I was able to communicate with a potential customer in London, email a response to a vendor, coordinate a marketing survey with an affiliate, and respond to a friend traveling somewhere in Africa, all without leaving my office.

Many of you who have been in the high tech environment for years may be asking yourself: where has this guy been for the last twenty years? We have been talking about capabilities like this forever.

Yes, but... The difference is that I can now do this at realitivitly high speed, from just about any location, and the hardware for video, audio, and data conferencing consists of my laptop, a video camera, a headset, a very small USB hub, and a power supply. It all fits neatly in my bookbag.

So, the view out of my window can easily change. The commute can be short, or it can be to a WiFi cafe half way around the world. But the capabilities at my fingertips remain the same, and my connectivity to the extended on-line world community is now no longer dependent on location, language, or logistics.

Talk to you later...

I piloted "Sally" about 107 miles this morning for a meeting with a prospective client about collaboration software and how to save money on travel costs (for those of you who are not familiar with "Sally", her lineage stretches back to the ancestors of the 2500HD truck series, and she drinks diesel at about 18 miles to the gallon). OK, you are are asking why I am so disconnected as to be using a pick-up truck for client contact travel. That is a story for a future post.

Back to the question at hand: How can we demonstrate the value of collaboration software without first meeting and working with the key decision makers in a business? Viral marketing works well with twenty-somethings who grew up with computers and are fluent in Web 2.0 services. Where is the communication channel if the receiver is not tuned to my transmitted online message?

I would like to hear from you on this topic. Email me!!!!

Online collaboration was rather difficult this morning. I had the opportunity to log some windshield time as I drove Lucy to the vet. You may have seen Lucy the guard dog before on www.broomstrawfarm.com. She is learning how to work with cows and chickens, but slowly…

Back to online collaboration. It is hard to collaborate from a Chevrolet pick-up, but it can be done. While waiting in the truck on the top floor of the airport parking deck for my daughter to arrive on a delayed flight from Chicago several weeks ago, I was able to have a detailed, document-sharing meeting online with a friend at CollabWorx (www.collabworx.com) using CollabWorx software on my laptop, an at&t 3G laptop connect data card, the CollabWorx secure server, a Logitech headset, and a Logitech camera. It worked great! But, I would not recommend this set-up if you are driving…

The Internet is great. And, the Internet is also flakey. Sometimes at the same time. It drives me crazy. We can be talking on VoIP, sharing a document, all is well, and then someone, somewhere decides to download a megafile that backs up the same routers that I am using for a delay / jitter sensitive service. Oh well. No matter what, it is better than snail mail.

Speaking of immediacy, one of the key features of online collaboration is the ability to communicate in near-real time without the negative impact to productivity realized by near-real time attendance to arriving email. With a collaboration tool (like CollabWorx), team members already know who is online, why they engaging in SIM, and what the topic is for the meeting. There is no compulsive need to sort through the chaff to find the seeds. The SIM community structure mitigates chaff propogation.

Online collaboration was rather difficult this morning. I had the opportunity to log some windshield time as I drove Lucy to the vet. You may have seen Lucy the guard dog before on www.broomstrawfarm.com. She is learning how to work with cows and chickens, but slowly…

More later….