From New apps can be a real pain in the net By Denise Dubie Network World, 07/21/03:

"Newfangled applications such as streaming media, Web conferencing and voice over IP promise lots of benefits, but they also can suck up network bandwidth to the point where these and other programs are practically paralyzed."

The article includes a number of charts showing that many network IT execs don't know what applications their users are running that may affect network performance overall, and only about half say that the percentage of traffic from unsactioned applicaitons is under 20%. More than a third reported having to delay roll-out of new applications due to concerns about network impacts. Delayed applications included ERP, CRM, SCM, company portals, VoIP, and Distance Learning.

What are they doing about it?

"Network executives said they are taking a variety of actions to ensure applications run smoothly. Adding bandwidth ranked as the most popular fix, with about 60% of respondents saying they planned to beef up their WAN capacity to handle more-demanding applications. " (emphasis added)

3:22:36 PM    
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Federal emergency workers will get laptop computers and satellite communications for use in the field, according to the Federal Computer Week article Emergency teams get new tech by Sara Michael (July 24, 2003).

"The teams, which would be deployed in case of an emergency or terrorist attack, would be able to use the devices in their vans to communicate with department headquarters without interfering with other communications systems. ...

"The teams are centrally-based groups of experts from agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration. Each team has about eight to 10 members, Decker said, and can be deployed across the country within 24 to 48 hours of an incident. The concept is part of the Federal Response Plan."

(link sent in by Lonn Henrichsen)

11:44:22 AM    
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According to a press release at MarketWire, CollabNet SourceCast environment was chosen by the Computer Science department at Cornell University for the SSCLI.net, the developer network for the Shared Source Common Language Infrastructure (SSCLI) project, also known as Rotor.

“We evaluated a number of solutions for collaborative development, including our existing solution at Cornell, and found that only CollabNet SourceCast had the necessary security and access control features needed to manage global collaboration among the universities, companies and individuals that are part of the Rotor collaboration,” said Werner Vogels, Department of Computer Science, Cornell University."

The CollabNet SourceCast environment combines tools for software configuration management, issue tracking, mailing list creation and management, document and file management, discussion forums, project tracking, and administration.

11:14:36 AM    
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Jessica Lipnack is a CEO of NetAge, Inc., a consultancy focused on global collaboration strategies, methods, and tools. She is co-author, with Jeffrey Stamps, of six books, including Virtual Teams (John Wiley & Sons, 2000). Lipnack offers teleconferencing advice in Line56's article, Suffering from Teleconference Boredom? How about showing a little human compassion with five steps to relieving dial-up drudgery (June 17, 2003). Most is just simple common sense, except the shockingly simple advice:

"hold all real-time meetings from within your team's virtual room"

Yes, even the face-to-face ones. Why? Because you'll benefit from the enforced "best practices" built into the virtual meeting room's design, and you'll have all the materials you'll need at your disposal. Sounds like good advice to me.

11:06:38 AM    
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Success in a Virtual World, A blueprint for building an e-Workplace To Better Manage Your Remote Workforce (July 22, 2003), by Pam Stanford, Director of IBM On Demand Workplace Solutions  is an editorial piece from Line 56.

"The solution that addresses the challenges of telecommuting for both employees and managers is a comprehensive e-workplace program. An e-workplace is a virtual workplace that provides employees with access to information and a broad set of Internet-based collaborative technologies, such as e-meetings, e-learning and instant messaging designed to make all employees more nimble." (empahasis added)

The central idea of the article is that the right tools are required, especially team-based tools.

As an example of the cost savings potential, the article sites IBM's estimated $10,000 per employee that gives up their dedicated office space, and the $50 million per year in reclaimed travel and productivity costs due to e-meetings.

4 tips are given for managing virtual teams:

1. establish a purpose & measurable objectives for each team member
2. measure the output, not the process
3. balance the need for virtual vs. face-to-face meetings
4. use presence awareness to show your virtual office door is open

10:56:22 AM    
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