Skype, SameTime & Notes for collaboration

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007
While Skype takes a PR hit for their outage, there are some good stories to share...

It's 4:45 AM. and I'm wrapping up a 3-way Skype voice+text meeting with my overseas development team; we're working on the next code release for eProductivity. My counterpart and I are using Lotus Notes for real-time management of the project and code releases. He's coding and I'm replicating every few minutes to test the latest code. Thanks to Lotus Notes, moving code changes is simply a click of the replicate button. The coming together of Skype for voice + IM and the ease of use of Notes as a distributed development platform facilitates collaboration at a level that was not possible (or at least affordable) just a few years ago. (Yes, I know that SameTime does Video and Audio; it even runs very well in my test lab. Unfortunately, I've not worked out the issues to get it to work in the real world yet. Fortunately, for high quality audio over IP, there's Skype. It simply works.)

We've been on phone - oops, Skype - for 6 hours with impeccable call quality. Between, Skype for Voice, SameTime for collaboration, and Lotus Notes I'm getting more done in new ways with people I would have found it difficult to communicate and collaborate with before. I suppose the only missed opportunity was that we did not use video. Perhaps next time.

It was a successful meeting and we are one step away from the next code release.  I'm tired.

I've been very slow at blogging. Client work and this new product development has required a lot of my attention in addition to my graduate studies and public speaking. I've got a lot going on. Now, more than ever, I appreciate the power of a good productivity tool kit.

I recently took the digital sandbox on the road and I've got two very interesting podcasts coming up: the first, with my friend and colleague, Kelly Forrister and the second with another good friend, Marc Orchant. Kelly and I will talk about how I use the Lenovo X61 Tablet PC, and Marc and I will talk about what's in his gadget bag. Stay tuned...

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