WorkSnug - Connecting mobile workers to the nearest & best places to work

We’re looking for an experienced mobile and C++ developer for an immediate freelance project, with the likelihood of future work, if all goes well.

We looking for, in particular:

• 3+ years of experience developing on Android and iOS
• 3+ years of development experience including deployment of commercial services
• A strong background in Objective-C, C++ and Java
• Experience using the Ideaworks/Marmalade SDK will be a major advantage

We’re based in East London, and looking to fill this position as soon as possible.

Please get in touch, emailing hello@worksnug.com, explaining how you meet the above requirements, and with an indication of your availability and day rate.

Thanks!

We posted exactly 26 reasons why collaboration is a good thing for virtual teams, so we know you don’t need any more convincing! But what are the best tools for collaboration? Here are our five favourites. Let us know yours in the comments.

San Sharma (@WorkSnugSan) is community manager at WorkSnug

1. Google Docs: As an alternative to Microsoft’s desktop offering, Google’s free web-based suite of office applications is fine - at worst, mildly irritating, as you get used to working in your web browser. But as a rival to Microsoft’s bloated ‘track changes’ features in Word and Excel, Google Docs really comes into its own. Real-time collaboration means that up to 50 people can work on a single document at the same time. Have fun chasing each others’ cursors around the screen - or chat with your collaborators in real time.
2. Writeboard: For quick and dirty collaboration (well, not necessarily ‘dirty’ - it’s actually a very clean interface!) - you can get started remarkably quick and easily with Writeboard from 37signals. Don’t expect much in the way of style and formatting: Writeboard works best with plain-text documents. For that reason, it’s perfect for copywriters, bloggers and editors. You can quickly compare versions, add collaborators and comments - and you don’t even need an account. Just give your Writeboard a name and a password and get collaborating.
3. MindMeister: For whiteboard-style planning sessions without the whiteboard, MindMeister allows location-independent teams to work on mind maps anywhere and anytime - in the browser or from an iPad, iPhone or Android device. What we really like about it is its History Playback feature, which is like a Flux capicitor for collaboration, allowing you to travel back in time to previous versions and play back your thought processes. This kind of collaboration comes at a cost - £9.99 per month, but you can take advantage of a free 30-day trial.
4. Doodle: For all this virtual collaboration, sometimes it pays to meet up in person - that is if you can decide on a date and time! That’s where Doodle steps in. Doodle lets a meeting coordinator set up a poll of available date and time slots and invite meeting attendees to vote on a slot that works for them. The most popular slot wins! But the real winner is your inbox, which is kept from the usual back-and-forth of meeting planning.
5. Skype: Skype is a no-brainer, right? But its potential for collaboration extends beyond simple voice and video communication. Did you know that you can use Skype to share screens? It’s as simple as pushing a button - and far less laborious than trying to explain what you can see on your screen. Great for IT support, working on design documents and - for the very patient - helping mom and dad with their ailing desktops.

Supported by Plantronics. Simply Smarter Communication solutions for the Mobile Professional

Photo credit: qusic

Your collaboration tools

What tools do you use to collaborate with your team? What would you add to this list? Do you use packages like Jive or Podio that bring a lot of this stuff together? Let us know in the comments.

Here’s a sobering thought: According to anti-theft device maker Kensington, one in ten laptops will eventually be stolen.

I’ve been lucky - and I’ve even left my laptop in a crowded bar!

But laptop security is a serious thing: we’ve posted about insurance for mobile workers in the past, as well as 5 ways to protect your laptop when working on the move.

Here’s more about the cost of stolen laptops, tablets and smartphones in infographic form from Kensington. (Don’t you just love infographics?)

Oh, and when you’ve taken a look, let us know in the comments what steps you take to protect your devices and data.

The Cost of Stolen Laptops

(via ReadWriteWeb)

San Sharma (@WorkSnugSan) is community manager at WorkSnug

Supported by Plantronics. Simply Smarter Communication solutions for the Mobile Professional

It’s Social Media Week - and far from being a week of cat videos, Reddit memes and “S*** Social Media Experts Say”, you’ll find a ton of useful information about how collaboration is empowering change. And you’ll hear this term a lot: Social Business. What is it? And what’s in it for you?

Supported by Plantronics. Simply Smarter Communication solutions for the Mobile Professional

Social Media: What is it good for?

What is social media?

Social media uses the web and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue, with user-generated content, such as blogging, photo and video sharing.

It’s already transformed the way we communicate with one another. In our personal lives, it’s become inescapable.

In business too, social media has changed the way we promote our products and services and keep in touch with our customers.

But sharing and engaging with media on Facebook, YouTube or Pinterest is just one way in which businesses can explore the ideas of “social”.

The question is: How else can businesses apply these principles to other aspects of their organisation and make things better?

Social Business

What is social business?

Social business extends the ideas and principles of social media to enable employees to have more open and collaborative relationships within the organisation and with the outside world.

By becoming more social, businesses can be more creative and innovative, which - in today’s business environment - is a Very Good Thing.

These organisations make the most of human interactions in each of their business processes by making them more social and enabling better:

• Collaboration
• Mobility
• Employee retention

Benefits of Social Business

Social Media Week is a great time for businesses to think about how they can be social beyond their media output and improve their processes at the same time.

Here are a few reasons why that’s a good idea:

Collaboration

Project management software, like Podio or Basecamp, are geography-beating applications that allow organisations to build teams around skills rather than location - and enable collaboration beyond simple document-editing. While Facebook asks ‘What’s on your mind?’, social businesses ask ‘What are you working on?’

Mobility

The mobile workforce is growing. By equipping these employees with mobile devices and tablets that enable collaboration on the fly, productivity, responsiveness and innovation will soar. Virtual meetings software, like iMeet, keeps mobile employees in the loop and increases a sense of belonging and…

Employee retention

So, social businesses benefit from increased and global collaboration, as well as mobility, to ensure the whole team feels a part of the decision making process.

By building a social business based on trust and transparency, employees can tap into the creativity, innovation and community of the organisation as a whole and accomplish business goals faster and with greater efficiency.

Besides, we’re used to social practises in our personal lives - on Facebook, on Twitter and on YouTube. Isn’t it about time we brought these practices into our businesses and benefited from being social?

San Sharma (@WorkSnugSan) is community manager at WorkSnug
Photo credit: !!sahrizvi!!

What do you think?

How else can businesses take what they’ve learned from social media and apply it to their own processes? Can you see the benefits of being more social as a business? And what steps are you taking to be a more social business?

Let us know your thoughts, your tips and software recommendations in the comments below.

We recently posted our takeaways from iPass’s Mobile Workforce Report, but just came across these videos that present the highlights in a fun and easy-to-digest way.

Enterprise Mobility Trends: Mobile Workforce Report Highlights

The report, which you can download from iPass’s website, gives a closer look at the behaviours of mobile employees as the mobile device continues to be the tether that creates an on-demand workforce.

Check out this video from iPass HQ in Redwood Shores, California - and find more on the iPass website.

You know how we love infographic time at WorkSnug! And this is an interesting one. It talks about the Internet Revolution as a Generally Good Thing - and I think we’re all in agreement on that! But it highlights its inequality in America.

US broadband statistics

Did you know that…?

• 100,000,000 US households don’t have broadband access
• Fibre optic broadband is 5 times as expensive in the US as it is in Paris
• America is the world’s richest country yet ranks 12th for Internet access

Mobile computing in the US

What the infographic doesn’t cover is mobile broadband and computing. We shared results from iDG’s iPad survey, which showed the other side of the coin, namely mobile computer usage amongst business and IT professionals in the US.

The mobile computing revolution may have started, but as the infographic below demonstrates, it will likely leave some people behind.

The Digital Divide (Source)

Supported by Plantronics. Simply Smarter Communication solutions for the Mobile Professional

There are lots of great blog posts and e-books about why coworking is beneficial for freelancers and other independent professionals, so I won’t bore you with another one. Instead, I’d like to talk a little bit about what coworking does in addition to providing mobile workers with a laptop-friendly place to network and collaborate.

Beth Buczynski (@gonecoworking) is passionate about collaborative consumption, and the way that sharing can help improve our economy. She is also the co-author of an ongoing series of ebooks about coworking and the mobile workforce. Find out more: Coworking: How Freelancers Escape the Coffee Shop Office.

Let me start off by acknowledging that coworking doesn’t work for everyone (What?!) It’s true. Traditional employees whose bosses haven’t yet warmed up to the idea of telecommuting and small businesses that need the privacy of a dedicated office often find themselves looking in at the coworking community thinking, “That would be nice, but it doesn’t matter to me.”

I’m here to tell you that no matter what your profession—local restaurant owner or city council member—it’s in your best interests to learn all you can about coworking and support its growth in your community.

Coworking Stabilises Local Families

Times are tough all over the world. People who thought they were nearing retirement find themselves preparing for another decade in the workforce. New graduates who expected to secure an entry level job find themselves fighting industry veterans for an interview. No matter how you slice it, unemployment isn’t good, for families or the community. Coworking provides a safe environment in which underemployed professionals can take the first step into the world of freelancing. It also provides a cost effective way for small businesses to move out of their garages without the high cost (and risk) of a private office space. Enabling local professionals to employ themselves rather than waiting for a traditional job, means coworking helps to create a steady income, which stabilises local families.

Coworking Supports Local Business

Nine times out of ten, a coworking space is a local business, often financed completely by the savings accounts of their owners. In turn, many coworking space members are also small businesses. This creates a symbiotic relationship in which micro-businesses help to sustain each other simply by working together in a shared space. Instead of looking to high-priced agencies for marketing or design help, coworking space members can turn to the small businesses working just a desk or two away. Depending on size, coworking spaces can also organize training workshops, sponsor speakers, host conferences, and offer classes: all of which can bring people into town and benefit the small business economy.

Supported by Plantronics. Simply Smarter Communication solutions for the Mobile Professional

Photo credit: oschene

Coworking Builds a Diverse Local Workforce

One thing this economic recession has revealed is the problematic nature of one-skill workers. The new workforce will be built by multi-taskers: professionals who have a large pool of experience and expertise to offer potential employers. Participating in a coworking community is like enrolling in an ongoing education class for entrepreneurs. Freelancers are constantly looking for ways to build expertise in new areas, expand their skill set, or create a new product line. Coworking makes neighbors and friends out of professionals working at very different levels of their careers, enabling the effortless flow of knowledge between those looking to add new skills to their resume.

These are just a few of the reasons why everyone should be happy when a coworking space (or two) comes to town. Can you think of any others? Please share them in a comment!

Since its launch in January 2010, the iPad has become part of daily life for up to 60m users worldwide. According to a recent survey of US consumers, most of those iPads have never left the home or ventured much further than the living room. However, a new survey suggests that IT and business professionals use iPads very differently.

Supported by Plantronics. Simply Smarter Communication solutions for the Mobile Professional

The iPad for Business Survey was carried out by IDG Connect, part of the International Data Group tech media company. The results are not only beautifully presented (you can download the white paper here) but offer a fascinating insight into the iPad as a critical device for the mobile professional.

iPad for the mobile professional

Here are 5 things we took away from the results of the iPad for Business Survey:

1. 51% of IT and business professional say they “always” use their iPad at work. Out-of-home usage is way more intense for professionals than consumers - with over 79% of IT decision-makers saying they “always” use their iPads “on the move.”
2. IT and business professionals use their iPads as dual-purpose work and leisure devices, with a strong emphasis on work functionality, and an extremely heavy emphasis on “on the move” usage. 54% say they “always” use their iPad at home; only 31% say they “always” use their iPad for entertainment; 42% for personal communication.
3. Only 29% say they “always” connect via mobile networks. This suggests that, whist on the move, the iPad has become a tool for IT professionals to consume time-shifted (e.g. downloaded or synced) content. Three-quarters of respondents say they use their iPad for reading.
4. The survey suggests that iPads are better suited to consumption, rather than generation, of content. Three-quarters of professionals say they use their iPad mostly for reading.
5. Whilst only 10% say that their iPad has “completely replaced” their laptop, more than half say that it has “partly replaced” it. The survey also suggests that the device is transforming patterns of content consumption, as iPad-owning IT and business professionals migrate away from physical media, such as books and DVDs, to digital alternatives.

How do you use your iPad?

Do you use an iPad for work? Do you use it on the move? What are its killer applications? And do you agree that the iPad is better suited for consumption rather than creation?

San Sharma (@WorkSnugSan) is community manager at WorkSnug

Photo credit: Brendan Lynch

Ever wondered what an A-Z of reasons to collaborate would look like in fridge magnets? Wonder no more! Our friends at Plantronics have done just that - and put together this infographic with 26 reasons why working together is A Good Thing.

In fact, our contact at Plantronics explained to me how the list grew, thanks to a collaboration that spanned the globe - from the UK to New Zealand, France, Belgium and Germany!

What are your collaboration stories? Are two heads better than one? Or is collaboration a bit of a headache? Let us know in the comments.

ABC of Collaboration

Here are the first three reasons to collaborate - check out the infographic for the full 26:

1. ‘A’ is for… Accessing complementary talents
2. ‘B’ is for… Building community spirit
3. ‘C’ is for Complex problems require cross-disciplinary approaches

Infographic

Why Collaborate?

San Sharma (@WorkSnug) is Community Manager at WorkSnug

Supported by Plantronics. Simply Smarter Communication solutions for the Mobile Professional

You’ve taken the quiz. You’ve packed your bag. It’s time to make your remote working experience a success.

Cora Rodenbusch (@corasauras) is a senior communications manager at PGi (@PGiMeetTweet),a virtual meetings company, providing audio, web and video conferencing solutions to over 75% of Fortune100.

In Part II: Three Steps to Taking Your Show on the Road we shared that working outside the office requires flexibility, determination and plenty of energy and optimism to get through the day. These traits are necessary for the remote worker because when you work outside the office, your final output is often your only success measurement. Forget showing up early, staying late and looking the part, most will only know you by the quality of your work.

Understanding this freeing, albeit slightly frightening, reality will help you shift gears and focus on what really matters during your work day. And thankfully, we’re not the first to figure it out. I’ve found that those who run their own business encounter the same challenge.

As a remote worker, take note from your successful start-up friends and ensure the quality of your work remains high by aligning your efforts with company goals, building your “customer base” and keeping your stakeholders satisfied, just as if you were running your own business. 

Five Tips for a Healthy “Work-from-Anywhere” Business:

1. Keep set hours to ensure your time in the “office” remains productive. The sense of urgency you feel in the final hour will help drive productivity throughout the day.  
2. Absorb small costs to keep a long-term customer (i.e. your employer) happy.  For example, put in an extra hour or two to make a deadline, fund emergency airport internet or splurge on a long-distance call. Don’t let a small cost keep you from a big win.
3. Stay front and centre by keeping your stakeholders in the loop – they probably didn’t hear you land that big deal, so once a month write up your successes and what’s to come in your very own “customer newsletter.”
4. Look the part – not just for those on the other side of the webcam, but for you! Keep a tidy workspace and look professional.
5. Ask yourself: “Is it working?” Once you’ve lived with your new work environment, check in with your stakeholders (and yourself) to make sure expectations are being met. The fact that it’s not working isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however not doing anything about it is. You can modify your remote working experience a number of ways so don’t head back immediately if you run into a problem. 

Plug Into the Mothership

Finally, don’t forget the power of the office. In-person relationship-building and collaboration is still best, so before you start your journey, make sure you’ve accounted for a trip to headquarters at least once a quarter.

Recharge your corporate batteries, check in your laptop in with IT, stop by your team members’ desks to thank them for their help on the latest project and don’t forget to pick up your corporate pom-poms before you leave – You’ll need those in the 11th hour when looking for inspiration.

Best of luck fellow remote workers! You can follow the second half of my yearlong journey to PGi’s EMEA and APAC offices in the Cora the Digital Nomad section on Blog.PGi.com.  

Do you work outside the office? What advice would you give to a new teleworker?

Supported by Plantronics. Simply Smarter Communication solutions for the Mobile Professional