I’ve just got back to Sydney (Australia) and I’m now ready to spread the love for Border Crossing Media into the Aussie territories.
My brief trip to Scotland was a success as in the time I was there we launched our corporate site, started alpha testing Border Crossing TV and even managed to get the planning for our second phase of development underway.
For those of you who are not familiar with our story here’s a brief summary:
The collective was launched by Francois and Diogo and I joined the team on a part time basis in August 2007. By February 2008 I had accepted a full-time position and things really started to motor with Border Crossing TV. In July 2008 we made a decision to meet-up and have some good old face-to-face time. I promptly applied for a visa, packed some bags and went on the now normal 25 hour flight to Europe.
By the way a freezing Scottish summer is great for straight-thinking. I recommend that all programmers consider relocating to colder regions – the quality of code you’ll produce will be great.
Anyway, from July to November 2008 we worked hard, sometimes too hard (keyboards were broken and twitches were developed) but it was certainly productive.
Since returning we have settled back into our usual routine of collaborating remotely and even though it was great to be over in Scotland there are certainly some positives to distance working that you really can’t escape.
- we are more productive. Not working in the same office removes any distractions. You get into work and get your head down straight away. Moreover, thanks to the tools we use, we never feel that distance working inhibits us achieving what we set out to do.
- we are always online. We all work in different locations and time zones so work never stops and sites are always up … because whatever time of day it is, there’s guaranteed to be someone on-call.
So in summary it was great to head over to Scotland, but in truth it’s also great to be back home.
Distance working or collaborating remotely certainly isn’t easy at first but the more you do it the more you realise that it is a viable option. Now that we have the right procedures and tools in place it certainly works for us and if your considering it, dive in, you won’t regret it!
Have a great day or night.
Anton
