Technology
Golden State Cellular High Speed Data Network
The last few weeks we have been using the 1X High Speed data network from Golden State Cellular. It's wonderful to be able to work from almost anywhere in Calaveras County. We think products like this will really help drive the future economy in our area. Wireless data networks allow residents & guests of our area to remain productive while they are enjoying the beautiful area we call home.
While in San Andreas last week we posted stories about the General Plan study session while it was in progress. We didn't have to wait until we got back to the office to finish our report! The Pine Tree was able to post our story hours before any other news agency.
The wireless card was easy to setup and use. Just pop in the CD and slide the card in your laptop and you are ready to go. Pictures of the card in action are
Here!
Instead of Outsourcing should we try Homesourcing?
Technology has gotten to the point where a large percentage of our jobs can be done from almost anywhere. If you do a job where most of your time is in front of a computer screen or talking on the phone or a combination of both your office can be wherever you are.
With the maturation of Web based applications, remote computer access tools, VOIP telephony, and the proliferation of broadband the technical hurdles to most of us working from home have dissapeared.
We haven't even stated to explore the benefits of this. How much gas could we save if a significant portion of the population worked from home a few days per week? Would we need as many new office buildings? Could businesses be more competitive if they didn't need to devote as much capital to offices, desks, parking spots, etc?
Studies have shown that employees are more productive and happier if they have a more flexable work schedule and work environment Could managers learn to trust employees even if they couldn't see them all of the time? If we can relearn what a "business" looks like the the payoffs could be enormous.
What if the only people commuting regularly were people who worked in manufacturing, construction or trades that required a physical presence. How many freeway projects would no longer be needed?
If you commute an hour each way to work you will spend 13 work weeks per year just driving to work. How much more productive could you be if you had another 13 weeks to actually work?
There are enterprise grade tools like Cisco IP phones, Windows Terminal Services, Citrix, Etc. There are also free tools like VNC, Asterix, MonoWall firewall and VPN Host, and many more. What if your business doesn't have the IT skills internally to deploy the tools neccessary? Most local IT shops can roll out the systems for you at minamal cost. In some instances you may not even have to purchase any additional hardware.
Why not bring this up at work and see where the conversation goes. If enough people and businesses become aware of the tools available not only could business become more compitive our working lives would be more condusive to home and family life.