Dancing to your own drummer ? ubiquitous music and face to face communication
Two really good sections of this article. First is on a legal Russian music download service. I used Puretracks myself with no problem. Of course I had a $10 credit as a Telus high-speed customer.
The second section is very, very interesting. Gillian dives into the whole, do you need face-to-face meetings and what defines “being there”. I’m often in several places at once during meetings…reading a webpage, e-mailing, IMing, etc. So where am I? I’m including only the first bit of each section, so visit Gillian’s blog for the complete articles.
Part one:
After several years of waiting for legal and easy-to-use online music services to be available in Canada, and several frustrating and expensive months trying out Puretracks, I’ve begun using a legal Russian service called AllofMP3.com. I found it in a typically detailed and irritable conversation in Slashdot (“News for Nerds. Stuff that matters”) and it’s reviewed in Museekster and the Sidney Morning Herald. You can pay through Paypal (no credit card risks) and they charge less than $1 per album. Actually, it’s usually under 60 cents US per album, priced by the file size that you download, and you can choose the conversion format and bitrate you want (e.g., MP3s at 192 kbps). Astonishing. Addictive.
Part two:
So here’s the thing.
For the past few years, I’ve been trying to understand and promote collaboration between people who are not in close physical proximity, without resorting to face-to-face meetings. In other words, how can teams work productively together over distance, using various tools like teleconferences, web conferences, discussion groups and so on? I know it’s possible because we do it in our own teams at RealWorld Systems. I’m continually mystified by statements like, “Everyone knows that teams need regular/occasional face to face meetings in order to bond”. What’s so special about face to face meetings (or ‘meat time’ as it’s called on the internet)?