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Formula for making distance work

Because I have to miss the North American Fedora Ambassadors Day, I’m thinking (as usual!) about the challenges of remotely working with people. Once again, here is a stellar opportunity to figure out how to include the non-there-in-person parts of the community. Especially around planning and decision sessions, which are different from the what a good portion of e.g. FUDCon unconference sessions are.

The main formula is intent + work.

You have to intend to include people who are at a distance and connecting via technology, and you have to do the work to make it happen.

Call to action for this post is: intend to be highly interactive during the FAD and go make it happen. Hint: blogging is not good enough for some of it.

Think about your sessions and how it can help to interact with the rest of us. I recommend a minimum of: live video feed, live audio feed, and IRC, Gobby, and wiki editing projected on the wall. We can also keep a VoIP conference room open, but my instinct is to limit the flow on the incoming voices by subject matter. Beyond that recommendation, a live IRC and wiki-based abd/or Gobby note taking with many laptops in the in-person session is the bare bones, with regular usage of talk.fedoraproject.org.

I’ve been a telecommuting employee for the last eight years, seven of them @redhat.com. It is not always easy nor comfortable. Success begins and ends with proper intent and hard work. Because NA Ambassador activities are close to my interest, I’m going to do what I can to be involved in the Ambassador Day … from afar.