Ideas from Mark Stout

With thousands, millions? working from home, video conferencing is the glue holding what office productivity there is, together.  Thankfully at my job, we do not do video, only chat and screen share, but many are doing video. People are using the built in camera in their laptops, and the lighting in the room. And they look horrible. I watched an episode of TWIT.TV's now cancelled How-To series where Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ, and Megan Morrone show how to setup an affordable video/audio streaming system for under $300. Some of the products they show are no longer available; they made the episode in March of 2018. They cover the fundamentals of setting up an environment that will make you look good to your colleagues.  Their pointers start with the most critical thing, that most do not think about, good lighting. You can see the show here , and also links to the products they mention.

"Hey son", I yelled when I came in last night, "do you remember the working-from-home rules?" "Fire & blood" he answered. My team went 100% teleworking beginning today. For me, it was 2002 all over again.  Back then, my group was spun off from the larger company when the founder sold it. He retained my small group.  Being the only person on the East Coast then, he asked if I was willing to telework.  I did it from my utility room because that is where the internet line came into the house.  Wifi did not really exist then. Little did I know, I'd be in that utility room, I mean home office, for eight years. My son was 12 at the time. The first day he was home from school while I worked, we worked out the rules. He could come in and if I wasn't on the phone, he could say hello, ask a question etc. If I was on the phone, he could not interrupt me unless it involved fire or blood.  A simple enough test. It worked well. He never had to inte...