Are You a Cloudworker?
Judi Casey February 25th, 2009
According to Telework Trendlines 2009, “the number of U.S. employees who worked remotely at least one day per month increased 39% the past two years, from approximately 12.4 million in 2006 to 17.2 million in 2008. The sum of all teleworkers — employees, contractors and business owners — has risen 17% from 28.7 million in 2006 to 33.7 million in 2008.”
The Sloan Network Work and Family Glossary defines telework as:
“A subset of alternative work options where work is conducted at an off-site location and the employee uses telecommunications technology, including computers, video, and telephone systems, fax machines and high-speed hook-ups for data transfers” (Kossek, 2003).
“Work, esp. at home, communicating electronically with one’s employer, etc., by computer, fax, and telephone” (Social Networks, 2002).
“Working outside of the conventional workplace and communicating by means of communications or computer based technology” (Bailey & Kurland, 2002).
While advances in technology and concerns about the environment have made it more desirable and easier to be a telecommuter, the terms telework and telecommuter may have become a little outdated. As more people work from home, optimal productivity requires tools and skills to manage collaborations between remote workers and workers located at company offices.
Plantronics, a manufacturer and marketer of lightweight communications headset products, recently sponsored a contest to replace the word telecommuter. The winner was “cloudworker” submitted by Venkatesh Rao, a blogger and a scientist at Xerox, who said that a cloudworker is “somebody who uses on-demand technology and collaboration tools, such as unified communications, to work anywhere and anytime, and uses the resulting freedom to enable a my-size-fits-me career path and lifestyle. The metaphor of the cloud extends well beyond cloud computing and software as service applications to include work environments, distributed teams, and communication tools.” Other words considered were Wirerider, Technomad, Mobiworker, Outfielders, OmniWorker, Remoter, NetWorker, Netouin and Mesher.
More information can be found about Telework on our Telework Topic Page, Fact Sheet, Effective Workplace Series, and Encyclopedia Entry.
“cloudworking” is definitely a growing trend. More and more of our customers are looking to incorporate unified communication solutions and strategies to provide more autonomy for their employees and ultimately a better customer experience.
Interesting. I work at home on Friday’s and have to admit it’s really useful. I guess I am a cloudworker!
Very interesting post that I picked up in my google alert on knowledge workers and “study or research or report or statistics.” I love the cloud worker concept. I’ve been doing this for about 10 years after 20 years in companies, organizations, etc.
Looks like you’re a blog that *I* want to follow!
Snow is a nice touch too.
Great article. With the advance that technology has given us it is not surprising to see many more people being “cloudworkers”. Faster internet connections at home, better more productive software, improved hardware… There really is no need to go to the office any more. I find myself being more productive when working remote and possibly working more to compensate for the thought of others thinking I am working less. Needless to say I love it and see more of it in the future with companies wanting to lower their overhread and employees wanting to save as well. I had found a good blog that listed a lot of new communication technologies and products (looks like it is getting redesigned) but here is a link (http://www.ucspot.com). We have just launched a site for individuals to keep pace with the financial world around them and we also review some of the “work at home” programs that there are out there, stop by for a look when you get a chance (http://www.financeledger.com).