How to Work Across a Distributed Team

Do you do much of our work online? As more of us do, we're finding new ways to communicate with colleagues who may be in distant locations. Working across distributed teams is all about collaborative work with our colleagues who may be in different cities or even countries. At TechSoup, the need for us to all work in the same office is becoming decidedly old school. We have had to find ways for people to work well together when they are in different locales.

To find out what TechSoup's most distributed team has discovered about how to do this effectively, learn-by-doing with our Community Team's TweetChat on July 11.

How to Attend This Event

The learn-by-doing part of this is about trying out Twitter chatting using a website called TweetChat.com. It's a way of having a rapid paced conversation online. It's pretty simple:

1. Get a Twitter account (if you don't already have one)
2. Go to TweetChat.com and sign in
3. Type in the hashtag for this tweetchat, which is #VirtualTeams
4. Our moderator will lead the discussion and you can either watch all the action or chat to your hearts content

Find a simple screencast on how to do a TweetChat.

Why Working In Distributed Teams Is Green

Working in distributed groups is in the realm of green IT because it is a form of telework, or work done outside of the traditional on-site work environment. The main environmental benefit of telework and working in distributed teams is that it decreases the fuel and energy consumption needed to travel to offices - in my case it also saves me about two and a half of hours travel time per day, a good deal of money, and plenty of wear and tear on me.

The software development industry has been working in distributed or virtual teams for many years and so there is an extensive literature on the subject. Check out the TweetChat on July 11 for a quick introduction on how it translates to nonprofit and library work.

Additional TechSoup Resources

• NTC 2011 TechSoup virtual teams presentation on Slideshare
• Susan Tenby's NTC presentation notes on Wikispaces
• Salem Kimble, from our partner BetterWorld Telecom, penned this recent post about how their office makes virtual work a real-world success.
• Podcast of Susan Tenby and Jessica Dally on TechSoup how is a distributed organization
• Community team wiki with a distributed team resource list
• TechSoup travel reduction products 
• TechSoup explanation on how to use SlideRocket
• Eight Tools to keep your team connected
• Webinar recording: Online Collaboration Tools

Additional Non-TechSoup Resources      

• wideTeams is a website devoted to working in distributed teams
• Patterns and practices for distributed teams
• Scoop.it page for online collaboration tools