We currently are partned with three startups; our company provides the IT knowledge for a seriously reduced fee in exchange for a partial ownership in the product that is being build.
Basically we're investing (the reduced fee is still very much required, so that there is an incentive to actually finish the product). However you still need to convince the IT firm why it should invest.
You work 8 hours, usually almost in one stretch, and other people usually are also working in that time frame, so making short visits is difficult. In effect it's hard to have little social breaks during these 8 hours.
Being in a similar situation I'm solving it in two ways. For one I found other people who also work at home, and sometimes we try and work in the same place; usually first working at home for 2 hours (missing the rushhour) and then hopping over for a few hours.
Another solution is that I have some contacts (companies, usually a friend of mine is working there) I use to do some private work for, and they have no problem with me sitting at one of their unused desks.
And - if possible - I (after the rushhour wait-out) I drive to a client to work. They'll see something is being done and I get to sniff some office. This is the least preferable situation, because you're at "the clients".
I switched company to be able to work at home, not because my former employer didn't allow me to, but because it was not part of the culture of that company (I would have been the first) and I expected political trouble like described above.
The new company solely exists of homeworkers, each having a small office at home usually with some additional seats so if teamworking is required you either visit your collegue or all go to the small central office (basically only two meeting rooms and a small kitchen).
I must agree with the core of the statement of the original reply. Nature has a way of selecting and making discriminations about what people can do.
For example: some people can run fast. Should I try to build an artificial leg because I can't but want to? No, it was not my natural talent. And if I can't get childeren, even with some "training" and help, how far am I allowed to go? There is and must be a border.
Mind you, I'm currently trying to get childeren and have no idea if we will succeed! But I do know how far I'm willing go.
As long as a decent versioning system is used, things should be okay. I'm not a Microsoft fan, but the idea they have with the automatic versioning of the.Net libraries they intend to distribute, seems the way to go.
You can have this huge (it always will be huge;-) tray of libraries. Multiple versions living next to each other, and an applicatie just request a certain library. Minor updates are backward compatible, major are not. You can have a "last used" setup to decide if any library might be flushed. Of course every library that ever existed on your system should be remembered and be available over the internet, so it can be restored when required.
If you're not into huge trays, then don't use share libs at all, but have each app take their own copy. But that will be huge also, and also troublessome to manage.
I vote for the 1st option.
Nothing personal, I know you guys have troubles in the IT employement market, but things are slowing down here also. I would not enjoy the idea of all out-of-work US web coders to come over here and push the market further down.
You guys enjoyed the absolute heights of the hype, now please don't give us the joy of enjoying the low.
Slashdot Mirror
You could try and partner up with an IT firm.
We currently are partned with three startups; our company provides the IT knowledge for a seriously reduced fee in exchange for a partial ownership in the product that is being build.
Basically we're investing (the reduced fee is still very much required, so that there is an incentive to actually finish the product). However you still need to convince the IT firm why it should invest.
You work 8 hours, usually almost in one stretch, and other people usually are also working in that time frame, so making short visits is difficult. In effect it's hard to have little social breaks during these 8 hours.
Being in a similar situation I'm solving it in two ways. For one I found other people who also work at home, and sometimes we try and work in the same place; usually first working at home for 2 hours (missing the rushhour) and then hopping over for a few hours.
Another solution is that I have some contacts (companies, usually a friend of mine is working there) I use to do some private work for, and they have no problem with me sitting at one of their unused desks.
And - if possible - I (after the rushhour wait-out) I drive to a client to work. They'll see something is being done and I get to sniff some office. This is the least preferable situation, because you're at "the clients".
Another dutch guy working at home.
I switched company to be able to work at home, not because my former employer didn't allow me to, but because it was not part of the culture of that company (I would have been the first) and I expected political trouble like described above.
The new company solely exists of homeworkers, each having a small office at home usually with some additional seats so if teamworking is required you either visit your collegue or all go to the small central office (basically only two meeting rooms and a small kitchen).
I must agree with the core of the statement of the original reply. Nature has a way of selecting and making discriminations about what people can do.
For example: some people can run fast. Should I try to build an artificial leg because I can't but want to? No, it was not my natural talent. And if I can't get childeren, even with some "training" and help, how far am I allowed to go? There is and must be a border.
Mind you, I'm currently trying to get childeren and have no idea if we will succeed! But I do know how far I'm willing go.
Tom
As long as a decent versioning system is used, things should be okay. I'm not a Microsoft fan, but the idea they have with the automatic versioning of the .Net libraries they intend to distribute, seems the way to go.
You can have this huge (it always will be huge ;-) tray of libraries. Multiple versions living next to each other, and an applicatie just request a certain library. Minor updates are backward compatible, major are not. You can have a "last used" setup to decide if any library might be flushed. Of course every library that ever existed on your system should be remembered and be available over the internet, so it can be restored when required.
If you're not into huge trays, then don't use share libs at all, but have each app take their own copy. But that will be huge also, and also troublessome to manage.
I vote for the 1st option.
Nothing personal, I know you guys have troubles in the IT employement market, but things are slowing down here also. I would not enjoy the idea of all out-of-work US web coders to come over here and push the market further down. You guys enjoyed the absolute heights of the hype, now please don't give us the joy of enjoying the low.