While it's true that the main reason I moved from the Washington, D.C. area to Southwest Missouri was to be closer to family, a close second was this growing desire to settle into a small community where the pace of life doesn't leave you completely exhausted at the end of a work day.  I have this vision in my mind of a the perfect community, a planned, green community that is almost entirely self sufficient in terms of energy resources.  The community would be designed with wireless access available anywhere within the city limits and schools, grocery stores and shopping centers would be within walking distance for everyone. 

I'm not really an environmentalist, at least not in the tree-hugging, sandal-wearing sense of the word, but I'm all about minimizing our footprint while enjoying nature to it's fullest.

Anyway, having just come in for a ride with a friend this morning on some local motorcross/ATV trails, I was filled with a renewed appreciation for the wonder and beauty of God's creation and I saw a story on CNN (I used to have a link, but the story's gone now) about a planned community in Sky, Florida very much like the dream community I've envisioned. 

I believe that this is the beginning  of a new trend that will increase in popularity as the technology to work remotely becomes more readily available.  Clearly, there are professions that don't support working remotely, but there is a sizable and growing  percentage of information workers who would find that working remotely, at least part of the week, would actually boost their productivity.

When living in Virginia, my commute to D.C. was an hour and a half one way.  So, three hours of every work day were spent in a car or on a train.  Now, I like to drive, so the first 30 to 45 minutes of that commute in the evening provided a good buffer between my day at work and my life at home; but the last half of the commute was like leaving the lights of your car on without the engine running.  By the time I made it home, I was completely drained.  There are entire years of my life from the D.C. era that I simply do not remember.  

I understand that a presence in the office is still important for many workers, but I'll never forget how much more productive I was for my last employer when they finally gave me the go ahead to work from home part-time.  I probably gained an extra 2 hours a day in time not spent trying to filter out other people's conversations from across the office.

Given the right tools and the right software, the staff of your organization should find working remotely to be both more rewarding and more efficient. 

So, what kind of tools could be employed to help keep remote employees working effectively and staying connected?  Here are some that I have either used personally or have seen demonstrated and about which I have heard great things:

• SharePoint Server 2007 - This product has come an amazing distance over the past 6 years.
• Groove 2007 - Recently acquired by Microsoft, this collaboration tool makes it extremely easy for members of a team to work remotely.  Based around the concept of a workspace which is shared by team members, its like a peer-to-peer version of Lotus Notes.
• Basecamp - Keep your eyes on the products from 37 Signals, the creators of the popular Ruby on Rails framework for rapidly developing web based applications.  BaseCamp is a great product for small teams or departments within a larger organization.  It's also inexpensive.
• Remote Desktop - If security is a concern, there are wonderful VPN solutions that help to ensure the safety of remote access.
• GoToMeeting - I don't know what I would do without this tool.  the best part is that it's wonderfully affordable.  I've found that WebEx and Live Meeting are overkill for most of the meetings I have with clients. 
• Wikis - The concept of a wiki is simple.  It's a website where members can edit the content. But this simple idea has come to be an extremely powerful tool for teams working remotely.   Wikis are increasing in their use within the enterprise and if you haven't used this kind of tool before, check out this definition.

I'm interested to know what your experience has been with working remotely?  Has this worked well within your organization?  If so, what tools do you use?  Anyone interested in starting a planned community in rural Missouri?