
Sqwiggle Makes Working Remotely Less Lonely, More Awesome - ceeK
http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/11/sqwiggle-makes-working-remotely-less-lonely-more-awesome/
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kintamanimatt
I wouldn't use this.

One of the secret joys of working from home is being able to work in my boxers
(or less) and not get in trouble. Some days I jump out of the shower and just
don't bother to do my hair until I need to go out of the house, and if I don't
style it I almost look like Lloyd Christmas from Dumb and Dumber. I move
around, I nap, I eat like the 7 Habits of Highly Obese People is my bible, and
I swear liberally; even if you can't hear it, you'd know it's happening.
However, when I'm around other people, you'd never guess. Using this app would
take out the best part of working by myself: no judgement!

(This comment's gonna come back to haunt me one day.)

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JoeAltmaier
Then (shameless plug) try Sococo Teamspace! You can turn camera on/off, and it
includes app sharing, group and p2p chat.

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kintamanimatt
Oh, I really like this concept although I'm a desktop Linux user (one of the
few!) and couldn't use this unfortunately.

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JoeAltmaier
Dang. We have Win32, Mac, iPad, iPhone, Android ... but not linux. Well, we do
run on linux but only as a 'supernode' for media routing, no GUI there.

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sergiotapia
Having a camera pointed on your 8 hours a day? Yuck.

I can't imagine being concious of that all day long. You can't even scratch
your nose!

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crazygringo
Well, a real-life office is like that anyways, at least with open layout.

But I _REALLY_ like their idea of having occasional snapshots of workers not
involved in chats, instead of constant video -- first, it's less distracting.
But secondly, if they chose the "keyframes" to be ones when you're still, then
you can assume they'll never grab you scratching your nose, etc., except for
when you're conscious of already being in a chat.

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ericbieller
very cool idea.. yep, you definitely catch people in awkward positions
sometimes hah but we use Sqwiggle every day and it certainly becomes a non-
issue very quickly, you just become alright with it.. Naturally we will be
building in some extra privacy features but, as-is, it really isn't as
intrusive as one might think! Love the idea of picking more flattering stills,
thanks for the input!

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dsowers
I disagree. I think the only people who back this idea are the startup CEO's
trying to keep tabs on their remote employees. I get more done from home
because I can avoid this exact kind of distraction. This is another idea
developed by extroverts who don't understand introverts at all. How is this
even a main HN article?

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jspiros
I'm not sure how I feel about this. One of the biggest problems I had with
working in an office was precisely how easy it was for people to bother me for
just a quick question, killing my flow. I much prefer having passive
indicators and queries, as you get with IM (which you can ignore until you're
ready) and a bug tracker (which also forces people to keep their process
rigorous and documented, as they have to work through these systems to
communicate at all; too easy to let bug trackers and the like get out of sync
with reality if people are just quickly verbally telling people about
problems).

I can see how this would work well for people who work on many short tasks,
though, as opposed to work like mine that often benefits from focusing for
hours at a time with no interruptions.

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henrik_w
After the first passive indicator (mail, IM, issue tracker), I much prefer
phone/face to face over written communication - faster and higher bandwidth.

As for interruptions - if somebody else is stuck, and a quick answer from you
will let them continue, then you'll be less productive, but the overall
productivity may be higher.

I wrote more about it here: [http://henrikwarne.com/2013/04/02/programmer-
productivity-in...](http://henrikwarne.com/2013/04/02/programmer-productivity-
interruptions-meetings-and-working-remotely/)

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tuxidomasx
I thought one of the biggest benefits of remote work was NOT having to look at
the same people all day, every day.

If i'm lonely I'd go hang out with my actual friends. And since I'm remote,
those friends can be anywhere I can travel to.

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cwilson
This look awesome and I can't wait to try it out. Hell, I think we'd even use
it in our office (a large open room with 8+ people working, meaning we are all
often wearing headphones to stay focused).

Feature suggestion: Have an "away" feature. I hit a button to say I'm going
away, type a message (brb, out for lunch, etc), and that's what is displayed
in my window while I'm gone. Adding a time stamp + optional field for when
you'll be back would be nifty as well. This feature could just be an extension
of "privacy mode" as well.

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ericbieller
nice, glad you like the idea. We are actually trying to build the product for
teams which work together in a physical office as well, definitely some
benefits there :)

Regarding away status, in the future Sqwiggle will automatically know when you
are away or at your computer by monitoring input... good point about the
status message though.. I bet there's a cool way to work that in ;)

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pm
I was secretly hoping there was a Chatroulette-like component where you got to
hang out with other crazy freelancers so you had some kind of human contact.
Oh well.

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sliverstorm
Hm. Maybe that's why I don't particularly enjoy working remotely as much as
some people. I don't feel like I'm a part of any kind of team, just a guy
hiding in his room clicking his keyboard.

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knes
I like the whole video thing. Clever way to not have the video "always on"
with their black and white picture every x seconds.

However why re invent the wheel with their "streamer"? Can't we just have a
normal chat + a "link/media' history that we can browser and search like on
jaconda or other group chat tool?

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ericbieller
Great feedback, thanks! Our stream is actually more geared towards media. We
found out that, during a conversation, it was always necessary to share links,
code, images, etc. Using a separate app for greatly interrupted the flow so we
felt the stream was a very valuable addition. Thanks again.. Very open to any
other thoughts you have!

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yaddayadda
No joke - years ago I had a rodent friend named Sqwiggle (named by my
girlfriend). Thanks for the inadvertent trip down memory lane. :)

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tommoor
Well, we're still looking for a mascot... ;-)

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yaddayadda
Sadly I have no photos. :( He was an overly-endowed, seemingly happy, albino
rat. I can't think of him without feeling sorry for his over-endowment, but I
also wouldn't include that in a mascot image ;) Frequently, he would sit on my
shoulder, with his tail hanging down while I worked, which seems a rather
appropriate image for your sqwiggle. So maybe a happy, albino rat would be an
appropriate mascot. :-)

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thecosas
Interesting take. It sounds like they've sniffed out a few features that will
go from pipeline to production quickly (fingers crossed).

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baconhigh
I really _want_ to use this.

Particularly like the idea of always-on for remote workers.. and the click-to-
talk idea.

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pointyhatuk
Isn't this basically a virtual panopticon?

With all the distractions and unnecessary meetings to make certain staff feel
functional?

This is basically all the disadvantages of working in an office projected on
home working.

A management dream!

EDIT: perhaps I'm just cynical and an isolationist :)

