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(With deeeeeeep apologies to The Beasties)
So it's official, I'm working with MartianCraft (I am still forcing myself to put that into intercap/camel-case). It's a 'virtual company', which means I work wherever I wish, as there is no central office. The founders are in the DC metro area, but the 13 others are all around the globe (most in the US, evenly sprinkled amongst all time zones). I'm already assigned to a few projects (I like having 3-5 projects at once. With fewer, I get bored, and more than 7 is a bad idea.
I have a few problems with not having a real office. One is the blurring of the line between personal and work space. Just because I *can* work in my underwear doesn't mean I should. Bill is also going to be a major distraction. If I'm not in the house, he can't walk in, and start talking to me, nor can he ask for help doing things on the computer he can figure out for himself if he just tries a few things. I've got to figure out a solution. In general, I don't need to talk to anyone, but there are times where I need to make a long Skype call.
Speaking of Skype calls, I had a nearly 4 hour call with Rob, one of the founders. It was a giant brain-dump of everything he can now execute, now that he's got UX and graphic designers on the payroll. Based on what we talked about, I'm going to be a very busy camper. I can however, also see that I'm going to be the one that supplies structure to my team. Rob likes to take a more organic approach to ideation and development. That works pretty well for coders, as the deliverable is inherently more structured. Design disciplines require much more back-and-forth, refinement, and planning. On the plus side, design takes far less time, so we have an opportunity to be Johnny on the Spot with our work at the time the devs need it. If this goes well, they will never be waiting for our deliverables.
Unfortunately I can't talk about the work I'm going to be doing, but suffice to say, it's for some top-tier clients. I'm also going to be working with some fairly accomplished folk, including Colin Barrett, with whom I've been 'adjacent'(in-joke) for several years. Some of you may be familiar with his work with Adium, the open-source multi-protocol instant message application that's all the rage with the kids.
It's all happening.
So it's official, I'm working with MartianCraft (I am still forcing myself to put that into intercap/camel-case). It's a 'virtual company', which means I work wherever I wish, as there is no central office. The founders are in the DC metro area, but the 13 others are all around the globe (most in the US, evenly sprinkled amongst all time zones). I'm already assigned to a few projects (I like having 3-5 projects at once. With fewer, I get bored, and more than 7 is a bad idea.
I have a few problems with not having a real office. One is the blurring of the line between personal and work space. Just because I *can* work in my underwear doesn't mean I should. Bill is also going to be a major distraction. If I'm not in the house, he can't walk in, and start talking to me, nor can he ask for help doing things on the computer he can figure out for himself if he just tries a few things. I've got to figure out a solution. In general, I don't need to talk to anyone, but there are times where I need to make a long Skype call.
Speaking of Skype calls, I had a nearly 4 hour call with Rob, one of the founders. It was a giant brain-dump of everything he can now execute, now that he's got UX and graphic designers on the payroll. Based on what we talked about, I'm going to be a very busy camper. I can however, also see that I'm going to be the one that supplies structure to my team. Rob likes to take a more organic approach to ideation and development. That works pretty well for coders, as the deliverable is inherently more structured. Design disciplines require much more back-and-forth, refinement, and planning. On the plus side, design takes far less time, so we have an opportunity to be Johnny on the Spot with our work at the time the devs need it. If this goes well, they will never be waiting for our deliverables.
Unfortunately I can't talk about the work I'm going to be doing, but suffice to say, it's for some top-tier clients. I'm also going to be working with some fairly accomplished folk, including Colin Barrett, with whom I've been 'adjacent'(in-joke) for several years. Some of you may be familiar with his work with Adium, the open-source multi-protocol instant message application that's all the rage with the kids.
It's all happening.
