Full Circle Associates

Ross Mayfield posted a nice bit on how his company, Socialtext, operates virtually. In Finding a Home Ross uses metaphors for the different media their 10-person team uses to connect.

* Socialtext -- the building and garden
* IRC -- the hallway
* FreeConference.com -- the conference room
* Skype -- the meeting rooms
* IM -- talking over the cubical
* VNC -- peeping over the cubical
* Our blogs -- the front porch

Beyond the metaphors (which I find useful in communicating these ideas to people who look at me baffled when I say I work "online,") Ross also notes the value of their distributed configuration -- and one of the key constraints.

"I am convinced that being virtual is the best way to start a company. The benefits go beyond cost (although the culture of frugality can go a very long way). In our case, it improves the product. But generally it is more productive. When the bandwidth for collaboration is constrained at times, you gain a certain focus. And with wiki, you develop a group memory to draw upon as you go forward.

The biggest downside is it is more difficult to celebrate victories."

I was visiting F2F today with a friend who's daughter is facing a battle with a serious cancer. I was delivering cards to her, F2F, from a group of us who used to be a distributed team. We took a moment to consider how some of our important relationships emerge from places many people might say are not containers for relatinship building: online, a one-time interaction with a retail customer, a quick meeting at a party. Like "love at first sight" before word is uttered, we can connect in many ways and in many places. Yes, even online.

We do celebrate in pairs online quite well. So now I'm thinking more about how we celebrate as communities online.