New term for Telecommuters is coined: “cloudworkers”
A press release was just sent out by Plantronics coining a new term for Telecommuters, “cloudworkers.” According to their survey, the term Telecommuter is seen as obsolete and not accurately portraying today’s mobile workers. The new term also came with a definition, “a cloudworker is somebody who uses on-demand technology and collaboration tools, such as unified communications, to work anywhere and anytime, and uses the resulting freedom to enable a my-size-fits-me career path and lifestyle. The metaphor of the cloud extends well beyond cloud computing and software as a service applications to include work environments, distributed teams, and communication tools.” The term came from Venkatesh Rao from New York.
What are your thoughts on this term? My personal opinion, is I kind of like it. If you think about the technological diagrams that you have most likely seen in any powerpoint presentation they always have these “clouds” drawn around figures and various pieces of technology. In fact, we even use it in one of our presentations where we have two clouds, one with an office building and one with a home worker. These two clouds are then connected by some electrical wires and phone lines, and this is to symbolize that mobile workers, are simply an extension of your office workforce.
Interesting that this would be the term chosen, but I can see how the “cloud” would appropriately represent all the technology people would need to be a Remote or “cloud” worker; however notice I didn’t say would need in order to be “successful.” I still believe that all the technology in the world won’t make someone successful with Remote or Cloud working. Success will come from proven performance metrics that are formally developed and accurately tracked. If you would like more information on such performance metrics please feel free to contact me directly. What do you think of this term? Post a comment and let us know!
Brandon Dempsey
1-888-878-4832
Brandon@suitecommute.com
