Remote teamwork anecdotes (was: Where can we find top-notch python developers?)

[Cameron Laird]

In article <1hceomq.1whcmq2114jly6N%aleaxit at yahoo.com>,
Alex Martelli <aleaxit at yahoo.com> wrote:
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>Unfortunately, I entirely understand _why_ most software development
>firms prefer face-to-face employees: when I found myself, back when I
>was a freelance consultant, alternatively working remotely for some
>time, and at the client's office for another part of the time, I saw my
>productivity soar by 3-4 times when I was working locally, physically
>right next to the rest of the team, rather than remotely -- nowadays,
>open-source projects have discovered the same issue, which is why they
>have "sprints" with everybody gathering in the same place, where SO much
>more good work gets done than when everybody's connected to each other
>only via the net... Alistair Cockburn makes similar observations in his
>book "Agile Software Development", how it seems projects can be truly
>agile only if the team is co-located... ah well:-(. It would be SO much
>more convenient, for workers and firms both, if reality would be so kind
>to us as to be different!-)
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Now I'm uneasy.

Alex, you're describing something that's different from
my experience, and I'm alert enough to suspect my own
judgment when it differs so sharply from yours.

Briefly, remote collaboration works for me.  I work on
customer premises part of the year, and, while there are
multipliers, my estimate is that they're far closer to
one than four.  Sometimes they're less than one--I get
rather impatient with a lot of small talk, and locating
the approved meeting room, and waiting for approved
equipment, and ...

I like working with others, and sometimes indeed it's a
huge gain.  Sometimes it's just noise.