Open Sources | Rodrigues & Urlocker » Telecommuting at AT&T & OSS

November 21, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Telecommuting at AT&T & OSS

TAGS: Open Source

I'd love to understand the logic behind this:

"AT&T, a company that once was a poster child for telecommuting, is downsizing its long-running telework program and requiring thousands of employees who work from their homes and other virtual offices to return to traditional AT&T office environments, according to sources."

AT&T appears to be going in the opposite direction of open source software companies. When you have someone good, why try to make them move if they can be just as effective where they're living? In some cases, it is more effective to co-locate members or a team, and I seem to recall Interface21 going this route with 3 or 4 sites across Europe & North America. But for the most part, OSS works because you can tap talent wherever they are.

In the words of Thomas Friedman, the world truly is flat when it comes to OSS development.

PS: I should state: "The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions."

UPDATED: The title of this post was edited to spell "Telecommuting" properly. I can't speld correctly in the morning. Sorry for my behaviour.

Posted by Savio Rodrigues on November 21, 2007 06:23 AM

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