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Carl Rosenberger's web log

Remote Pair Programming

Here is some enabling technology, that helps to make our company, db4objects Inc. work as good as it does:

Skype
VNC

Skype is perfect to talk to anyone in the world. Over the internet it's free and the sound quality is perfect. You can even dial out to normal phone lines at very low cost.

VNC let's you share a computer with another remote user.

We are doing pair programming by using these two systems together. The system even works great for conferences with multiple people, to explain algorithms to everyone at the same time.

Our setup that has proved to work best for big sessions with many people:
We run the VNC server on a rented webserver with 100 MBit backbone access and all of us connect to that server. The person that leads the discussion and has most to say invites everyone else with Skype, so he gets the best voice quality.

The internet makes completely new distributed companies possible:
The best experts from all over the world can work together on the same project at the same time.
...at even lower costs as if they would be brought together into one office.
Published Wednesday, January 26, 2005 11:12 AM by Carl Rosenberger
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Comments

 

MartinKadlec said:

We've also made a lot of excellent experience combining there tools for remote collaboration at IBM (although use of Skype is not permitted in the intranet).

I think the main reason why this "feels" so good is the psychological effect when you talk "to your computer" - the tool you're working with at the same time - instead of talking into a phone.

And there is another enhancement, that make this feeling even better and is crucial for "remote" people management: webcams. They work great instantly with Skype.
May 14, 2006 12:38 PM
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