OK, we’ve all had those dreams right? I still remember my nightmares as a six-year-old about getting on the school bus only to realize that I was still wearing my pajamas. This week, a host of companies in Silicon Valley hosted a series of events that I have dubbed “National Wear Your Pajamas to Work Week.”
This week, GigaOm kicked off its Net:Work conference, featuring topics such as “How Social Tools Really Impact the Enterprise,” “Tapping an On-Demand Workforce,” and “Deploying Collaboration Is Easy, Making People Use It is Hard.” It is clear, as GigaOm states, that “The way we live, learn, play and work is being transformed daily by breakthrough collaboration tools that allow us to instantly communicate regardless of location.”
The tipping point for ubiquitous workplace computing is the widespread adoption of the tablet, which is ushering in the “bring your own device” (BYOD) era of enterprise information technology. The “app” approach of smartphones and tablets has won the war for cloud computing—and now the real change in how we do our jobs can finally start to occur.
The “agile workforce” will become the way of the future because, as enterprises deploy more social tools, they will be able to handle complex workflows by talking to other cloud-based apps through application programming interfaces (APIs). With non-cloud-based systems, integration was cost-prohibitive. Now, with ubiquitous cloud computing, even applications that might never have been anticipated to interface with another application can exchange information. This will lead to advances in productivity unlike anything we have seen before.
I have written before about how Skype’s multi-way conferencing feature allows me to conduct a Brady Bunch-like videoconference with people all around the world. I think that kind of technology will continue to allow us to “go to work” without the commute, making pajamas truly an on-the-job option. As I’m finishing this blog, I need to jump on a Skype call soon. My only question is whether a red striped necktie and blue dress shirt clash with polka-dot flannel pajama pants?
