When you work as a (mostly) distributed team you depend on really efficient communication and collaboration software to bridge the distance between developers, designers, writers, and managers. At Intridea we’re accustomed to working together – apart, and productively so. We depend on a mix of solutions we’ve built ourselves (like our new Socialspring suite) and trusted apps from others (like Hipchat, Highrise and Skype). This week Michael Bleigh introduced a new app, Turntable.fm to the Intridea team that has nothing to do with productivity or communication, but has a whole lot to do with camaraderie.
For the past two days Intrideans have been hopping in and out of the Intridea room on Turntable.fm and taking turns DJ’ing and listening to each other’s music. It’s so simple, and yet it’s a powerful tool that allows us to feel like we’re in each other’s offices, hacking together, eating lunch, consuming caffeine, and rocking out. And since we’re all busy coding away and working hard to meet deadlines, it’s a nice way to feel connected to the people that we’re working so closely with. It offers a sense of permeating presence, despite the physical distance between all of us.
Every now and then you come across an app that you never knew you needed. For the music junkies at our company that are always using Mounce (Music Announce, a command-line script that Adam wrote to update Presently chat with the name of the song you’re currently listening to), Turntable.fm has become a fun source to share our musical tastes live-action style.
