Workers Coping With NY Transit Strike By Telecommuting Vendors for teleconferencing, videoconferencing, and remote-access tools are stepping in to help former commuters work from home.
By W. David Gardner, TechWeb News Dec. 20, 2005 URL: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=175007162 As New Yorkers struggle with the city¹s first transit strike in 25 years, they are finding a host of telecommuting options available to them to help them work from home. ³We¹ve been offering teleconferencing and video conferencing for three years,² said Amy Agnew-Dugdale, spokeswoman for LiveOffice Corp. ³Now we¹re offering services free for the duration of the strike.² Stranded commuters can simply log onto the company's site or call 800-251-3863 to sign up for the company¹s products. Jim Cameron, vice chairman of the Connecticut Rail Commuter Council, said if enough people try telecommuting during the strike it could catch on. Cameron, whose rail watchdog organization represents the interests of thousands of Connecticut citizens who commute to New York City, noted that telecommuting services weren¹t available during the last transit strike in 1980. ³This is something that many employers would embrace on their own, but now that it¹s been forced on them, it may become interesting,² Cameron said in a statement, adding that telecommuting ³might result in a retraining of the workforce.² Agnew-Dugdale said the LiveOffice services seem to be made to order for stranded commuters with jobs in New York City. A service called ³IM conferencing² enables users to meet on the Web for chat sessions, and the sharing of applications like Excell and Word. Even software can be shared over the system. ³Once you¹re logged on, you can launch a teleconference just by dialing out² to prospective attendees, she said. Paltalk, a New York City-based company that offers voice and video chat services, is offering free unlimited video chat rooms to companies inconvenienced by the strike. Corporations interested in the service can contact the company by e-mailing [EMAIL PROTECTED] During the strike, the company will provide chat rooms with free video conferencing for typing, talking, and viewing. The firm said it has 3.9 million active chat room members and is the Internet¹s largest voice and video chat community. ³We¹re painfully aware that many individuals are in a pre-holiday work crunch,² said Michael Levit, Paltalk¹s chief marketing officer, in a statement. ³We hope to help provide a solution to this transportation breakdown by helping companies to conduct their business virtually.² Laplink Software is offering a two-week free trial of its Laplink Everywhere, a Web-based remote access program. The software can be downloaded. The firm said the program may be the best solution for commuters who rely on a PC and telephone at their regular jobs. --- You are currently subscribed to telecom-cities as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Manage your mail settings at http://forums.nyu.edu/cgi-bin/nyu.pl?enter=telecom-cities RSS feed of list traffic: http://www.mail-archive.com/telecom-cities@forums.nyu.edu/maillist.xml
