Federal News Network: Could the pandemic force the intelligence community to reconsider workplace flexibilities?. “With many civilian agencies now considering how they’ll reopen and modify office spaces, the pandemic has shown federal and industry leaders in the intelligence community that work arrangements for the classified workforce can — and likely will — need to change too.”
The Atlantic: Never Go Back to the Office. “Many people in a variety of industries—manufacturing, retail, transportation, health care, and more—cannot work from home, of course. Yet the pandemic has shown just how many companies can function adequately, even successfully, without placing all their employees in the same office. If you run an organization whose employees are more or less getting their work done at home, listen to that little voice in your head. Return to the office now? That’s crazy talk. I’m only telling you what you already know.”
PR Newswire: Virtual Meetings Help Overcome Social Distance; Spatial Makes Platform Accessible For All With Free Service (PRESS RELEASE). “Spatial, the leading VR/AR collaboration platform that allows people to work over distance as if in the same room, today announced that in response to the Coronavirus pandemic, it’s opening up unlimited access to its premium services to everyone free of charge, for the coming months. In addition to access via major headsets, Spatial can now be used by the masses via a web version on your desktop or iPhone/Android, allowing anyone to enter a Spatial AR/VR meeting by simply clicking on a meeting link – no downloads required. The company is also announcing a much-improved experience and general availability of Spatial on the leading all-in-one VR headset today, Oculus Quest, previously only available in private beta.”
BuzzFeed News: Twitter Will Allow Employees To Work At Home Forever. “Some Twitter employees will never return to their office. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey emailed employees on Tuesday telling them that they’d be allowed to work from home permanently, even after the coronavirus pandemic lockdown passes. Some jobs that require physical presence, such as maintaining servers, will still require employees to come in.”
Reuters: Google announces company holiday on May 22 to stem virus burnout. “Alphabet Inc’s Google said on Friday it has asked employees to take a day off on May 22, to address work-from-home-related burnout during the coronavirus pandemic. Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai announced the move in a memo to employees on late Thursday, which was first reported by CNBC.”
Hindustan Times: Facebook, Google will let most employees work from home through 2020. “Covid-19 outbreak forced employees working in companies across the globe, including the ones in Google and Facebook, to work from home. Now, the two companies have announced that they would let most of their employees work from home through 2020.”
Ausdroid: Google introduces new features to Lens to especially help those working from home. “COVID-19 has caused businesses of the world to quickly adapt to the new way of life and as these businesses evolve and pivot into online spaces we, the consumers and users, are seeing some great new innovations. Google is one such company, fast tracking many features from virtually all of their products to help us all in our times of need. Google has today added new features yet again to one of their products, this time Google Lens has been enhanced with some handy additions. Today’s additions are designed to help users be more productive in their new work from home environments.”
BetaNews: New free tool makes it easy to create videos for work and education. “Seattle-based Panopto is launching a new, free tool to help people make video presentations by simply visiting a website. Panopto Express means anyone with a computer and a web browser can record presentations and classes that blend together webcams, screen and application captures, and other video sources into rich, engaging presentations. It introduces a revolutionary camera framing technology called Smart Camera. This uses artificial intelligence to automatically center the video frame, smoothly following presenters who want to stand back from the camera or move around while speaking.”
MakeUseOf: 5 Job Boards to Find Work From Home Gigs and Remote Jobs. “Businesses both big and small have to cut costs in this economic climate. But working from home, remote jobs, and even part-time gigs can smoothen the bumps. While it’s a tough situation, don’t wait for things to get worse. Be proactive from today. These free websites will help you handle layoffs and find current job boards.”
File under funny-not-funny, then file under funny because I laughed. Slate: America’s Funniest Work Videos. “With so many Americans working from home due to the coronavirus, lots of us are on far more video calls than we ever were before, and it’s pretty evident that we don’t have video etiquette mastered yet. Here are some of my favorite stories I’ve heard recently on video calls gone very wrong.”
BetaNews: Mirai botnet 20x more likely to be found on home networks than corporate ones. “With greater numbers than ever working remotely due to the coronavirus crisis, there’s increased focus on the security risks posed by home networks. New research from BitSight, based on analysis of over more than 41,000 organizations, reveals that networks used to work from home are 3.5 times more likely to have malware present than the traditional corporate network.”
MakeUseOf: 5 Ways to Focus on Work at Home and Avoid Distractions. “Hopefully, by now you are familiar with some of the best work from home resources that will teach you the tricks of the trade. Once you have a workspace set up in your house, it’s still not easy to deal with the many interruptions that pop up throughout the day. Here are some of the best apps, tools, and techniques to avoid distractions and maintain focus.” But if you can’t maintain focus, it’s okay. Who can blame you?
CNET: Zoom: Every security issue uncovered in the video chat app. “Here’s everything we know about the Zoom saga, and when it happened. If you aren’t familiar with Zoom’s security issues, you can start from the bottom and work your way up to the most recent information. We’ll continue updating this story as more issues and fixes come to light.”
USA Today: Coronavirus shortage: Looking for a Logitech? Webcams hard to find as we all work from home. “It’s not just toilet paper that’s hard to find. For tech-savvy consumers, webcams, those little plug-in cameras for letting you broadcast to the internet, are now missing in action, too. Logitech, the company that dominates webcam sales, is sold out of every one it makes. Amazon and Best Buy are out of stock. And price gougers on eBay are selling used models for as high as $420, or more than twice as much as the most expensive Logitech model, the $199 Brio.”
University of Texas at Austin: New Online Resources Available for Deaf Students During COVID-19. “USTIN, Texas — Parents and educators can make online learning accessible for deaf and hard of hearing students during the COVID-19 pandemic with new online resources from the National Deaf Center on Postsecondary Outcomes at the College of Education at The University of Texas at Austin.”
