[Pxtl]

I'm always confused why companies don't invest more in better teleconferencing tech. I mean, for a small fraction of the money being saved with offshore work you could have a meeting room full of screens and networked whiteboards and wearable high-quality mics and wall-mounted cameras and crystal-clear VOIP and whatnot, to put you "in the room" with your counterparts. None of this technology is science fiction.

But yeah, the inability to extract the words "I don't understand" or "I don't know" from foreign workers drives me utterly batty.

[jacquesm]

> But yeah, the inability to extract the words "I don't understand" or "I don't know" from foreign workers drives me utterly batty.

That's a cultural thing, and you're doing it wrong if you are trying to extract admissions out of people. That's the totally counter-productive approach. I understand that from a 'western' background admitting to failure, a lack of knowledge or even downright incompetence does not have to be a problem but in other cultures this can be a near impossibility.

I would like to suggest a different approach. Assume the "I don't know" or "I don't understand". Simply go over the thing for your understanding. This will take care of the problem in an elegant and face-saving way without having to torture co-workers.

[Pxtl]

I know, it's just hard. I hate dealing with an open loop - I have no feedback whether I'm explaining too much or too little.

[jacquesm]

You could ask for a re-telling, that will give you the closed loop. Just ask someone to explain the concept to you rather than the other way around.

[JoeAltmaier]

In fact, Sococo (I work here) is a work collaboration tool; its developed in part by an Engineer from the Ukraine. Another hurdle not mentioned in the article: on day in our morning mtg (his evening mtg) he said "I have to go; we're having a revolution today". Apparently his apartment overlooked that square with all the burned couches and embattled soldiers. So, no contact with him for a few days.

Great guy, don't get me wrong! But there's lots of hurdles to an overseas relationship.

[Pxtl]

That's not exactly an everyday event outside of certain worst-case-scenario African countries.

Disasters happen everywhere, including home. An ice storm could knock out your power for a week, or a hurricane or an earthquake depending on where you live.

[notacoward]

Many offshore teams don't have anywhere to put that teleconferencing equipment. They're often totally slammed for space as it is, they have relatively poor IP connectivity, sometimes they don't even have reliable power. So the cost is really the equipment plus the infrastructure upgrades, to solve only one part of the problem. It might still be worth it, but it's not a slam-dunk by any means.

[jacquesm]

And that assumes overlap between office hours.

[Pxtl]

I know that one. I work with a data-collection team in the Philippines. Lots of after-work Skype calls.

There is an upside - anything I can fix and deploy for them during my work-day is effectively zero-downtime for them.