Starting May 23rd, I'm starting another sabbatical to work on my company projects, to continue my seminary work, and to work on my book (to be clear: sabbatical != vacation). During this time I will be accepting part-time AJAX, WCF, ASP.NET (no graphics work!-- hire a professional graphic designer, they are worth the money!), or general C# 3.0 and .NET 3.5 telecommuting consulting. I'll assist in projects, but I'm not going to be able to work as senior architect on any projects. Also remember, as a web developer, it's my duty to make sure my projects work in Mozilla, Opera, Safari, and IE, and is in no way IE-specific. IE-only environments are the absolute most difficult to work with.
Also keep in mind that this is 2008, not 1988 and the primary purpose of modern technology is to allow us to have simpler lives and just about every single aspect of our technology has it's root in the Internet allowing us to communication from anywhere. What's the point in having web casting and online meeting abilities or in having online white boarding or web-based project management software, or even Google Office if you aren't going to use them in a meaningful way? Why have e-mail at all if you are going to absolutely rely on the ability to go to the person's office? The addiction to physical contact is something that needs to be broken in the 21st century. Stop managing with your physical "field of view" and start managing by results.
I'm a web developer/architect, not a piano mover; I don't need to be in a physical office. If you are into technology at all, you are into moving your physical resources into a logical cloud. If I've said it once, I've said it a million times: your associates are your greatest resource and should, therefore, be even more in a logical cloud (as they are humans and would appreciate it more!) It is inconsistent to pursue logical management of resources and require physical management of personnel. Not only that, but it costs a lot less (no office space required!) If your employees don't have enough discipline to work from home, what makes you think they are working in their cube? Unless you are working off the failed notion of "hourly management" instead of being a results-oriented manager, you won't have a problem with 100% telecommuting. Results matter, not "time". Also, if you don't trust your employees, well... maybe you hired the wrong people (or maybe have trust issues in general?) Trust is the foundation of all life. I could speak volumes on this topic, but I'll leave that to the expert: Timothy Ferris. See his blog or get his book for more information. I'm only an anonymous disciple of his, he is the master and authority on this topic. Therefore, send your flames (read: insecurities) his way (after you read his book!-- audio also available; they are both worth 100x their weight in gold!) See also, Scott Hanselman's interview with Timothy Ferris. His YouTube page is also available.
With regards to the book, let me simply say that it's generically about AJAX communication and I'm not going to give out too many specific details on the project at this point, but I will say this: AJAX + SOA - CSS + Prototype + (ASP.NET Controls) - (ASP.NET AJAX) + WCF + (.NET 2.0 Service Interop) + Silverlight + Development Tools. Also, I reserve the right to turn it into a video series (likely), make it a completely learning set of reading + video series (even more likely!), or to completely chuck the project. I don't like to do things the classical way, so whatever I do, you can bet on the fact that I won't do the traditional "book". As I've always said, the blog is the new book, but for this I think I may use a different paradigm. I've turned down two book offers so far because I absolutely refuse to throw more paper on a bookshelf or do something that's been done a million times before.
If you are moving from ASP to ASP.NET, from PHP to ASP.NET, from ASMX to WCF 3.5 or want to add AJAX to your solutions drop me an e-mail and let's talk.
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