Forget telecommuting: We're all now 'cloudworkers'

By Keith Shaw on Tue, 11/18/08 - 3:44pm.

Last month I wrote how Plantronics was sponsoring a nationwide contest in an attempt to rename the word "telecommuter" to create a "new, more accurate and relevant term for professionals who work beyond the office." After about 500 submissions, the winner was chosen, and the new term that Plantronics hopes will replace the term telecommuter is… wait for it… Cloudworker.

According to the winning submission, a "cloudworker is somebody who uses on-demand technology and collaboration tools, such as unified communications, to work anywhere and anytime, and uses the resulting freedom to enable a my-size-fits-me career path and lifestyle. The metaphor of the cloud extends well beyond cloud computing and software as a service applications to include work environments, distributed teams, and communication tools."

Really?

Venkatesh Rao, a blogger and research scientist from Rochester, NY and Washington, DC, submitted the winning term, and will receive about $2,000 in communication and audio entertainment gear from Plantronics. Interestingly, Rao hasn't blogged about his winning the contest.

Ten finalists were chosen, and public online voting took place over a two-week period, and Cloudworker won with 27.5% of the vote.

Honorable mentions were given to Porta-Pro (portable professional), and Robe Warrior. The other nine finalists were Wirerider, Technomad, Mobiworker, Outfielders, OmniWorker, Remoter, NetWorker, Netouin (play on Bedouin?) and Mesher. Sadly, my entry, TeleDrone, didn't make the cut. Boo!

I'm not sure how I feel about Cloudworker (something about the definition seems too press-releasy and marketing-ish for me), because the first thing I think of are angels sitting on puffy, white clouds doing their paperwork (or a toilet paper commercial). I think the term 'cloud' to refer to the new world of Web-based apps is a little too techy, too, but none of the other terms are really jumping out either (other than Porta-Pro, which also makes me think of a toilet paper commercial).