Nation's Cloudworkers Proclaim: "Hey! You! Get Off of My Cloud!"

"Cloudworkers?" you say. "What the heck is a cloudworker?"

Thanks to the winner of Plantronics TeleWho? Contest, telecommuters have a new moniker: cloudworkers. The term's definition 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."

Still with me? Or did your eyes glaze over at the blah-bety blah blah corporate speak and grammatical errors? Seems like maybe they could use a copy editor as a cloudworker.

Of course, we old-fashioned telecommuters do appreciate the benefits of cloud computing, but "cloudworkers" is just taking it too far. The negative head-in-the-clouds connotation is a little too strong for my taste, when many home-based workers are struggling against a negative perception of telecommuter productivity.

Until this pronouncement, the move has been to change the word "telecommute" to "telework" because it puts the emphasis on the benefit to the company rather than the worker.

Heavens knows the benefit to the employee is the last thing we should think about. So I have to say that "my-size-fits-me career path and lifestyle" could be an improvement on telework. An improvement, if only I knew what it meant!

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