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Due to recent events, millions of office workers have needed to rapidly adjust to working from home\u2014learning new collaboration tools and best practices, re-thinking how to stay connected with colleagues outside the office, and adapting to new social norms around meetings. Working remotely presents both technical and social challenges, and researchers at Microsoft have been working across disciplines to understand and support both aspects of this challenge for decades.<\/p>\n
Below is just a small sample of the work researchers at Microsoft and their colleagues have produced to improve the remote work experience. For those seeking to build better remote work products and services\u2014or for anyone who wants to be more productive at home\u2014we hope this research can provide some guidance, insight, and inspiration.<\/p>\n
Although these are truly challenging times, we can benefit from a strong foundation of interdisciplinary research that can help us all stay productive and connected\u2014with the hope of emerging from this crisis better-equipped to work together.<\/p>\n
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Looking forward, there will be an unprecedented opportunity for researchers to learn from the current situation to figure out not only how to manage future disruption, but also to incorporate new ways of working at home or in the office. Microsoft is committed to investing in research internally and externally to make this happen. For example, in more typical times, remote work often involves meetings with both remote and co-located colleagues. Better understanding and supporting productivity in these hybrid meetings<\/span><\/em> is the subject of one of the academic projects Microsoft funds through the Microsoft Productivity Research<\/a> program in collaboration with Dr. Mirjam Augstein and Dr. Thomas Neumayr at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria.<\/p>\n If you\u2019d like to do a deeper dive into the literature on remote work, below is a selection of additional papers from Microsoft researchers on the subject.<\/p>\n\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Researchers at Microsoft have been working across disciplines to address the unique and complex challenges of meeting remotely, such as improving the quality, fidelity, and utility of meetings; addressing design issues; merging physical and virtual collaboration; and exploring the use of avatars:<\/p>\n \u201cHybrid meetings\u201d (meetings with remote and co-located participants)<\/strong><\/p>\n Spatialized audio and video for video calling<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cAccelerated instant replay\u201d during a video call<\/strong><\/p>\n Avatars in remote meetings<\/strong><\/p>\n Remotely collaborating when completing tasks in the physical world<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Researchers are also addressing the challenges of remote team building by helping people maintain connections across time zones, welcome new remote team members, and e engage in shared experiences:<\/p>\n Working across time zones<\/strong><\/p>\n Remote employee onboarding<\/strong><\/p>\n Co-watching video<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Long before remote work became a way of life, researchers at Microsoft exploring the social and technical aspects of collaborating remotely. Below is a selection of work on the subject dating back nearly thirty years:<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Microsoft researchers have also made substantial contributions to researcher areas adjacent to remote work that are increasingly relevant in today\u2019s context\u2014in how remote work technologies can support family life and play. For instance:<\/p>\n Connecting family across distance<\/strong><\/p>\n Remote Play<\/strong><\/p>\n Video Communication for First Responders<\/strong><\/p>\n Thanks to Kori Inkpen, Sean Rintel, Abi Sellen, and John Tang, who also contributed to this post.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Due to recent events, millions of office workers have needed to rapidly adjust to working from home\u2014learning new collaboration tools and best practices, re-thinking how to stay connected with colleagues outside the office, and adapting to new social norms around meetings. Working remotely presents both technical and social challenges, and researchers at Microsoft have been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38838,"featured_media":649296,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"msr-url-field":"","msr-podcast-episode":"","msrModifiedDate":"","msrModifiedDateEnabled":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"research-area":[13556,13554,13547],"msr-region":[],"msr-event-type":[],"msr-locale":[268875],"msr-post-option":[],"msr-impact-theme":[],"msr-promo-type":[],"msr-podcast-series":[],"class_list":["post-648012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-blog","msr-research-area-artificial-intelligence","msr-research-area-human-computer-interaction","msr-research-area-systems-and-networking","msr-locale-en_us"],"msr_event_details":{"start":"","end":"","location":""},"podcast_url":"","podcast_episode":"","msr_research_lab":[],"msr_impact_theme":[],"related-publications":[],"related-downloads":[],"related-videos":[],"related-academic-programs":[],"related-groups":[643845],"related-projects":[483294,717493],"related-events":[],"related-researchers":[{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Jaime Teevan","user_id":33975,"display_name":"Jaime Teevan","author_link":"Jaime Teevan<\/a>","is_active":false,"last_first":"Teevan, Jaime","people_section":0,"alias":"teevan"},{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Brent Hecht","user_id":38997,"display_name":"Brent Hecht","author_link":"Brent Hecht<\/a>","is_active":false,"last_first":"Hecht, Brent","people_section":0,"alias":"brhecht"}],"msr_type":"Post","featured_image_thumbnail":"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tRemote Meetings\t\t\t<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\tRemote Teambuilding\t\t\t<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\tEarly research on remote work\t\t\t<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\tWork in related areas\t\t\t<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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