By now, the story of the thwarting of the “mega-9/11“, as Outside the Beltway’s James Joyner calls it, has reached your consciousness. As of now, 21 terrorists under arrest for a plot to blow up waves of US bound flights from the UK. The United States’ transatlantic flights now in a code red for the first time ever, while British authorities pushed its nation to their highest “critical” level.

Needless to say, this transatlantic security problem will spill over into domestic flights as well as airports grapple with flight security. No one wants to be the weak link in a situation like this.

In cases like this, it might be worth avoiding the lines and the hours of waiting to make that important meeting. There’s quite a few virtual collaboration tools that business people can leverage to make work possible.

Skype
If you don’t have Skype, I recommend you get it. It’s an instant messenger combined with pretty good quality VoIP (Voice Over IP) for free. There are some paid upgrades as well such as SkypeOut which allows you to call normal phone numbers. So it’s pretty easy to conference with people virtually. Plus it supports webcams so doing a VTC is as easy as turning on your camera.

Basecamp
Though Basecamp serves its purpose in any situation, it is a web-based project management tool that allows tasks, to do lists, etc.

Bulletin Boards/Forums
If your organization does not use internal bulletin boards or forums, they should. The sharing of ideas can happen in real time or at your own pace and are archived for future use. Meetings are pretty useless most times anyway, so having a virtual pad for collaboration is important.

Email
The age old friend. With a little communications skill, just about anything that can be done in person can be done via email. Plus it gives you a record.

VPN
Many companies provide a VPN client to allow remote access into a company network, but Windows also provides a VPN client that is built into Windows. For information on setting one up, talk to your network administrator or follow this guide.

Personally, I think the worst thing that can happen during a time of crisis such as this is to allow the wheels of business to stop turning. That allows terrorism to gain the upper hand and disrupt the economy. The internet provides a vast array of tools for virtual collaboration and though face to face meetings are often nice and useful, they can be replaced by virtual collaborative tools. Use the internet in times like these. It’s our friend.

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