No, no, I’m not suggesting that one can serve jury duty remotely - I don’t think our society is quite that far along yet. Although I can imagine an environment in our future, evocative of the sci-fi shows I’ve watched, where the jury box for a trial is filled with monitors showing the faces of the jurors who are at home or some other location watching the trial remotely. But I digress…

My point today is that I am actually writing this blog post from the courthouse juror waiting room. I received a jury summons some time ago and in the letter with the details, it stated that the juror waiting room had wireless internet access. So today I brought my laptop along with me. I sat down in the waiting room and while I was waiting for them to start the check-in process, I opened up my laptop and got online. I connected into my company’s VPN (secure network) and got to work.

This is really impressive. Often we like to joke about how our government services are behind the times. But I’m quite jazzed about this. I can sit here and get my work done while I’m waiting - without missing a beat. Now that’s efficient! And that’s what telecommuting is all about - the ability to get your work done from wherever you are, even if that’s in the juror waiting room at the county courthouse

 So next time you open that dreaded jury duty summons, take heart. Check to see if there’s any information in there about network connections and if so bring your laptop and keep your day productive while you wait!

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