Speech at Connect

Submitted by Tom Geller on May 23, 2008 - 3:32pm.

Hey, Brad! It strikes me that the dream of portable computing is practically as old as personal computers themselves. Computer history is a bit of a hobby with me... here are some points from the early timeline.

• 1982: The Compaq Portable became a prized item for mobile businesspeople.

• 1983: The TRS-80 Model 100 was standard issue for reporters. It wasn't anywhere near as portable as a full-fledged computer, but it had a simple text editor and a build-in (300 baud!) modem... and it ran on AA batteries. I've heard that some people still use the damn things.
• 1984: People often forget that the original Macintosh was designed to be portable, including a built-in handle. According to a review that appeared at its introduction, "It is smaller and lighter than most of the so called 'portable' machines."
• 1994: The Ricochet internet service debuted, offering wireless access throughout limited areas. I had one around 1999 -- coverage was pretty damn good. It worked through repeaters attached to urban fixtures (such as light poles) through arrangement with municipalities and utility companies.

  Memories... *sigh*

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  Tom Geller * Author, "Save My Home: 10 Steps to Avoiding Foreclosure"
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Submitted by Magnus Svantegård on May 28, 2008 - 7:48am.

Hi Brad, going 'Bedouin' is for sure an interesting topic.

I'm trying to do it as often as possible. Both on shorter trips (being online on the road) and longer ones (a number of weeks).

Read more about my experinces here;
http://www.thebeliever.se/smart-use-of-internet/2008/1/13/going-bedouin-...

and here...
http://www.thebeliever.se/smart-use-of-internet/2008/2/8/happy-to-be-bac...

An interesting topic is how this will affect the office market in the longer run. Will the number of square meters(feets) per employee go down if more and more people work remotly? Maybe people go to the office with the purpose to meet, not to sit down and work in the cubicle.

Here is a company with 400 employess of which 80% work from home; http://www.thebeliever.se/smart-use-of-internet/2008/2/13/going-bedouin-...

See you in SF this summer.

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Submitted by G Dewald | Union Street Media on May 28, 2008 - 9:33am.

Sometimes I feel like I read about all this back when Fast Company was the size of the NYC phone book. But maybe the stars are finally aligning for all of this to happen.

That said, here are three articles might fit into your mix for thoughts/ideas. They work better together than alone (though either of them alone is worth a read).

From Charlene Li:
http://blogs.forrester.com/charleneli/2008/03/the-future-of-s.html

From Joseph Ferrara:
http://blog.sellsiusrealestate.com/marketing/why-technology-will-lead-to...

From Jeff Jarvis:
http://www.buzzmachine.com/2008/05/20/blogs-then-and-now/

I've been meaning to mash these together into a blog post but I might as well seed the earth first... and get some "real" work done. Hah!

I wish I had something to point you towards that discussed the issue of signals and co-ordinating disparate groups/individuals that are communicating asynchronously. If a strategy requires co-ordination of such a group then a centralized location is the easiest solution (though it may not be the most effective). Moving from centralized location-based communication to distributed communication is possible, but it will take more than setting up a Twitter feed. Not sure if that whole thing is part of your talk though.

G. Dewald | Union Street Media | USM Blog

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