Jim Courtney on Being Always On (or Off)

Skype Journal's Jim Courtney has a very insightful thought piece on the state of being always on and what the always connected folks can do about it.

Jim is being daring, trying out new applications like FRING, TruPhone, iotum's TalkNow and others on his devices. In doing so he's breaking the same ground that other early adopters like myself tend to tread.

The key to the new applications and being "Always On" is control, which is what the (client) iotum's Talk Now gives us all. Having the ability to set my status and availability at the touch of a button caused me to start using my Blackberry more than I had in years as a phone.

Here's a real world example of what Jim is referring to.

After purchasing a new RIM 8700 (I decided not to wait for the smaller, lighter 8800 as T-Mobile won't have it for few more months) I installed TalkNow and after a few minutes was online with a few other "buddies" and talking with them instead of playing phone tag. TalkNow has made it more efficient for me to reach and be reached, but more importantly has reduced interruptions.

That's one example of what Jim is referring to in his post. But there are others. As we approach the O'Reilly eTel conference next week, I fully expect more examples of smart, 2.0 type applications and mash ups to occur between new and more powerful devices, software apps and networks.