Working Anywhere

WiFi Making Fresno Hot

Fresno is going WiFi and the response according to this news report has been very positive. Like most communities that add WiFi they end up seeing an upsurge in people getting out of their houses and working in coffee shops, bars and restaurants.

Starbucks, which helped set this trend has to be concerned. The coffee house culture and cafe society type of style that they helped establish here in the USA is likely being pushed out by their new trend of playing music so loud in stores that the idea of quiet conversation, while sitting reading the news and writing emails is being threatened by an almost McDonalds like din.

As more municipal hot zones open up, expect to see Starbucks become less conference room "S" to many, and instead be where you go to get a fast download to go.

Virtually Om At VON

GigaOm's Om Malik couldn't make the trip due to Boston due to some business matters back in San Francisco, but our pal Om's a smart one and suggested he take part in the annual Blogger Panel at VON via Video Conferencing.

Pal Jim Courtney captured the SightSpeed moment and touted it over on Skype Journal.

Even given trade show network and bandwidth conditions with no special equipment or microphone, SightSpeed performed as expected. We got an up close and personal view of Om's abode and he was able to take part in the early part of the session seeing fellow bloggers and providing commentary.

This makes me wonder why in the future for those who can't make the trip we don't plan out a scheduled video chat at the conferences, as SightSpeed delivered the goods without any special set up beyond the Mac Book Pro laptop....

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Mobile VoIP In The UK

I found this company, MobiBoo while going through news items this AM.

I'm rather impressed by the array of services they want to offer, as it shows they have thought through the approach to Mobile VoIP as a cellular replacement until Fixed Mobile Convergence comes along en masse.

This type of offering is perfect for Boingo and Earthlink to consider as they are ideally suited to work together and could with Helio take things to the FMC level. But I also feel as a staunch believer in Muni Wireless that as more hotspots get built out that are metro wide, that services like this are going to be more robust.

Go through the MobiBoo web site and see how they have thought through their offering. The idea of a Mobile VoIP PBX, plus the soft client options, yes option, they have two is stroke of genius.

All they are missing is a converged device, and I know of one or two that are almost ready for prime time to do just that.