Working Anywhere

How To Work Anywhere Part One Of A Series

As a Nomad, I've taken the art of Working Anywhere (and sleeping anywhere) to become an art form. With a client base now that spans 10 hours from West to East, with family on both USA coasts now and with a team of people working in five different time zones my days are changing. So like an athlete in pro sports (my original life many years ago) one has to have gone through training camp to be ready for the regular season. For the past year Working Anywhere has been in development in a semi stealth mode, not only as a blog, but as a way of working and living in a manner that is fun and enjoyable.

In some ways it started about the time I met my future wife, Helene as we began our dual city, Northern/Southern California living and travel arrangements. As we started to spend time together we decided that we would explore more (we dedicate one weekend a month to being elsewhere as a change of pace or around my business related activities) of the places that interested us, and where our friends were going to be. Along the way we quickly realized that ultra light Laptops, WiFi everywhere and being reachable and connected with cell phones (Helene is a doctor), Instant Messaging (we love Blackberry Messenger) to confirm who is running on time, when a flight is delayed, or in our case with Southwest making an earlier flight sometimes, would be some of the tools of the trade that lets us keep this Nomadic, Mobile, On the Go, but really at home just about everywhere lifestyle going as we have since the day we met. You see, we met when Helene was writing her notes on her Tablet PC in the lobby of the W in San Francisco, when after seeing her as I was walking through the lobby, I grabbed my laptop and joined her, striking up a conversation while I was blogging and the rest is history.

Working Anywhere means just that. It means making the place you are your office. I'm not the only one at this. Pal Gregory Markel of Infuse Creative makes use of Bryant Park and their WiFi when he's in New York City. I know coders and web developers who basically sit all day at the Solana Beach Starbucks having team meetings and writing web page code. Once I related to Kim Thompson of T-Mobile that Starbucks (before they turned the music up too loud) was Conference Room S as coffee shops and cafe's have indeed become extensions for small group meetings for those who don't have an office.

So here are some basic tips for Working Anywhere

1. Have a great laptop with WiFi. It needs to be light, fast and have a fingers friendly keyboard, a bright screen and easily fit in and out of a bag.

2. Have a great bag. I'm a fan of the bags of Booq and for long road trips the Waterfield bags from SFBags.com, especially the Piggyback that attaches to a laptop sleeve.

3. Make sure you have a headset. Personally as much as I like Bluetooth my choice is still the one Tom Keating turned me onto last year. A Plantronics DSP 100. Mine is battered and yet still works (i.e sounds great.) Of all the mics and headsets I've tried nothing comes close to Plantronics. For on the go, the Plantronics 640 Bluetooth is my choice as it works with the laptops and my mobile phones.

4. Have a travel router. Nothing is worse than having to sit in a stiff chair when the comfy bed is across the room. I'm a fan of the Linksys and Zyxel travel routers, but not the Netgear as they seem to "break" over time with some sort of memory leak issue. My secret to using them in hotels, suggested by an iBahn techie one day, was to make the access points SSID hidden. No one knows its there but you versus WEPing or WPAing and making it hard for friends to log on because your forget the key or worse, they need to type in a long one (or you do) at the time you need to be on NOW!

5. Have subscriptions with the major service providers for WiFi. Boingo, T-Mobile are usually enough. When I France I buy the month long pass and float from Orange Hotspot to Orange hotspot using one log in. When in London, between roaming with one of those two, or using The Cloud on an all day pass rate, it means I'm connected.

6. Cell phones--If you don't already have one, a Blackberry is the best all around utility played in the game. I also carry my Nokia N80i which has GizmoProject on in or use a Nokia E61 with TruPhone. I can make VoIP calls from hotspots as well as receive calls now. There is also the Nokia 770 Tablet and my trusty UT Starcomm i300. Using them, and not paying for calls using existing plans, now that's sweet.

7. Face Time--plan or unplanned, using SightSpeed video conferencing makes people seem like they are down the hall. Make sure you have a very good web cam and mic, or as David Beckemeyer of PhoneGnome likes to say, "buy a Mac." Helene likes her baby Sony Viao (VGN-180 P) which has awesome video. More laptops on the PC side are coming out with embedded web cams, so watch this market soar in 2007.

8. Network Access Membership--when you really need an office or a conference room this is just the ticket. $25 a month and what you pay for as you need it. Add to this a Priority Pass and get airline club access and avoid the crowds and work in peace and quiet.

9. Break up your day. Don't go non-stop. Enjoy a good meal. When I travel my meal times are set. They are appointments. So too is your working out. Both go a long way to making it more fun to be on the road, and eliminate the "cabin fever" feeling you can get when you stay inside all day.

10. Use conferencing to collaborate with your peers, colleagues and clients. Unyte works with Skype already and is doing gangbusters. Free Conference Call service abound via the web. One from VAPPS is supporting Skype, Gizmo and Yahoo already. Between a softphone and this, you can collaborate with a group on a planned or on the fly basis. I also make extensive use of Webley and AT&T Call Vantage's conference features.

So these are some starting points that make it easier and in many ways just like the office, with one exception..you're no longer bound...there will be more as I keep Working Anywhere so stay tuned...

Andy In the New York Times and Elsewhere On Working Anywhere

The timing of ZDNet's Mark Orchant's post could about my launching the Working Anywhere project could not have been better.

Call Mark clairvoyant, but his post was just a few hours ahead of the New York Times article that I was quoted in today about Hotel Broadband.

A few points I made to the reporter that didn't make the story.

1. I use VoIP tools a lot to stay in touch with colleagues, clients and friends. Right now Gizmo Project for Voice is the cat's meow for me as it's resident on the Nokia N80i and so so cool with some of the tricks I've got working via Grand Central. I'm also using TruPhone on my E61. Bottom line, while it's not Fixed Mobile Convergence the ability to make and receive phone calls via WiFi is a sweet deal using the same phone I'm using as my mobiles.

2. Video-I can't say it enough. SightSpeed lets me see the people I need to see when i need to see them, regardless of where I am, as long as there's broadband.

3. Unified Messaging....between Webley and GrandCentral I'm easily found or not found at all.

4. Web conferencing..Services like WebDialog's Unyte make presentations easy when you're on the road.

5. T-Mobile, Boingo and Wayport are the best wireless and broadband providers hotel to hotel, but the experience within hotel brands varies by location. Until the hotel operators get this right, the experience will never be the same twice.

6. Blocking of ports or bad router deployment. I run into some NAT traversal issues. Largely this is caused by just not knowing how to "wire up" the property the right ray. Double NATing leads to a less than happy customer experience.

7. The need for "bandwidth on demand." I related the story of being at DEMO in February and staying at the Pointe South Resort outside of Phoenix and the abysmal bandwidth we all had to live with. The hotel blamed a) some kids downloading music b) the ISP. WRONG. I called Wayport and learned that no one told them DEMO was going to be there. That was the hotel's fault. I actually went so far as to call Loews Hotels and shared my views with them. I hope things have improved. Bandwidth on Demand means it's there when you need it. My guess is that T-Mobile uses this approach.

8. My experiences in Europe. Consistently better. When in Munich last year I executed computer repairs with my assistant using SightSpeed. I could see what needed to be done and was able to guide her. This year hotels in France the times I've been over here have been stellar. Orange has it nailed. In Austria during Thanksgiving in 2005 the bandwidth was so good Ken Rutkowski remarked how much better I sounded vs. being in Del Mar.

More in the next post of Tips On Working Anywhere..

Working Anywhere: Video And Planning

Peter makes some good points about pre-planning not being necessary to have meaningful video communications.

To me, the point is, there isn't much difference in having a video call versus a chat or a phone call. That is if you are following the Boy Scout's moto, of always be prepared.

Here are my six tips:

1. Drop vanity. If you need to worry about how you look, darling, lose the cam, drop ten pounds, and realize you're not getting any better despite what your hair dresser has to say.

2. Get a cool hat. Nothing makes you more ill at ease than a bad hair day (unless it's a hangover). So find a cool hat. In my book it's a baseball cap, and make it part of your signature. If bad hair is your usual look, then by all means, get on the cam and let everyone know it.

3. Realize you're you. Don't change your attire if you work at home in your bathrobe and slippers. Just make sure your robe is appropriate for the time of the call. Of course cool sweats or a "signature" sweatshirt could also be best. Bottom line is "be comfortable" and forget the camera is the reason you have to look "marvelous" and realize that it's the content that matters, not the visual.

4. Have great lighting. I'm amazed at how much sharper video conferencing can be with better light. Case in point, a few days ago David Spark of eWeek and I had a SightSpeed conversation while I was in a darker than desired cafe. Fortunately there was enough screen light and SightSpeed worked like a champ. Later in a full light situation I know how much better my image was. Bottom line..light up baby and let the sunshine in!!

5. Learn how to multitask on camera. I know, people think you're not paying attention, but having had tons of face to face meetings with multitaskers, especially younger ones lately and real tech wonks who found speaking is a late blooming feature addition, if all you're doing is looking at them, it makes them think you're not working, not taking notes, and just listening. Some also get weirded out as they think you're staring.

6. Don't get hung up on what you don't do well. Case in point. Since everyone is not a touch typist, being able to type, and surf and reply to other forms of messaging while being part of a video chat has to become almost automatic. It's no longer rude to be doing that. It's the person on the other end who has to become a multitasker too. So, don't worry about it..Just be yourself all the time and don't let the camera change your habits.

One point though that I semi-disagree with Peter about on in his post is regarding mobile video. Mobile video is already here. The Nokia Nseries whose blogger program we run already has full motion video on the handsets and in real 3G environments works great. Just ask Howard Thaw of iotum who I used it with back during VON Europe when we were in Sweden. It worked great and is here today, even if it isn't here in North America. The problem in the USA isn't the technology or the lack of it. It's the carriers in the USA who are holding things back. Another example is what friend Rodrigo has done with VPOD.TV. More than a site, VPOD is really a tuner per se of video content. On a mobile you can shoot your own video, upload and watch it as well as let others see it to.

Bottom line..Video is becoming the next wave of two way communications. It's an the next step in the chain of voice, text messaging and the best way to really show the world who you really are.