Grind TV has a nice summary about the Roam Co-working and co-living operation that currently have three properties up and running in Madrid, Miami and Bali. The company, which is promising more locations in the near future, has raised over $3 million dollars to fuel property acquisition and growth around the globe.
Far more than a hostel or hotel, Roam is creating workspace/livespace communities for the digital nomadic community at relatively modest prices. Given the locations, $500 a week or $1800 a month for a private room and all the co-working facilities is fairly reasonable, especially given the promise of blazing fast, business grade Wi-Fi and Internet connectivity, and a full-time on site manager.
The winds of change in work, travel and residential living are here now, and properties like Roam and WeLive from WeWork are going to become the next phase in work, life, reside. It's only a matter of time and place.
I'll admit, that I love to go to Starbucks as my "get away" from the home office office. Meeting are easy to arrange at their locations, as most people in the technology world know where one is. So of late, after returning from my exhaustive 6 week European business trip and mini-vacation, I found my Starbucks card in my USA wallet, not my EU/UK version. And guess what, I've yet to switch back.
But after a week of using "cash" I remembered I had the Starbucks Mobile Card app on my iPhone (it also works on the iPad and iPod touch) so between that app, and my drivers license, a headset with mic and an Amex card, who needs more? I mean, you can do just about everything you need to do away from the office on the iPhone, iPod touch or iPad that's work related. I can check email, surf the web, make VoIP and Skype calls over the AT&T WiFI and of course get caffinated to go back to the home office and do more work.
With apps like GoToMeeting, Calliflower and WebEx, even virtual meetings are possible in what I've dubbed Conference Room S for many years.
So while you can only have the Starbucks Mobile Card active on one iOS device, it does mean my wallets a lot thinner. Digital...if you're not.. Wake up and smell the coffee.
This makes me wonder sometime why others like Wal-Mart, BestBuy, Target, Vons and other so called forward thinking retailers haven't gone to the digital bar code app, that ties together the frequent buyer club data, with a digital wallet. Forget the emerging idea of NFC (near field communications) the implementation of the digital bar code by Starbucks inside an iPhone app and it's ties to their loyalty program and balance recharge program is just plain dumb, simple. It works, and it works very well. As a matter of fact between that and the Mobil/Exxon SpeedPass the whole idea of going cashless without a "credit card" seems a lot more personalized.
Pal Tom Keating tipped me off to the news that Electronista broke about the MSI Wind Netbook being sold soon at Best Buy.
Joanna Stern at Laptop Magazine has been a very big fan of the MSI Wind for sometime, so it's on my hit list of NetBooks to acquire. I'm already very pleased with the Acer Aspire One and the Asus line of EEE PCs, most of all with the Asus EEE PC 1000 HD, so in looking at the Wind, the specs seem to match up nicely, and at a much more favorable price point.
Now, you might be asking why someone who is using a Mac Book Air as his primary road warrior and Global Nomad weapon of choice needs a NetBook.
Simple. Size and weight. When I'm out tooling around town I want to have something a big smaller and less obtrusive. What's more if someone spills coffee on a Netbook it's only a $500 loss versus over $2000. What's more, is they keep me well aware of Windows apps and how they work as well as giving me access on the go via a 3G wireless card. Since they have solid audio and video capabilities, they are ideal "communicators" for the on the go worker, who needs to keep in touch, or to make presentations from.
In a nutshell, the Netbooks are an ideal way to stay connected without a heavy price tag.
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