A REPORT FROM THE FRONT LINES of the comfy-chair revolution: My TechCentralStation column is up.
UPDATE: Reader Chris Driggers emails:
As a resident of Athens and a certified tech geek by trade, I can attest to the accuracy of your observations. The Cloud is a recent phenomenon, but even before it was put in place, you couldn’t go anywhere downtown without having to elbow your way through throngs of people with their laptops. I began to notice that establishments were actually paying money for electricians and carpenters to rearrange their floor plans to accommodate more ‘walking offices’, such as installing more power outlets. And even before the Cloud was up, most places that catered to loiterers already had some type of free wi-fi.
What strikes me as more significant is the fact that places that are not located downtown are installing wi-fi and actively catering to folks like me. I think by limiting your comparison to the chain bookstores, you may be missing the real growth that is taking place in this area. Wi-fi is so cheap for a business to install that it really damages a business not to have it, and especially local businesses that may be competing with chains are quick to take advantage of this edge. We have a Starbuck’s and they are using a type of wi-fi that is not free, and you see fewer people with laptops sitting in there.
Speaking as a very busy computer tech, anything that keeps me from having to go back to the office to check my email is a good thing. I can go for days without having to go back to the office. I let my pda synchronize whenever I have something new and I stay on top of my appointments. Hopefully this trend will lead towards a more flexible and comfortable work environment.
Indeed. And the free model seems to be the way to go. I’m in a Barnes & Noble right now, where they’ve (finally) installed wi-fi — but it’s pay wi-fi so I’m using the Verizon cellmodem instead. And worse, it’s pay wi-fi on a different provider than the Borders uses, adding to the hassle factor. It does seem that the local businesses have caught on faster to the free-factor: Most of the free wi-fi places in Knoxville are independent, rather than chains.
Meanwhile, reader John MacDonald emails this link to an article on the trend I describe, which calls it “hotelling.”