Rolling out…

Well, I’ve managed to finish downloading my files and roll out a fix to our internal application so its time to hit the road. Now - which road would that be exactly?

Where to next? Ashland, Oregon.

I was going to hang around in San Francisco tonight so that I could head out to Alcatraz for a night tour but it doesn’t look like I can get on one so I am going to drive up to Oregon tonight. I’ll probably make it to Ashland before I pull over. The reason that I am choosing Ashland has more to do with the fact that I know that there is a Starbucks there (which means T-Mobile hotspot).

Before I head off though there are two things I need to do:

1. Finish downloading Microsoft Expression Design.
2. Code and deploy an update to our internal Q2 application.
3. See the Golden Gate Bridge.

Let’s see how quick I can get it done and get on the road.

Co-working and trust.

I’m sitting under my umbrella at Sandbox Suites and noticed that three of the people that are based here today locked their machines, got up and walked out for an hour or so (in fact I stepped out for an hour myself).

This made me think about the implications of working in a shared facility where people can just drop in and out. I’d say that a lot of people that work in co-working locations are carrying around a laptop, often valued between $1,500 and $5,000 dollars along with a bunch of other geeky accoutrements.

For a remote worker that kit is their life. If they loose it they have probably lost at least a days work but most likely more, but they have also lost their means of production which not only costs money, but also costs time to get back up and running.

So what is the upshot? Well co-working locations need to be someone selective with who they let through the doors. Most people are honest, but it only takes one person to ruin it. I wonder how co-working facilities deal with this - do they recommend people pack up every time they go for coffee or lunch, or to a meeting?

I guess that is why you might opt for a private office if you are in the one spot regularly.

Love Your Developers

Someone e-mailed this MISaustralia podcast (The Scoop). Not sure who it was, come on fess up). Anyway it was a fascinating insight into the role of developers within an organisation. Definitely worth listening to.

Sandbox Suites

When people hear me talk about sandboxes they usually think I am talking about the directory that I put my source files. This time however I am talking about Sandbox Suites, a co-working location in San Francisco that I found via the co-working wiki (once again). The picture above is of the “desk” that I am working from for the next couple of hours until Australia wakes up and I can make a few quick business calls.

Sandbox Suites is different to BLANKSPACES which I wrote about earlier in the week. BLANKSPACES has a slightly more modern corporate feel to it than Sandbox Suites, whereas Sandbox Suites feels a little bit more like a creative agency layout with a twist of cafe (that is the umbrellas doing that I think).

The space is divided between an upstairs and downstairs. I haven’t been upstairs but I am led to believe that there are private suites up there (fully populated presently). Downstairs there are currently six people including myself and the guy on the front desk.

Getting access to the facility was easy. I could have just dropped in, but I also used their online reservation service which is hosted on top of Genbook. It was relatively simply to use, just select the service I wanted (1-day free drop in) and then the time that I was going to be arriving.

When I came to San Francisco I actually wanted to go and visit Citizen Space, however I wasn’t able to get through via e-mail or on the local or mobile numbers listed. I think that this is one of the challenges of the more casual co-working locations because it requires a fair degree of coordination to get in and start working.

The spaces in which you can choose to work exist on a spectrum ranging from professional serviced offices to your mates living room.

I’ve taken a stab at placing the co-working locations I have mentioned on this trip on the spectrum, although you may not necessarily agree (note I haven’t actually visited Citizen Space, this is just from what I can garner from their web-site).

It is also fair to say that Unurban is not really a co-working location but more a cafe with a very regular crowd (which didn’t seem to arrive until 6pm). In reality there are multiple dimensions that co-working locations can be rated against. I’ve taken a stab at how that could be visualised.

The other thing to remember is that one persons professionalism is another persons creativity blocker. I wonder if it would be possible to gather a list of all the co-working locations globally and get people to rate them and then use the aggregated data (as well as peoples personal preferences) to come up with a recommendation system.

Possibly something for the Versatile Worker site that I will soon be launching (whoops, cats out of the bag).

Windows Mobile 6.1 announced.

Here is an announcement on the Windows Mobile team blog about Windows Mobile 6.1. It looks like they are heading in the right direction, but they still have some ways to go before they catch up to the sex appeal of the iPhone.

It will be interesting to see which vendors allow their devices to be upgraded with a ROM update and which don’t. I hope that the i-mate Ultimate will get an update - but who knows…

On the Road to San Francisco

Last night I stayed in Goleta just north of Santa Barbara. I headed off at about 9am this morning and started driving north on US Route 101. Along the way I decided to take the slightly longer route and get onto the old Highway 1. Along the way I drove into a town called Lompoc. The photo above was taken from a church carpark on the way out of town. One of the things that I loved about Lompoc was that it is nestled behind a set of hills and mountains so when you drive in and out of the town you feel like you really are isolated (in reality however Lompoc would easily be larger than the town I grew up in - Caboolture).

I decided to get breakfast in Lompoc which comprised on bacon, eggs and a hash brown and a bottomless cup of coffee. If I am ever back this way again I’ll definately stop by the cafe again, I got a real taste of American hospitality and it was just like a TV show with the local old boys all sitting up at the counter for their morning catch up. In all my previous trips to the USA I hadn’t quite had that experience yet and it was one of the things I was looking forward to finding this time.

One thing that I haven’t been able to find so far today is a wireless connection so I am writing this particular post offline. I was hoping the cafe would have have wireless but I quickly realised that it wasn’t from this century (which was kinda refreshing). Right now I am sitting in a McDonalds having a break from the driving (no wireless here either).

Adjusting to miles as a unit of measurement is actually quite difficult. Each time I pass a road sign I read it as if it is in kilometres and think “not far now” when in reality I’ve still got a ways to go.

Anyway - I’ve had my bite to eat, its time to get back on the road, I am hoping that I can make San Francisco tonight, but I’ve been really enjoying the scenery on the way up.

NB: This is a time delayed post because I couldn’t get WiFi, I am now in San Francisco but don’t want to re-write the post