We are becoming more mobile than ever before, thanks to technology that lets us interact personally and professionally in diverse, fluid ways. While there are ample reports to confirm this truth, one needs only look around while out and about to know it’s accurate. Everywhere, people are texting, taking photos and forwarding, checking email and even, well, talking using their multi-functional phones–Blackberries, iPhones and the like. Now, even netbooks and slimline laptops also make it easier to make great use of mobile broadband, enabling users to be fully functional while on the go.
Parks Associates, a Texas-based research firm specializing in”digital living technologies,” was widely quoted earlier this year as it announced that mobile broadband users will top 140 million by 2013. Likewise, a 2008 report from comScore, Inc. reported that Americans accessing the Internet via mobile broadband lept by 154% in 2007. The comScore report noted that 59% of users were using the technology for work purposes, versus 41% for personal use. Suffice to say, this versatile capability is increasingly impacting our everyday lives in more integrated ways. Read the rest of this entry »
Sometimes the words “start-up,” “entrepreneur” and “small business” can conjure images of fledgling dreamers setting up shop in their apartments, struggling to pay student loans while launching their big ideas.
These days we marvel about how technology has torn down barriers to global business. Of course, the first hints of a global economy hearken back to early exploration accomplished by adventurous, curious (and often opportunistic) souls traversing worldly waters by ship. Many moons later, we figured out things like international air travel, telephone communications and so on. Then that aforementioned technology started really kicking in—computers, the Internet, mobile devices, and the game altered dramatically.
In-boxes (especially those wood ones actually labeled “IN”). Fake ficus trees in office lobbies. Snail mail. Normal business hours. First generation Palm Pilots. Fax machines.
Anyone who’s a fan of the TV show Seinfeld likely recalls the episode in which Kramer, Jerry’s affable and laughable neighbor, decides to hire a college intern to help him with his various ‘enterprises.’ Eventually the college advisor terminates the internship because it became clear the student was working for “a solitary man with a messy apartment that may or may not contain a chicken.” Even still, the intern came back to eagerly help his eccentric boss. That was a devoted assistant!