Forgetfulness is the enemy of the road warrior. One of my biggest challenges is remembering what I’ve learned over 25 years of being on the road. 

I don’t know if the following ideas will be new or unique, but I do believe they’ll be important and helpful reminders:

• Be kind to travel industry employees even when you’d like to beat them with a stick. Don’t fight jerk behavior with jerk behavior. I know how hard it is. I ashamedly have lost my cool in the past and am doing better in my advancing years. I just wish I had learned this lesson earlier.
• Quit complaining. Can you think of a time when whining made you feel better? It isn’t catharsis. I have found that even other inconvenienced travelers aren’t sympathetic to anything vaguely resembling whining. You might think you’re commiserating with like-minded folks; they think you’re bitching and moaning.
• Bring dead time back to life. I’ve learned that the quicker I get over being frustrated or upset, the quicker I can become engaged and productive. Time spent in a funk would be better spent reading, returning calls, writing reports, etc.
• Have a plan. This seems like travel basics 101 but I’m surprised how many road warriors don’t have a plan for when travel goes bad. Keep needed travel numbers programmed in your phone, familiarize yourself with alternative flights or travel arrangement in advance and think ahead.
• Accept that there are no guarantees. You can have the best plans and be extremely travel savvy and still get screwed. Hope springs eternal in the road warrior and we sometimes mistake optimism for control over the situation. Being proactive is largely a myth; as travelers we are interactive: we don’t control the stuff that happens but we interact with those circumstances to create the outcome we desire. Sometimes, however, the circumstances win.

I trust that these travel tips will be of some value to you and will help you avoid some of the less pleasant aspects of being a digital nomad.

One lonely night in a hotel room far, far away … I decided to share my essential executive travel gear.

I like to be prepared on the road to an obsessive degree. I hope one of these things saves your hide one time.

For making speeches

1. Cough drops

2. Throat spray

3. Bookmarks featuring my book and blog (for fans I meet, or when end up next to Oprah on the flight and need to impress her quick).

4. Happy Face buttons for nice people I meet.

5. Travel clock to put on the podium. Nothing ruins a speech more than going over time.

6. Logitech Cordless Presenter — essential: it has a timer on the front, so you can pace your speech.

Music

8. NXT speakers — fills your hotel room with sound, weighs nothing. Be sure to look for NXT technology.

9. Shure Sound-Isolating Earphones — Don’t get the gimmicky electronic noise reduction headphones. Get sound isolating earphones like professional musicians use.

10. iPod

Gear

11. Eagle Creek Packing Cubes — amazingly useful.

12. iPod charger and video output to show movies on hotel TV.

13. Batteries for laptop, remotes, cell phone.

14. Power splitter will make you a hero at the airport, and helps in those one-outlet hotel rooms.

Paperwork & Organizers

15. Thank you notes to write.

16. Envelope for receipts.

17. Fold-up shopping bags to carry stuff.

18. Plastic folders for paperwork.

Entertainment

19. Harvard Business Review so people think you’re smart.

20. Books, fiction and non-fiction.

21. Mindless movies

More Gear

22. $30,000 in unmarked small bills (not shown).

23. Earplugs

24. USB stick – Copy all important documents to this before the trip. Keep another one in your pocket.

25. Ick remover

26. Zebra F-301 pen — the greatest $2 pen on earth.

27. Field Notes notepad

28. Clipboard — lifesaver in many situations, and handy for keeping a hot laptop off your lap.

My business is pretty much 100 percent Internet-enabled. I do all my “paid” work from a small, cheap office in an equally small and cheap town in the high West Texas desert, about 400 miles West of Austin. It’s the frugal, Highland Scots in me - I abhor expensive overhead expenses.

Though most of what I do is about monetizing the cartoons I draw online, I still need to regularly visit with clients, customers and allies. Like any sales rep will tell you, there’s no substitute for face time.

But from out here in west Texas, it pretty much takes a full day’s travel to get anywhere, often more. Seven hours to drive to Austin. A four-hour drive to the El Paso Airport. A three-hour drive to the Midland-Odessa airport. Then all the hassle of catching a plane to London, New York, Miami, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Paris, maybe with an overnight stop-over (just to mention a few of the places my work has taken me recently). Add the cost of hotels, cocktail bars, restaurants, jet lag, taxicabs and all the other stuff we’re all too familiar with, and it starts adding up. My business is tiny, compared to what it costs me to do my thing here in West Texas, the “burn rate” is off the scale.

And then there’s productivity. Sure, when I travel I can e-mail folk on my Blackberry, present a PowerPoint or two, but the REAL WORK I do, the drawings, can only really be done from my office in West Texas. Simply put, my work dictates that I have LOTS of time to think. I personally find that hard to achieve in a taxicab between La Guardia and downtown Manhattan.

There’s a certain paradox to face time. Any college freshman can see the value of it, its actual economics continually confound the smartest minds on the planet.

So how do I handle it? Short Answer: brutal honesty. I tell my people, look, I can travel only one week a month, and that’s it. The remaining 3 weeks I HAVE TO BE back here in West Texas, to give me enough time and mental space in order to do my job. If you and I can’t work around this limitation, then I’m afraid I’m not really the person for you.

I’m fortunate that most clients are cool with this. They can relate, as with all ambitious people over the age of fourteen these days, they’re over-extended in their own way as well. And the ones who aren’t cool with it, I immediately tag them as “Intellectually Dishonest,” and drop them quickly.

The other part of the equation is knowing when face time will actually pay off. Sure, it’s nice to go visit Mr. Fabulous Client up in New York and have a great conversation over a fine, wine-enabled, three-course meal, but will that actually justify the cost, in terms of both travel expenses and lost productivity? Sometimes yes, but all too often, it sadly will not.

So I try to limit my face time to ONLY WHEN I have something very tangible to offer, something that can either deepen the relationship, and/or evolve the actual work we’re doing together. Or yeah, something tangible to actually sell. For money. I may be an “artiste,” but I still have a business to run.

This is no different than any other business. You have to make stuff to get paid, you have to sell stuff to get paid. How do you achieve the balance? How do you find the sweet spot between “Make” and “Sell”? Trial and error, and perhaps a bit of luck. But no amount of gee-whiz, hyper-connected technology is going make that sweet spot appear any less elusive.

In the new age of mobility, the mental state of “work” is changing. Work is home, home is work, and you’re never really away from anything when you’re traveling. With the benefits of flexibility come some major challenges as well. Some of the biggest challenges include staying focused, productive, and balanced. After hundreds of interviews with free-range workers, we’ve identified a few best practices for working without boundaries.

Stay Focused: Use Weekdays for Execution, Weekends for Inspiration
If Thomas Edison was right when he said that genius is “1% inspiration and 99% perspiration,” then we should question why creative people – especially freelancers - spend so much time brainstorming and “seeking inspiration.” A few especially productive freelancers interviewed by Behance claim that they use every weekday for execution and preserve their weekends for inspiration and “unfocused thinking.” This is not to suggest that weekdays should be void of creativity, but rather that we should focus on moving the ball forward during the week and then contemplating the ball itself on the weekend!

After all, weekends are spent out of the typical flow of work and are more relaxing and conducive for thinking of new ideas. Consider keeping your weekdays for relentless execution and then your weekends for reflection.

Stay Productive: Measure Your Progress in Action Steps
You can fill your day with deep thoughts, back-to-back meetings, and extensive planning — and still fail to actually make progress on your projects. Ultimately, achievement starts with taking action. As such, we believe that people should work with a bias towards action. This means that you should focus less on note taking and organizing and more on simply capturing and completing action steps. When our team was developing ActionMethod (an online productivity tool), we interviewed some of the most productive creative people we could find across industries. One commonality we discovered was an obsession with intricate to-do lists. Daily rituals of reviewing and re-writing lists of action steps were not uncommon. As you decide how to spend your time, consider the argument that JUST capturing and completing action steps (yet alone anything else) might put you in the top 5% of productive professionals!

Stay Balanced: Compartmentalize Your Work & Your Thoughts
One consequence of mobility is the ability to “always check.”  Your email and voicemail are easily accessible, and your tendency is to want to check it. When you get up in the morning or before you go to bed, your blackberry flirts with you via the subtle blinking LED light – and you decide to take a quick peak. The integration of work and life becomes troublesome when we fail to set limits.

The precious period of peace you have before or after work is easily tainted by a quick glimpse of your work. Even if you spend just five minutes checking email, the messages themselves remain in your mind. Inevitably, your time unplugged becomes consumed by work-related thoughts. The best practice is to only check your work when you’re willing to be in a “work state of mind” for at least 2 hours afterwards.

I’ve spent the last 30 years with three global corporations. I’ve traveled several million miles around the world. I’ve lived in Switzerland, France and twice in the United States. I am a digital nomad, a global digital nomad.

I’ve been technologically savvy for some time, well before we even had mobile devices. I grew up with microprocessors in 1977 at Motorola Europe because it was great to have an interactive dialogue with a machine. During my studies in the 70s, I was programming in Fortran and we used the first ‘windows’ system. At the time you had to knock on the window, an operator would open it and you would hand over your programming cards… :), it was VERY intuitive.

Well, back to the future. What practical tips have I learned along the way?

Let’s start with today’s two fundamental enablers: your mobile phone, which should be a PDA or smartphone (if you don’t have one, I’d suggest getting one) and your laptop.

In both cases, the most important aspects of these devices to have well-organized and complete are your contacts and your calendar. Make sure you enter your phone number using the international format, that is + then (country code) and then the (number). My number is +1 512 426-4037. I’d also suggest you write it this way on your business card or e-mail signature. That way when you travel abroad, you don’t have to figure out what the international outside code is in the country you are in.

Then make sure you understand time zone differences - most PDA phones provide that information. You also might want to check the setting and enable the time change by the carrier so wherever you are, your phone displays the local time.

On your laptop, assuming you use Microsoft Outlook, you have a dual-time feature that is very handy. Just right click on your calendar in the vertical time column and use the option “Change time Zone” and in the new menu enter the time zone you are in and click the show dual time zone.

If you use Apple’s iCal , other time zone are available on the right top corner or when you enter an appointment.

Assuming you have to set-up conference calls with people in different time zones, I suggest you use the meeting planner that is available for free here. It is quite handy.

If you have multiple geographies in which you do business, you can extract the data on a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to reformat it and print. See an extract of my version here for winter times for the regions in which I do most of my business.

Now that we’ve talked about the importance of keeping your contacts, calendars and time zones right, let’s look at your hardware. The two most important areas are your power supplies (Laptop, phones, etc…) and your Internet Connectivity.

For the power supply, in addition to carrying a universal plug adaptor, always carry an extension cord with a multi-plug end. Power plugs in hotels or conference rooms are seldomly located in convenient places and I’m confident you won’t regret the little bit of extra weight in your luggage. Make sure you have a power supply that does not require a ground pin and that it is light. My personal view is that the laptop makers still have work to do lighten the weight of their power supplies.

Finally, connecting to the Internet is a real challenge is some parts of the world. I was very happy when I had my Nokia 61E, which provides 3G and Internet modem capability on a worldwide basis. Now that I am on iPhone, I’m in Net jail, as the iPhone doesn’t allow modem capability. Yes you can buy a broadband adaptor but that only works for the USA and is costly (pure highway robbery when you already pay for a data plan with your phone).

Or you get a 3G card or get on a WiFi global plan that some companies provide. International communications costs can kill you or your company so you have to get smarter — find free WiFi spots and in most hotels it is in their lobby or the conference room floor. Have a hands-free headset and make your international calls using Skype from your laptop if you need to call landline or mobile phones. If your colleague is on a PC or Mac, you can use common instant messaging (IM) services such as iChat or Microsoft Messenger (MSN). When traveling, use Skype or IM with your family, do regular video calls with your PC or Mac to stay in touch with your loved ones. After all, while pictures are worth a thousand words, video is what really makes you realize what a small world we live in.

Throughout this post, I have assumed you are fluent in setting up your wireless connection and know about proxy and all these good things. If not, ask your IT support person, or perhaps your son our daughter :).

Well, there is more to talk about such as printing while on the road (always carry a USB key so you can use someone else’s computer), internal country codes, credit card dialing, insurance while traveling, currencies, the must-know issues about the local culture but that will be for another time.

Globally nomadically yours.

Jean-Claude

Jimmy Wales is the founder of Wikipedia, the open -content encyclopedia that launched in 2001. You’ve likely heard of it, and used it, almost every day for the past few years. Whenever you search for something, more oft than not, the Wikipedia entry is the first thing that comes up.   His work with Wikipedia, which has become the world’s largest encyclopedia, prompted Time magazine to name him in its 2006 list of the world’s most influential people. Wales has graciously appeared on Big Think a couple of times, and has always been eloquent about how technology is shaping our lives. Here he is, speaking about the importance of about mobile personal technology and how Wikipedia will adapt to mobile devices in the future.

This interview is part of a series on BigThink, sponsored by Dell and Digital Nomads.

I often hear friends and colleagues, generally people on the cutting edge of social media and technology, remark that we are ‘living in the future,’ i.e. we have available to us many of the daily conveniences that were the staples of science fiction in times past. As exciting as it is to be a digital nomad in real life in the early 21st century, it’s important to keep in mind that you never really know where you are unless you also know where you came from. So let’s take a look at the top 10 digital nomads of our collective imagination. These are the imaginary people who fueled the dreams that generated the innovation that made digital nomads today a reality.

1. Sam Beckett

The hero of Quantum Leap was bodily trapped in the future, but his mind jumped from person to person (and sometimes non-person), across space and time, requiring him to uncover and then right some mysterious wrong in each episode. Once he solves the latest problem, he “leaps” to the next, always incrementally moving back to the life he left behind.

Amazingly, Sam’s far-flung nomadic lifestyle still comes with a boss. Al (Dean Stockwell) appears as a holographic projection, feeding Sam parameters for each assignment, clarifying his objectives, and providing any necessary background info.

Advantage: Sam can’t be fired. Disadvantage: He can’t quit. Also, no downtime between projects.

2. Michael Knight

One benefit of working for “The Foundation” is that your company car is equipped with all the tools you need to do your job, and includes an automated secretary/chaeufer that can place calls, handle nasty traffic problems, and do some quick and dirty research on clients you’re on the way to have meetings with.

Another perk: when you need to meet with your boss, he actually comes to you, in a mobile office built into the back of a semi.

3. J.F. Sebastian

Genetic designers for the Tyrell Corporation get to work at home, which is particularly cool if you live in the Bradbury Building. It’s understood that the mini-androids you create with your 20% time will stay in your residence as personal assistants, which will help keep you in touch with any user experience issues they may be having (e.g. walking into walls). While my CEO follows me on Twitter, J.F.’s plays remote chess with him while he’s riding the company elevator in the middle of the night; talk about getting personal attention from the top.

Advantages: Home office, occasional visits to corporate headquarters in cool pyramid building. Disadvantages: You are also front-line tech support, which can lead to some unpleasant confrontations.

4. John Connor

Giving new meaning to “be your own boss,” Connor is destined to be the leader of the the resistance movement that protects humanity from a race of evil robots.

The biggest downside is that his subordinates owe their allegiance, not to him, but to his future self, a detail they often use to “manage up” and leverage their own agenda. He can’t be fired, but there is a constant threat of having his position eliminated as the result of a hostile takeover.

5. Ethan Hunt

Hunt enjoys extreme sports such as rope-free inverted rock climbing, and his company allows him to manage his own time, provided that he stays constantly on call. Unfortunately, all the time he spends outside the office sometimes leaves him out of the loop, and then he has to put in overtime in order to preserve his standing in the organization. Ah, water cooler politics. They follow you everywhere.

6. Dick Tracy

We all know guys like Dick. He’s the grizzled older co-worker who goes through the motions of embracing the latest technology without really understanding what it does. Back in the day, his two-way wrist radio was the stuff of legends. When he upgraded to a two-way wrist TV, his younger co-workers all had to admit it was a cool UI, even if the cost of running it was greater than his salary. About the time his organization was finally ready to deploy the infrastructure to support the TV, Dick started strutting around the office, showing off his “two-way wrist computer.” None of the younger detectives even asked what that meant; they all just winced and looked away.

7. Neo

Instant on-the-job training, unlimited access to company resources (awesome supply closet known as “the construct”), and a designer wardrobe are some of the advantages of working for Morpheus. Morpheus is also very supportive of promotional opportunities, even to the point where he ties back his own goals to the furthering of his subordinates. (When asked about his meeting with the head of HR, Morpheus remarked simply: “She told me I would find the One.”) But beware: working in such a progressive environment can really rip the wool from your eyes. Talk about seeing how the sausage is made.

8. Doctor Who

With the ultimate mobile office (transdimensional engineering makes it bigger on the inside than the outside), The Doctor can literally set his own hours. His supervisors, which he once saw as meddlesome micro-managers, have all been released from duty. However, the burden of carrying the whole infrastructure on his own shoulders is often hard to bear, resulting in a constant shuffling of personal assistants, each of whom is constantly torn between resigning due to stress, and toughing it out in order to benefit from the intense on-the-job training and the frequent trips to exotic locations.

9. Flynn

Previously discussed here. Much like Neo, Flynn’s nomadic lifestyle is both completely virtual and completely involuntary, but he quickly shows himself to be a natural. As a former engineer, working his way back into his former employer’s company as a consultant proves difficult. But Flynn’s first-hand knowledge of user experience, plus all the time he’s had to play ultimate frisbee, clearly gives him an edge. He’s also an excellent diplomat, interfacing successfully with both IT workers and the software they create.

10. Oh heck, you caught me. Number 10 hasn’t been chosen. Who should it be? David Banner? Speed Racer? Wonder Woman?

Neo image by NightRPStar

At early-burly tomorrow morning, my family and I load up our car and make the too-many-hours drive to Colorado for a few days of skiing with some friends. As I thought about my need to get completely off the grid for a few days, I also wrestled with my need to keep abreast of what’s going on in the world: do I have any DMs on Twitter? - what’s going on back at the office? - is there snow in the forecast? will it hit 80 again in Texas? - where’s the next Starbucks coffee? - was that the sound of an e-mail in my inbox?

Ok, so I’m guessing I won’t go completely off the grid.

I’ll have my trusty road companion, my Garmin Nuvi 260w GPS device. My wife has a new iPhone (Christmas present), so of course that has to make the trip. I’ve got my new Latitude E6400 laptop (souped up and red to kick) and that has to make the trip. While we’re at it, my wife will have to bring her MacBook (yes, I said it, we’re a mixed household - she chose the black MacBook). My Nikon D40 D-SLR will be packed (this is the first time my kids have ever gone skiing). My Kodak Zi6 HD handheld video camera will go as well - I’ll be looking across the ski lodge for ’skiing digital nomads’ to try to capture some interviews while there. And of course, we’ll almost need an extra bag for all the assorted power cords and chargers that go along with all these devices.

But my valuable piece of gear for this trip? My pocket-sized Moleskine pad. I use it to keep my gas logs, make a quick note of something I need to take care of when I get back to the office, ask my wife to write down a note or address for me. There’s so much that little thing can be used for. I’ve already made a few notes that I need to take with me that are just so much more handy to have down in ink or graphite, rather than in 1s and 0s. The phone number for the auto parts store that is holding the snow chains for me. The mileage we started at so we know exactly how many miles we drove on this trip. And while I’m skiing, the beauty of the snow and mountains may inspire me to write down a few thoughts. Couldn’t do that on a Mini 9, at least not easily.

If anyone knows who leads the marketing department at Crested Butte, let him/her know I’m coming that way and would love to see what technology the ski patrol keeps inside the snowcats. There’s got to be a laptop inside those things.

I’ll be back in touch after a few days of skiing - hopefully with all my limbs intact. Happy Holidays to all!

When I first started working from home, the concept was new to many people.  No one got it, especially my boss.   However, the company I worked for at the time was small (50 employees) and they didn’t want or need an actual office presence, so I worked from my Dad’s house in suburban Chicagoland.

2 years went by and I decided it was time to move on.  It was the year 2000 (or thereabouts) and after being addicted to the work-at-home flexibility, ‘remote capabilities’ became a key criteria in my job search.  No longer did I want to be held captive in a cube where I felt (or at least convinced myself) that creativity died.   I latched on to a great company and quickly excelled.   I spoke to my manager on a daily basis, not because I needed coaching, but because she wanted to keep tabs on the ‘guy that works from home”.   Alas, remote capabilities did not mean remote trust.

I recall the day that she asked us to install Microsoft’s consumer-based instant messaging client.  I had been using it for a while already but I was excited that she was turning the corner on collaboration, flexibility,etc.  Later, I found out that the install had a single purpose:  to determine what time her team logged into their PCs.   Laughable, yes, but it was part of her evolution.  This is indeed a function of presence and the anywhere/anytime mindset.  She wasn’t using it to it full capability, but nevertheless, the use of technology helped her manage a remote team.

I stayed with that company for 5 years and left in pursuit of a higher paycheck.  Like my last job search, working remote - at will - was a key requirement.  After a rather short search (in 2006) I found what I wanted.  More money, better sales job, and yes - work where you want!

Today, I speak to my boss perhaps once per week and it’s because I am negotiating a deal or otherwise need his title to advance my cause.  I work absolutely anywhere I want and the guy doesn’t care.  ‘Get your job done, hit your numbers, and you can work from Mexico if you want”.  Quite a leap of faith.

Oddly, my manager today is upwards of 60 years old and he gets it.  The boss that tracked my time like a hawk was only 30.  Different strokes for different folks I guess, but it’s proof that adoption of this nomad culture is not only for new tech companies, nimble start-ups, or the kid that just graduated.  It’s for any person or any company that wants to broaden the candidate pool they search for skilled workers.

Julia Allison is a self-proclaimed “New Media Personality and Journalist.” And it’s only within the last few years that the first title even become possible — in part, thanks to her–but also because of the latest in mobilizing and Web 2.0 technology. You can follow the Internet star’s life through her columns in Time Out New York, through her constant “Twittering,” and through the blog she created on her Internet start-up, NonSociety. “I’m an early adopter,” she insists, of digital technologies that have helped to popularize new sites like Twitter and Bebo. Julia is now a recognized expert in using new media to create and perpetuate a personal brand online. We spoke to Julia yesterday about how digital technology has enabled, well, Julia Allison.

This interview is part of a series on BigThink, sponsored by Dell and Digital Nomads.

Stephan Jenkins is the lead singer and songwriter of the hugely popular alt rock band Third Eye Blind. Under his leadership, the band has sold over 8 million albums and produced hit songs like “Semi-Charmed Life” and “How’s It Going to Be.” Their EP, Red Star, has been released digitally and will be available on multiple platforms in the spring of 2009. In fact, some tracks are currently available on their MySpace page, and their tune “Non-Dairy Creamer” can be listened to by following this stream. Jenkins also produces music, including Vanessa Carlton’s second album, Harmonium, released in 2004, for which he also co-wrote four songs. And being a Californian, he also acts, appearing in film “Rock Star” in 2001. On the side, Jenkins happens to be really smart—he was class Valedictorian at the University Of California, Berkeley, graduating with bachelor’s degree in English Literature. When Big Think interviewed Jenkins in San Francisco earlier this week, he talked about the ways digital technology is helping musicians collaborate. For their new album, Ursa Major (to be released in Spring 2009), the band has been inviting musicians all over the world to mix tracks before they are released. As a result, says Jenkins, the album has evolved way beyond its original potential.

This interview is part of a series on BigThink, sponsored by Dell and Digital Nomads.

This is the last post from this digital nomad as my authoring comes to a close on the site, I want to thank all the readers who commented and emailed me each week and DELL for putting together a great resource for the mobile professionals out there - some great conversations, tips and I found myself reading the site each day to check out the other authors too. For this last post I wanted to round up all the posts from MAKE on the Digital Nomads site.

I do have a favorite, and it seems to be one of the favorites from the readers here… make your own noise proof headphones!

(Managing) a home (while) away from home…
We’ve all heard of “a home away from home” but I’d like to explore what’s going on with *managing* a home while away from home. Like most of you, I not only travel but need to travel - and also manage what’s going on back home. While I don’t have a 100% home automation system I thought I’d put together some of the things I do have as well as some of the things I’m interested in…

Holiday travel check list… Over the river and the through the woods to Grandmother’s house we go, er, work…
I’m going away for a quick 4 day trip to Boston so I thought I’d put together my travel check list, physical and virtual. Is this bonkers? What do you do when you leave for a holiday trip but know you’re still going to work… a little, promise!

We are 007, really… really?
I saw the latest James Bond, Quantum of Solace and while it was a little light on the hardcore Bond gadgets I tend to lust after there were a few interesting gadgets. From fuel cell powered hotels to high end imaging cameras on cell phones - the modern day James Bond isn’t too much different than just about anyone who is a “mobile professional” or as they’re called around in these parts “Digital Nomads”.

Working from the voting line…
I’m sure I’m not the only one that will still need to get work done and might end up in line to vote on Tuesday. I’ve pretty much prepared voting on Tuesday like I prepare for going on a 2 day there-and-back business trip while on some massive deadlines. It’s the busiest time of the year for us at MAKE & CRAFT so I need to get a lot of work done *and* vote in this election. Come with me as we explore the over or under-preparedness that will be my day…

Sound proof / noise canceling headphones for travel, don’t pay big bucks… make your own.
Andy has a nice list of helpful travel tip in his “Zen of business travel” - one in particular caught my eye “sound proof headphones”. For years I bought and tried all of the ones on the market, from the super expensive to the “mid-range” all of them didn’t block out screaming kids one isle in front of me or the constant noise of airports, airplanes, hotel rooms, etc - you get the point. But, I did find a solution and it will only cost you about $20 or less to make your own… Hey, everyone needs to save money now, even when you’re on the go…

Laptop bag as a “robot” for Halloween…
Laptop bags are extremely boring, perhaps they’re meant to be - but I can’t stand it. So, a few Halloweens ago I decided to dress my bag up a bit. I spent a good part of my only-child-childhood with this “robot” called 2-XL from Mego Corporation - I buy old ones off eBay for parts / projects and I finally got around to starting my 2-XL laptop bag project. I bought this green bag specifically because it was “2-XL green” and started to outfit it with the face plate from a broken bot. The lights light up for now and eventually they’ll only light up when there is a free open Wi-Fi hotspot. You can follow this simple how-to on adding some blinking lights to any old laptop bag, I like robots but I’ve seen a few smiley faces and light up logos too.

Tales from the road, Maker Faire Austin 2008
For the last 3 years we’ve put on an event called “Maker Faire” — it’s a celebration of art, science, engineering and crafting. Year one we had 20,000 people then it doubled to 40,000 and earlier this year we had over 65,000. I’m on a plane right now getting back from our 5th Maker Faire in Austin, Texas. We won’t know the total number of attendees for a few more days but we all seem to agree it was a lot bigger this year. There were about 400 “Makers” as we call them, who brought out their projects to share with tens of thousands of attendees. The Makers, as well as the folks who come out, don’t belong to any one demographic. There’s everyone and every age.

A night at the opera
Last night I went to the opera. I’m not an opera fan or anything like that, but since I happen to be in NYC for at least a couple weeks this month I wanted to check out Doctor Atomic, an opera about the construction of the atomic bomb. It seems like an odd choice for an opera but it makes perfect sense. Technology is now more just technology — it’s a story with real people, real makers, love, conflict and everything else you need in a good story. I’m sure in a few years they’ll be one about the internet.

Reuse, recycle - Things to do with an old computer…
A bunch of you emailed me about the “Things to do with old PDAs” post, so here’s another, but for computers… I seem to be magnet for old computers. It’s not a bad thing really — people assume that an old or broken laptop will likely find some use when handed over to me. It’s true. Photo frames, music servers, print servers, robot brains, postage stations, MAME (retro gaming)… whatever, I’ll do something with an old computer before ever consider throwing it out. I’m sure many of you have the same collection somewhere. But the thing I like to do the most when receiving an old laptop is to wipe it completely and set it up for a kid or someone who doesn’t have a computer to use.

“Processing” your hotel room and travel gadgets
How timely. A couple of my favorite authors and sites just wrote up some guides on traveling — one is “HOWTO process your new hotel room” by Merlin Mann; the other is “10 Gadgets That Help You Survive in Cheap Hotel Rooms” by Sean Fallon at Gizmodo. Check those out. Some of the items are funny, but a lot of them are pretty useful. Here’s my own blended list of the two that I live by…

Giving old PDAs a new life…
When Napster came out, I thought it might be a fun idea to make “dumpster” — it would be a file sharing service that was just stuff you’ve thrown away. Obviously, that would never happen, but it got me thinking… Inside the desk drawer of every “mobile professional” (or as they’re called here “digital nomads”) there are dozens and dozens of old PDAs and cell phones. These were, and still are, “band-aid” devices until we get something that really works perfectly, or so we tell ourselves. A lot of the folks I know never throw these out. After all they’re perfectly good devices, just not current. One of my favorites was the Palm Pilot, it was a pocket computer and everyone I knew had one. 10 years later, they’re collecting dust. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t something you can do with them. Here’s a good project called Palm Pilot notebook from the pages of MAKE, along with a round up of many many other projects for that old friend in the desk drawer — including how to turn it in to an eBook reader.

Any phone can have iChat/AIM, MSN and Yahoo.. sorta
Just about every phone has an AIM (AOL instant messenger) and I’m usually pretty disappointed with all of them, but to this day I use an old trick I needed to use back in the day when there wasn’t a good AIM client for Pocket PC phones - AIM over SMS (text messages). Before you do this make sure you have the unlimited messaging plan, it’s $20 — but worth it, otherwise you’ll end up getting a big bill when you go over all your SMS allotment super fast. A lot of folks in the USA are pretty addicted to Twitter and have already upped their SMS plan. Not everyone relies on instant messages but I have a group of people who do and usually it’s mission critical stuff.

Tracking, seating… and some inflight radiation testing… Flight hacking?
Digging in my bookmarks of handy travel-related sites, here is a cornucopia of useful ones and another that’s not so useful, just a fun hobby to pass the time on a long flight…

Recycled Rubber
It’s more fun to make a laptop bag from an old wetsuit than it is to buy a new one… I’ve seen a few round-up style lists of “best laptop bags” but most of them seem pretty pricey and not really that interesting — there is so much “waste” material out there you could easily make a laptop bag for each day of the week, so here’s one of my favorite projects from MAKE magazine (where I work)… a DIY laptop bag made from an old wetsuit by Saul Griffith. I’ve also included a round up of some other of my favorite DIY and remade laptop bags.

Parasitic Power
I tend to think of business travel with gear as a funnel — it starts out big and gets smaller. And by that I mean a trip in the morning usually starts at my desk with dual monitors, ethernet — you know, a nice big set up for getting a lot done: video editing, presentation, design work, big stuff. Then you untether and you’re hauling around a laptop, maybe an extra battery, EVDO card, power cords — a cabley nightmare. By the evening you’re down to a cell phone and maybe a music player — this is where I feel most vulnerable.

Mark’em, back’em up, encrpyt’em… Do it or lose it
A quick tour of the latest reports about lost or stolen laptops seems to indicate it’s a bigger problem than most of us are aware of, this was at least news to me. Some estimates say there are over 10,000 laptops stolen or lost at U.S airports *per week*. Another report says over 97% of lost and stolen laptops are never recovered. These reports say things like “laptops being stolen like hot cakes” - I’ve never actually seen a hot cake sale, but if I did I think I’d say “Wow, these hot cakes are going like laptops”.

The Wi-Fi must flow!
Wireless access at home & work is like running water, you almost take its constant life giving flow for granted… then when you head out on your travels it ends up being the most important (and perhaps only) thing you look for. Over the last 5 to 6 years I’ve probably spent a few months total in hotels, each with their own unique way having customers pay for internet access or in the best case, give it away. Recently I was wondering if there was a definitive chart that listed exactly what hotels have free/fee Wi-Fi, turns out there is! Here’s a good chart on BookofJoe & Hotelchatter. The chart breaks down which chains have free / fee as well as which ones have free Wi-Fi in the lobby, extremely handy, I saved this image to my “travel” folder and review it before I book my travel.

In a world of dispersed workers, it is easy to find yourself generating ideas solo. You are liable to get “drunk” on your own ideas, or even worse, abandon your ideas entirely amidst the excitement of new ideas. In our research at Behance, we call this tendency the “Idea-to-Idea Syndrome.” And we have found that freelancers and others that escape the confines of the traditional work environment are especially susceptible! Another destructive tendency is to skip over the process of feedback exchange. It is also difficult to stay focused on pace your workflow without anyone else around to watch.

While home offices and isolated coffee shops may provide maximum flexibility, it is important to address the negative tendencies that the free-range workforce faces. One remedy for all of these challenges is the notion of “coworking.” To learn more about the benefits of coworking, we caught up with Tony Bacigalupo, a true pioneer in the movement of coworking. Aside from his research in the space, Bacigalupo is also the founder of New Work City, a true model for how coworking projects might work around the world.

Bacigalupo has been on the ground level of the coworking movement, becoming active in the community due to his own frustrations with telecommuting. Bacigalupo explains, “I was telecommuting full-time, and it started driving me crazy. I hatched an idea for a cafe for telecommuters, and did some research to find that, in fact, there was already a whole global movement coalescing around such concepts and there were several people in New York working on it. The last two years has seen a huge movement around this concept–coworking–and 2008 has seen it really start to break out into the mainstream.

Bacigalupo quickly found that coworking altered his workflow in a variety of positive ways, turning him from a participant into an advocate. He elaborates, “I’m passionate about [coworking] for a lot of reasons, one being the personal need for coworking as a telecommuter myself. Beyond that, coworking is important to me because I never really accepted the status quo of the typical employer/ employee relationship and the typical workplace, and coworking is helping lower the barriers for more and more people to reject that status quo as well. Increasingly, technology and concepts like coworking are letting people do the unthinkable– work, and be happy doing it!”

In regards to productivity, Bacigalupo challenges the assumption that having others around is distracting and unhelpful to getting work done. “It may sound counterintuitive to think that socializing while you’re working helps increase productivity, but it definitely does. Human beings are social animals. If we spend all our time cooped up in our homes working, it drives us nuts and our minds wander. So while one might sometimes get caught up in conversation with a fellow coworker, there is always a productive slant to the discussion, and there’s a good chance you’ll return to your work inspired. When you’re sitting next to an entrepreneur working on his next success, you’re far more motivated to do better yourself.”

Productivity isn’t the only professional element Bacigalupo has seen develop as a result of coworking. He cites both job opportunities and increased creative output as a product of the trend, noting “several freelancing friends of mine have gotten gigs out of coworking, some have gotten valuable feedback from skilled colleagues on projects they’re working on, and others have started entire companies based on brainstorms that started in coworking spaces. Diversity of skills is actually one of the strengths of coworking. By bringing like-minded folks from diverse professions together into one place, you create a very powerful contingent of brain power. Collaboration and great ideas are intrinsic.”

Bacigalupo is quick to dispel the notion that coworking is for freelancers only, although he recognizes that they are its most active participants. “While some communities tend to focus on certain fields of expertise, most coworking communities are completely open to anyone. If you can bring a laptop or notebook or something else and do your work alongside others, then you can partake in coworking.” As such, the movement, in Bacigalupo’s opinion, will continue to grow both in size and relevance. “Coworking is part of a fundamental shift in the way we think about how we work and live. Technology has now given us the ability to do most of our work from just about anywhere, and that’s giving us the freedom to reevaluate things like commuting and working 9 to 5. By and large, we don’t like being compelled to commute to work in a boring office. We also don’t like working by ourselves at home. Coworking is the next logical step. You’re going to see coworking in lots of places, some more obvious than others. There will be self-declared coworking spaces, but lots of other businesses and organizations will incorporate some of the principles behind coworking into their models.”

For the digital nomads among us, we should consider the benefits of the coworking environment as we work to make our ideas happen.

Big Think recently had the opportunity to speak with legendary two-time Pulitzer Prize winning Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson. As one of the world’s foremost scientists, who happens to be particularly keen on ants, Dr. Wilson has been redefining his field with breakthrough research for 60 years. Leading scientists acknowledge Wilson’s monumental impact on biology. For example, Jared Diamond, who earned a Pulitzer himself for the path-breaking tome, Guns, Germs And Steel, described Wilson as “one of the 20th century’s greatest thinkers.” During Dr. Wilson’s recent visit to New York, where he and co-author Burt Hölldobler are promoting a new book called Superorganism, he spoke with us about how advances in mobilizing technology not ony facilitate cutting-edge biological fieldwork, but also changes the way the world studies biology—by evolving it into a three-dimensional experience. In addition, the ability to effectively catalogue species from anywhere in the world has made Wilson’s massive project, The Encyclopedia of Life, a reality, as well as enabled the formation of one of the world’s first interactive biology textbooks, Life on Earth. At 79 years old, Dr. Wilson is a rapid adoptor in harnessing the power of mobilizing technology to enhance his field every day.

This interview is part of a series on BigThink, sponsored by Dell and Digital Nomads.