context

Last month I had to travel from NYC to Baltimore for a family emergency. I was struck by the smoothness of my mobile work experience on the train as I set up to complete a project I owed a client.

It felt distinctly odd to realize that my work context  - laptop, internet connection via broadband cellular card, sepatate cell phones for business and personal phone calls and texting, IM, e-mail, felt emotionally identical to my work context in my office. I had more interesting scenary, and felt some nervousness about getting up and leaving my equipment on my seat, but the work and expecially the connectness and communication with colleagues, clients, and family were identical.  I was as productive as if I sat at my desk in my office.

The context of work had changed for me. Working while travelling has always seemed an irritating compromise, even though I have used mobile broadband services since they first became available. Making sure I had access to power was always an issue.

I wonder if the difference was in the attitude of the people I was working with. The tools we were using made any of our physical locations irrelevant, and over the years we have become practiced with them, so we just carried on our work and our social interactions as normal..

If train travel were cheaper, I might ride from New York to Boston to DC and back, just for the novelty and a change in physical work environment. GPS lets you watch your actual progress, my digital camera let's me shoot all sorts of track side footage. Sounds like a vacation.