As anyone who has struggled in the European no-fly zone in the last few days will declare - we are truly living in the Internet age. From the German rail operators (Bahn) to Eurostar to practically every ferry operator, you had to have a confirmed booking completed on their website to getting anything approaching assistance from the representatives on the ground. In short, unless you were technology savvy enough to overcome the constant crashing of their often-pathetic but inundated booking systems, their people didn't want to know or help you. Which is both enlightening and, on some levels, disturbing. For example, I saw a Eurostar rep in Brussels tell a stooped lady in her 80's (or maybe more.... I'm being kind!) that she should go to the hotel and book a ticket online using her online account, and then print the confirmation mail before returning to the station. I'm not certain she even knew what the internet was, let alone how to print something.
While this sort of operating model highlights the growing importance and reliance of technology to business, it does also mark the evolution of business - is this the end of the "personal touch" era? It means that to do business with those companies, I needed my laptop to talk to their servers and database which sent me an email that I printed. Clearly, they need to work on their side of the equation - Eurostar was the worst offender. It took 2 hours and about 100 attempts (no exaggeration) to get a single booking completed on their site! But while I was sitting in my Hilton room - it's good to rough it! - struggling with their sites, I was listening to my music on my iPhone. When it was all done, I watched a movie on my laptop and then checked on the progress of friends via email. Oh, and the movement of a load of ash!
In short, everything I needed was in my laptop bag for my "home" life to continue with minimal interruption. My life is now sufficiently digital that I can exist with nothing but a laptop and an Internet connection. In fact, to overcome the obstacle of buying a train and ferry ticket, these tools were essential! Which, when you consider it, makes me location independent. So, I can work equally well from a beach hut with wi-fi as I can from my home office and with this new found freedom, many opportunites open up.
It makes me wonder how many people take advantage of this situation - and how? Is it just working from a nicer location or is for tax exemption reasons? Could this be the way of the future? Or perhaps, could the drive to this model see the arrival of the next killer application? In the same way, mail and internet access have given rise to the freedom outlined above, could there be another application which will remove any remaining boundaries ?
No comments:
Post a Comment