What defines your perfect mobile office?

I was reading Trend Spotter this week and came across Nissan ’s (not so) new mobile office concept vehicle. Except that it cannot sleep a soul, it’s a pretty cool active workplace.

Unveiled at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show, the NV200 sports a well-hidden, full mobile office in the rear. Though its target apparently is “ocean photographers,” I could see this as a little giddyup run-about for Home Office Highway’ers and active teleworkers.

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Home Office Highway has several new features for home officers, teleworkers, road warriors or anyone who wants balance when they work remotely. First, we’ve posted a library of videos, and created a sister site rich with great cools for working from the road.

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There’s also Chief Home Officer, where home-based workers can discover the technology, tools and tips to work from the home office. With News, Reviews & Tips from the home office’s front lines, Chief Home Officer explores how to become a well-balanced home-officer.

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In the hunt for flexibility, mobility, cost savings and untethered workers, corporations are searching for the tools to drive their organizations to the leading edge.

Such services — VoIP, wireless broadband Internet access and full-featured phones, to name a few — comprise integrated solutions that enable employees to work anytime and anyplace.

That can be for a home office worker, a remote teleworker, even road warriors working from a corporate sedan — or an RV.

And companies are responding at a time when telework and remote officing continues to grow in popularity. Telework, or the use of telecommunications to enable employees to work from almost anywhere, is becoming a popular counter to rising real estate costs, worker mobility and fuel prices. HR association WorldatWork reports that the total number of U.S. teleworkers — from employees to contractors and even business owners — has risen 17 percent, from 28.7 million in 2006 to 33.7 million in 2008.

“Mainstreaming telework will enable employers to control costs and provide the foundation for employment stability and future growth,” said Chuck Wilsker, president of The Telework Coalition. The volume of  employer inquiries his organization receives has tripled in the past two years. Read More »

Much has been written about Cloud Computing (or working with hosted apps from anywhere in the world).

I blogged on the Cloud Worker concept here at Home Office Highway.com and throughout Chief Home Officer.com. For home-business owners or teleworkers, it frees labor from place, makes “virtual office” a reality, and done wisely, can boost productivity.

For the road warrior, clouds thoroughly remove barriers to data and knowledge work.

Ramon Ray from Small Business Technology has written and spoken on Cloud apps, too. Ray recently was invited to moderated the NY IT SMB User Meet Up Group, led by Mor Sela of ProCompare.com.

Here’s Ramon’s blog post on the topic of Cloud Computing… Read More »

Cloudworker. Duh!

When Plantronics launched a survey to better understand remote and home office workers — and then held a competition to rename the poorly understood term “teleworker” — I considered what phrase I could coin that would stick.

Telecommuter and teleworker obviously had wallowed in oblivion since the 1970s and 1990s, respectively.

SOHO-dweller? Nope. Home Officer? Uh-uh. “That guy who works in his underwear instead of driving into the office.” That’s a bit cumbersome and conjures a rather bothersome visual.

Then some dude named Venkat Rao came up with “Cloudworker.” It defines “those of us who work from several locations in one day; communicate on multiple devices and with multiple applications; integrate work and personal lives; and provide 24×7, ‘always on’ service to customers.”

Eureka! Google “cloud computing” or search this site and see how often it comes up. Heck, I “cloudworked” from bed last night while watching Monday Night Football. Read More »

The tools worked fine. The technology — my Verizon aircard was flawless, the HP tablet PC was a hit and it all stashed neatly into my Foray mobile workmate.

Managing expectations… THAT was the detail that needs more attention. My family was pretty understanding. Only one or two clients would ping me with URGENT projects that needed my attention Right Now, I tell you, NOW! (truth be told, my emphasis, not theirs…)

I’m sitting at my kitchen counter, HP laptop powered up, and pondering what we just completed.

Home Office Highway was an unbelievable exercise, in freedom, family, adventure, escape, work / life balance (and then some), technology and the power tools that empower the remote worker, personalities, workstyles, and what it takes to get all these concepts to meet up on the same page.

I have no doubt that we’ll do this again. I’ve spoken with my partners, and the interest is there. My clients were buoyed by the concept, and for the most part, were none the wiser — or at least didn’t seem to mind — that I was working from Lord knows where.

To be sure, there’s some balancing that needs working out. A few thoughts in retrospect… Read More »

When I first saw the RV we’d be driving for Home Office Highway, I wondered how I’d make the most of what was by all accounts a miniature space.

Some concepts and practices fell right into place — like using the Mobile Office Workmate or keeping clutter to a minimum. And some were learned, and depended upon the tools we had on hand.

Check out this video to see two examples of how I used off-the-shelf devices to maximize available space.

Home Office Highway and the virtual office is all about technology. Sure, cooking burgers on a grill doesn’t take much in the way of high-tech gizmos — unless you bought your spatula at Hammacher-Schlemmer.

But this blog has been written on a laptop connected to the Internet by a USB device that delivers broadband Rev-A through-put from almost any location — an RV park, at the base of Stone Mountain in Georgia, or as we drive along I-95 toward Massachusetts. Whether you’re an entrepreneur or you telework / telecommute, tech is your toolbox.

If you’re a tech marketer, the secret of successfully putting high-tech gadgetry in the hands of consumers (especially if you don’t have an IT staff behind you) is making it accessible to folks in a non-threatening, high-touch venue. The chance to play with the latest handset, or demo some new device, or ask “Like Duh!” questions without getting some “You Silly Consumer” look in response is the answer.

Call it the “Evolution.”

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Alex Johnson is an ardent shedworker. From his home in St. Albans in England, Alex works from a shed — and blogs about the shedworking concept on Shedworking. He’s even written about it in the forthcoming book, Shedworking: The Alternative Workplace Revolution.

So when Alex and I got to talking about Home Office Highway, he commented on his summers spent working virtually at his in-laws place in Spain (those Europeans are SO cosmopolitan. I’m trying to have a little cosmo-mojo rub off on me by writing about Alex’s exploits).

I asked Alex to share his thoughts. Here’s what he had to say… Read More »