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October 06, 2004

Datapoint: Starbucks Wi-fi

For what it's worth:

Yesterday morning I had a work-related breakfast meeting, and wanted to do so in downtown San Francisco. Torrefazione was suggested, but I opted for Starbucks -- because of the wi-fi. And then I bought a coffee and scone there. I'm surprised we're not seeing more collaboration between Starbucks and Kinko's -- that office away from the office thing is a very powerful draw for Laptop Nomads.

And in the end, I hardly used the wi-fi. It was more the having access to it.

Posted by peterme at October 6, 2004 08:29 AM

Comments

I'm spending a couple of days in Portland (giving a talk at CHIFOO tonite - come on out!) and am enjoying the shift to being a laptop nomad (nice phrase) - you can sit outside in Pioneer Square or in the coffee shop at Powell's (where I am right now) and enjoy the free WiFi.

BTW, the laptop nomad segment is a really fascinating subculture to study - I had a fortunate opportunity to dive a bit into that for a project - on laptops, naturally - a few months ago...

Posted by: Steve Portigal at October 6, 2004 02:49 PM

As one myself, I'm working on a project to help study and track the movements of the laptop nomad.

Posted by: Garrick Van Buren at October 6, 2004 09:36 PM