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