Disdain for orange plugs
Just a passing observation: This week I found myself, with about a dozen other Sprint executives, in a company location that most of us hadn’t visited before. Making the most of the time before the meeting started, about half the folks in the room had their laptops open on the conference room table, checking e-mail and generally being productive.
At the start of the meeting, our host graciously pointed out important facilities available for his guests. His last comment was to point out that Ethernet connections were available in the conference room. “All of the orange plugs should be active network connections.” At that comment, I noticed a couple of my co-workers glance in the direction he had pointed with obvious disdain for a wired connection.
Every laptop in the room was already well connected with mobile broadband cards.
Obviously, Sprint is ahead of most companies in outfitting it’s employees with EV-DO connectivity, but the transition from being desperate to find an Ethernet port to being completely liberated by mobility has come much more quickly than I ever would have imagined. Just a couple of years ago, I rejected a proposed offsite meeting location for a senior executive planning session solely because the room lacked sufficient network connectivity. Today, such a limitation wouldn’t matter.
Welcome to the revolution!