Leslie Fishlock at Genevate and the Cape Cod Technology Council has invited me to give a talk on Friday the 2nd of October.
I’m going to talk about my favorite subject — me — and my second favorite subject — Cape Cod — and my third favorite subject –geeky things. Autographs and photographs with me will be available for a nominal donation to the Dave’s-New-Boat-Trailer-Fund.
Seriously — when I first moved here as a telecommuting “knowledge worker” in 1991 I moved into a dilapidated house with knob-and-tube wiring, short-circuiting phone lines, and things like Federal Express, fax machines, and MCI Mail e-mail were considered the “web 2.0” technologies of their day. Getting an ISDN line installed by NYNEX involved men in white coats and goggles standing on Main Street staring at my house and wondering what weirdo would want such a strange thing. In 1992 I filed a story from the deck of a Woods Hole Oceangraphic Institution research vessel demonstrating the first nautical integration of GPS with chart plotters using an AT&T laptop (AT&T once made laptops) connected to a beta cellular data modem called a Mobidem.
Working from Cape Cod was actually pretty easy in the early 90s. Running Forbes.com was not, and so ensued six years of Colgan Airlines and the Flying-Cigar-Tube-of-Death from HYA to LGA. The McKinsey Experiment in 2000 involved actually driving 80 miles every day to a depressing office park in Waltham on Route 128 which persuaded me that nothing in the world is as terrible to the soul than commuting to work and listening to another NPR fund drive.
The question is given all the wonder and hype about the telecommuting revolution — remember we were all going to move to the sticks and live amazing lives on Martha’s Vineyard and the hills of Vermont? — why is Cape Cod not overrun with so-called knowledge workers?
I guess I have to stand up and talk about it.
Friday, October 2nd, Hyannis Golf Course, Route 132. Fees and other info here.