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Vacationing in the 21st century: it's becoming hard to get some rest
The Knowledge@Wharton Newsletter published a story named "Vacationing in a Wireless World: Relaxation or 4,000 Emails?" in its issue dated May22 - June 4, 2002 (Warning: a free registration is required). It starts with: Not long ago, businessmen and women who took vacations could actually get away from it all. Office equipment was too big to bring along, and people normally did not give out their hotel’s telephone number to everyone on their rolodex. Not so today. Your office can fit in a laptop and every customer and contact has your cell phone number. Indeed, there are approximately 136 million subscribers in the U.S. alone (according to the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association). About 41% of households have a pager and 12% a PDA (according to the Consumer Electronics Association). About 54% of drivers in the U.S. have a wireless phone in their cars (according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration). In short, technology has changed our concept of vacation. With dataport connections as ubiquitous in hotel rooms as the electric coffeepot, even in the remotest locations, the idea of ‘leaving the office behind’ seems quaint. Well, it's not completely true. As the article mentions, less than 30% of Americans have a passport, so most U.S. citizens are clearly not going abroad. But come and visit Europe. Stay in small hotels -- say, under 20 rooms. You'll be far from your offices. This will be true in remote Mediterranean islands as well as in many small places in France or in England. There, it will be very hard to find a dataport -- and if you find one, it might be incompatible with your devices. And I'm not even speaking of electricity plugs and voltages or the fact your ISP doesn't have any agreement with a european one. Of course, you'll find cybercafes everywhere. But will it be possible for you to access your corporate e-mail system? Maybe yes, if your company uses some kind of smart card for authentication. Even in this case, are you sure you will not break corporate security rules? Many of these cybercafes are pretty bad at security, recording your keystrokes or your Internet trails without your knowledge. My advise: get a passport, come and see us (without a laptop), relax and enjoy! Even if you find lots of e-mail messages when you return to your office. Source: Knowledge at Wharton, May 22 - June 4, 2002
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