Since moving to Hamilton in 2001 to start The Freeway, I have not really had an office space. There is a room in the basement of the coffee house which I could use as an office, but it's in the basement [no windows], it's not wheelchair accessible [important for me to be accessible to all members of our community], and it's too quiet [I have grown used to being in community to work and be creative... I enjoy collaboration and synergy].

I work on the go a lot... in cafes, restaurants, my house, etc. Our staff meetings and cohort meetings [and any other meetings or appointments I have] are usually in public places such as our coffee house.

In order to accomplish the work I need to do, being mobile is super-imperative. The following are pieces of technological genius that help make me more productive in my transient state:

My Sony VAIO FE series notebook. I've had it for almost a year now, and I still love it. It's still in great shape, works well, has never crashed [knock on wood].

My only complaint is that the video card is not the best in the world... I may upgrade that.

I have never been a big fan of Macs [and my tribe The Salvation Army won't approve of purchasing Macs as we have a national IT department, so standardization is important - they only allow certain brands of PCs, etc.]. And I have thoroughly enjoyed using PCs. I have blogged before about my feelings about Macs... I haven't changed my mind.

Sony gets mixed reviews about its notebooks, but I have been pretty impressed with mine. In fact, it is highly likely that my next computer will be a VAIO.

My BlackBerry Curve smartphone. I picked this up in January in hopes of having easier access to my e-mail while in transit. I wasn't sure I'd like it because the keys are pretty small [I am not much of a texter], but I got used to it and now I am really happy.

The GPS feature is pretty cool, and having access to the internet while on the road is handy... maps and information about places are good when travelling places you have never been before.

The camera in the Blackberry is really good too. In fact, the pictures are as good as any digital camera I have owned [not that any of my camera's have been very good].

It's funny, I always thought Blackberry's were kind of dumb, but the busier I get, the more I appreciate accomplishing more while I'm on the go.

My iPod Classic. All my tunes, a bunch of my photos, and a whole whack of videos, and still room to expand. Nice.

I love listening to music [especially ambient] while I am working and creating. And recently I have started downloading some podcasts, something I never thought I'd enjoy.

I find it handy to take presentations with me wherever I go, store files and photos, and share my videos and stuff with people while I am in conversation with them... don't worry, I still doodle on napkins while talking.

I just purchased my iPod a few weeks ago. Now I wonder how I ever lived so long without an iPod... OK, that's an exaggeration, but still.

In a future post I will tell you about all the software I use on my computer [most of it is free]. Jordon Cooper recently did that and I found it so interesting how similar our lists of software are.

Labels: blogging, leadership