going bedouin

picking up the wifi-coffee shop thing again, go read going bedouin by greg olsen [thanks daniel]

By focusing almost exclusively on service-based infrastructure options, a business could operate as a sort of neo-Bedouin clan - with workers as a roaming nomadic tribe carrying laptops & cell phones and able to set up shop wherever there is an Internet connection, chairs, tables, and sources of caffeine.

the way i see it:

this is the workplace model often aspired to in recent years: • single business • mobile workers • fixed/owned core functions

this is the networked freelance thing many of us are doing: • many businesses • mobile workers • no core/shared functions

this is 'bedouin': • single business • mobile workers • mobile core functions

bedouin bears obvious similarities with church 2.0 [just as olsen's descriptions of how dynamism gets bogged down in infrastructure resemble church 1.0][but more of that later...]

olsen continues in bedouins are everywhere :

I feel like I unknowingly stepped into some sort of quasi-religious mass movement.  There is clearly passion around the central ideology of infrastructure minimalism.  What's also interesting are the different facets of this movement that draw peoples attention and the different perspectives that are being voiced.

Three key areas of discussion focus seem to have arisen:

• Technology: Saddlebag contents?  What specific tools are available to Bedouins?
• Location: Tent or no tent?  Physical vs. virtual office?
• Social needs: Are Bedouins lonely?  Can alternative workplace concepts meet the social needs of workers?

[...]

I'm certain there are coffee shop owners that are scrambling to create "Welcome Bedouins" signs and to figure out how to better extract revenue from the Bedouin crowd. Surely some business model will emerge where oasis operators and Bedouins can mutually benefit from a loitering location flush with AC, bandwidth, and table space.

Comments

[Existential Punk]

Very interesting.

[Johannes Kleske]

Love it. Have to get me a new notebook to start working in our coffeehouse…

[steve collins]

is ok for you, you already have the coffee house!