Technology

[Guest]

As far as operating a laptop is concerned, then that is straightforward, as most others have pointed out, it is the communications that are the biggest issue.

I am in the situation that I work from home, and as such, if the mood takes me I sometimes will go and spend the day working on the boat.

As far as equipment goes, I use a laptop and a GPRS modem in the PC card slot. Currently as far cellular communications goes, GPRS is the most effective as it is generally quicker, always on and you only pay for the data transmitted/received, and not the amount of time connected. In addition, on the Vodafone network, GPRS is available throughout most of Europe, and as the charging hasn't been sorted out yet, it is currently free. Be aware though that this will change soon.

It is fair to say that for email, this is a very adequate system, even with reasonably large sized attachments, however if you have a high speed home connection you will find web browsing very slow in comparison. This needs to be balanced though, as if you're going to be browsing a lot of sites for pleasure this may be tedious, but a reasonable amount of work related internet access is ok.

3G technology is about a year away, with Vodafone doing a commercial trial at the latter part of this year. It is in the interest of all networks to get this up and running as quickly as possible due to the high investment in licences.

HSCSD provides the nearest experience to what you get on a normal telephone line connection, however the extra bandwidth comes at a price, ie twice the bandwidth, twice the cost of the call, and you pay all the time you are connected. Orange are the main provider of this in the UK and with their launch of a GPRS service it likely that this may fall by the wayside.

For mobile email another option is a product called Blackberry which is a hand held GPRS device whch is always on and continues to receive email all the time. It has a small keypad which allows you to type replies. The downside is that is doesn't handle attachments. There is I believe a fixed monthly fee for this of around £40 regardless of the amount of data.

More software companies are developing WAP and email applications that are better suited to mobile communications as most of what is currently available was designed for a fixed connection. It is likely with the large number of mobile handsets in use and the need to generate data revenues due to falling voice costs that the situation will improve considerably over the coming months.

As with anything, it largely depends what you hope to achieve. If it's predominately email access that's required then GPRS is more than adequate in my experience. For a lot of internet use, then it depends of the nature of the sites visited, but those with heavy content are a pain with a mobile modem.

For the greatest bandwidth, then satellite modems are an option, but from what I understand, at least with the early ones like Eurosky, these still relied on a fixed line connection for the data being sent/uploaded by the subscriber, with the satellite being used to transmit/download the bulky internet content down to the pc/laptop. Not sure if this is still the same or whether a mobile connection can be used for the upload end.

Bill

 

[jake777]

Thanks everyone for your replies to my post. I have aplied to do a Multimedia M.A. on this subject. Basically as a web designer/ yachting journalist, I'm going to look into weather it's possible to run a web design company and circumnavigate the globe simultaneously, or rather weather the costs of comms will make it unfeasible (or not self self-sustaining), and if not now then when?
Of course, if it does prove feasible, I then plan to do it for real.

 

[Guest]

Jake

I would think it was feasible to do the design whilst aboard, as I would assume that a lot of the work you will be doing will be offline.

If you're working with clients then presumably you could send design samples by email, which as samples would probably be smaler file sizes. It would only really be the uploading of the finished site or emailing the finished file that would be a larger file size and so presumably not so often. I assume that once supplie, the ongoing admin and maintenance of the site would be up to the client.

Another thing you may want to consider, if you are just about to do a multimedia MA is look into the possibilities of mobile applications. As the majority of e-transactions in the not too distant future are likely to be via mobile devices I imagine the demand for expertise will be quite high and at present there is a lot less competition.

Bill

 

[Guest]

For your info YM Sept 2000 had an article by Hugh Marriott that covered various communication devices, with comparative costs and contact information. Might not be as technical as some of the discussions here, but gives a high level overview of what is available.

As a thought, once you get going with your web design establish yourself while land based. Once you get a client base, and a reputation for quality and cost effective delivery, the clients will come to you. That will be the time when you can start investing in comms devices. However, with the the growth of web development tools, by the time you finsh your MA there may not be such a great need for web designers. The greatest demand will be for people who can deliver applications that cater for B2B amd B2C solutions.