Monday, December 22, 2008

The Importance of Being Connected

The key to whether this works, at least on the technology side, will be the Internet experience. The place we're staying in Siracusa includes high-speed Internet service in the rental rate – unlimited access and, according to our land lady, 8 megabits per second, which if true is faster than the service I have in Canada. Pinella, our land lady, also assures us it’s very reliable.

It better be. I use the Internet for virtually everything, most importantly for telephony. I will be using voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) to conduct phone interviews and call customers, family and friends - as I do much of the time here in Canada. To the people I call, it will appear as if I’m phoning them from North America.

Among the many unofficial sponsors of the project is
Primus Canada, which is providing complimentary hosted PBX service. I’ll be writing more about the Primus service as I start using it, first here, then in Italy. To make it work, I’ll be taking an adapter the size of a small box of chocolates. It plugs into the wireless network router in the Siracusa apartment. Then I'll plug a regular phone into the adapter. The phone will work like any telephone company phone – dial tone, normal dialing procedures, etc.

The fact that VoIP is a fairly well proven technology doesn’t mean using it this way is a slam dunk. VoIP services are known to degrade when the signal has to travel over long distances or through many different relay points, especially when it has to travel over the often congested open Internet. Primus says it has business customers in a few overseas locations successfully using the service in the way I’m planning to use it. We’ll see.

As a back-up, I’ll also be using service from
Skype, the free-or-dirt-cheap Internet phone service now owned by eBay. I’ve almost always had good success with Skype, another unofficial sponsor, but relying on it day to day for business calling will put it to the test.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Starting Out

The theory is that with digital technology, you can transplant your life and work any place in the world where high-speed Internet access is available. The reality? I’m about to find out.

My partner and I leave for Sicily in 21 days. We’ll be living in and “teleworking” from
Siracusa (Syracuse) for three months. (It won’t be hot but it will be warmer than London, Canada where we live – and where it’s blizzarding today!)

I can do this because I’m a freelance journalist. I’m already an all-digital, Net-centric worker. I conduct phone interviews using a VoIP (voice over Internet) service, do secondary research on the Web, write – of course – on a computer, file stories and correspond with sources and customers by e-mail.

I also happen to specialize in writing about technology so I know the tools I’ll need to enable this kind of extreme teleworking, I know how they work and I know where to find them.

But I’m not that special a case. In theory, anyone who does all or most of their work at a computer and uses the Internet and a telephone to communicate and collaborate with co-workers could do it too. As long as they’re self-employed or have a very understanding and forward-thinking boss.


So come on along. I’ll be blogging here about preparations – and then our experience living virtually in sunny Sicilia. And no, it won't be just about the technology.