While it may be true that the Internet makes many aspects of geographic location irrelevant - allowing people from around the world to communicate, work together, share resources and generally interact without concern for national borders - it is also true that on a personal level access to the Internet is currently very dependent on your physical locality. Quite simply, most of us need to be near our desktop computer, modem and - most restrictive of all - telephone line in order to use the Net. Yet have you wondered just how useful it would be to have access to all the information contained within the Internet whilst on the move, or away from your home or office?

The ability to access the Internet when mobile is, to some extent, already here - with the UK's digital mobile telephone networks now offering data services to those customers who are willing to pay the high set-up and usage charges involved. Just plug your (expensive) digital mobile telephone into your (even more expensive) portable computer via a (fairly expensive) interface card and you can be on the Internet at a reasonable 9.6Kbit/sec from almost anywhere in the UK, and much of Europe. The cost and unwieldiness of such a set-up may not yet give us 'mobile data for the masses', but prices will no doubt fall as the technology improves and its use becomes more widespread. After all, who would of thought that in less than 10 years the mobile telephone would turn from a breeze-block sized 'yuppie accessory', costing many thousands of pounds, into a 250g consumer product costing a mere fraction of this price?

The Coming of The Technomads

With the development of mobile networking a new type of Internet user has emerged - the "technomad". The term - a hybrid of the words "technology" and "nomad" - refers to a person who aims to combine the freedom of a travelling lifestyle with the benefits of global network connectivity.

The archetypal and pioneering technomad is undoubtedly US West Coast traveller Steve Roberts. A bearded, self styled "ungineer" (due to his dropping-out of engineering school), Roberts came to world-wide attention in the late '80s and early '90s following the development of his BEHEMOTH "megacycle". BEHEMOTH - Big, Electronic, Human-Energized Machine, Only Too Heavy (!) - is a 580lb eight-foot long recumbent bicycle with an attached trailer. Unlike a typical recumbent bike ("recumbent" meaning that the cyclist sits back in the vehicle rather than sitting upright on a saddle), BEHEMOTH is not simply a means of pollution-free travel - it's also a complete mobile office with a multi-platform computing system, fax- and data-transmission facility, wireless communication link and self-sustaining power supply.

The Megacycle

The complete specification of BEHEMOTH reads like a well-equipped computing lab. At the front of the vehicle it has a Macintosh portable with helmet-mounted cursor control - so the computer can be used whilst Roberts is travelling. At the rear there is a Sun workstation that acts as a state-of-the-art communication node. And finally, to complete the 'set', it has its very own PC clone which is connected to a "Private Eye" head mounted display. Communication with the outside world is via a cellular telephone with a fax and data modem that can be used to access e-mail and the Internet. What's more, BEHEMOTH can also access the Microsat amateur-radio satellite network. So even if Roberts is out of cellular range he can still exchange data with other radio amateurs and Internet users.

The whole communications system is powered by a combination of solar panels and peddle power and its batteries can be 'topped-up' by household mains or car-batteries if necessary. Hence, BEHEMOTH is a completely self-supporting vehicle, allowing Steve Roberts to travel almost anywhere in North America and still maintain contact with his base-station and the Internet community.

But BEHEMOTH is not just a high-tech toy, over the years Roberts has used it as his main place of work - having based his R&D, writing and consultancy business "on the road". And with the support of friends and colleagues he has demonstrated that it is possible to live a nomadic lifestyle and still participate in the communications revolution. Much of Roberts' written work can be found on the Internet at the Nomadic Research Labs Web site. The articles contained there discuss Steve Roberts' approach to "high-tech nomadness", detailing the various insights he has gained from living such a lifestyle.

To quote one of Roberts' recent postings to the site, "The whole thrust of this technomadic concept, ever since my early days aboard the Winnebiko [BEHEMOTH's predecessor], is the notion that physical location becomes irrelevant once you move the essence of your life to the vapors of the Net." He adds, "While this doesn't replace physical relationships (at least for most of us!), it does decouple you from the bonds that normally tie people down." Finally, he observes that, "The basic trick is to add one level of indirection to all business matters, depending on a base office and electronic communications for all activity. This only works, of course, if your business is information-based or deals in small, portable things. "

In these statements Roberts' hits upon both the great strengths and problems of the technomadic dream. Firstly, many people will no doubt find that Ý as Roberts' evidently has - mobile Internet technology gives them the freedom to live the individualistic lifestyle that suits them. They may discover that they will be able to work, maintain a circle of friends and keep up-to-date with 'local' and national news without concern for geographic location. On a simplistic level this may mean that you'll be able to work just as easily at home, or on the train, as in the office. Or as with Steve Roberts, you'll be able to pack-your-bags and go on the road and still pursue your professional activities.

However, as Roberts' himself notes, it may only be "information-workers" - writers, freelancers, computer programmers, consultants etc. - who will be able to take advantage of this freedom. What if you work in a factory? Or in a shop? Technomadism would appear to have little to offer you. After all, even Steve Roberts would be hard pressed to stick an industrial lathe on the back of a bike!

It would seem clear therefore that if technomadism is to become an option for professional people then similar benefits need to 'filter down the chain' to manual and non-professional workers. In this context the technomadic ideal becomes part of a much larger movement towards more flexible working practices for all people: flexitime, job-sharing, multiple part-time jobs and more incentives for parents to share the day-to-day responsibilities of childcare - all of these would ideally be part of a society that supports the technomad. More recently, and after 17,000 miles of peddling, Steve Roberts has begun the development of the next stage in his technomadic research - the "Microship". The Microship project aims to build a "Virtual Technomadic Flotilla" consisting of sea-faring travellers from all over the world, linked tightly through the Net and sharing base-office resources. Roberts' craft for this project is the Microship catamaran: a "high-tech multihull with an extensive network of embedded control systems, a satellite Internet link, console Macintoshes, ham radio, 1080 watts of solar panels, deployable kayaks, self-trailering capability, on-board video production, and whole new levels of technomadic gizmology." This exciting project is based at the University of San Diego and up-to-date details of its progress can be found at the Nomadic Research Labs Web site.

Steve Roberts can be contacted by e-mail at wordy@qualcomm.com. The Nomadic Research Labs Web site is at http://www.microship.com/.

The Future?

So, with its megabikes to Microships, it would appear that the future mobile Internet technology will liberate many of us from the constraints of fixed-location living and working. As Steve Roberts has shown, access to specialist equipment does make it possible to realise the technomadic ideal of freedom to travel and continuous network connectivity. And, with this equipment becoming more widely available, maybe it won't be to long before many of us will be sharing at least some aspects the technomadic lifestyle?

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©1995 Sean Clark.