We’re having a planning meeting at Q2 this week. For a team which does most of its work together on the phone and in team discussion spaces, its a real treat to have the luxury of meeting face-to-face, of being able to riff back and forth and have that energy that people together bring to human enterprise.  I’m really looking forward to this meeting!

I’m on the road today, blogging from the airport thanks to the ubiquity of wi-fi.  And because airports are loud, and phone conversations from them are not that easy, I find myself working pretty much the way I always do. Checking the team site for the stuff we’re supposed to read to prepare for our meetings, posting about weather issues affecting my arrival time, IMing to get access to those of our sites which are protected from foreign IP’s so I can set some new stuff up.

I’ve got some magazines, too, for that enforced lids-down time which is part of the airborne experience. But it’s amazing how at home that wireless connection — and virtual “places” where the people I know and depend upon can reliably be found, helps me be whereever I am. I’ll call home this evening, to hear about everyone’s day with full voice bandwidth, but I’ll probably still see my teenaged daughter on AIM later on and we’ll do the “virtual tuck-in” routine we developed a few years ago for such occasions.  I’ll be able to check in on some of my online friends, too.

Some days, all these tools feel overwhelming. Today they are a comfort.