Blogging from Anywhere

April 16, 2008 | By Matt Craven | Filed Under Bloggers, Features, General, Mobile Blogging, Professional Blogging

I realize that I’m probably more connected than the average person that inhabits the blogosphere - but it’s quite amazing to me how connected we can be if we choose - enabling those that wish to do so to truly be able to blog from anywhere.

ozark blogging

This week, I’m on vacation in Branson, Missouri - high up in the Ozark mountains. It’s a cycling trip more than anything else - so I’m here with about 12 folks from the Minneapolis area - and we’ve met up with nearly 200 from surrounding communities for four days of mountain biking & road cycling. We’ll cover between 200 and 250 miles across the four days - less than what we would normally ride in four days - but there are mountains here, you see.

I generally travel with four key pieces of electronic equipment - my trusty Apple Macbook Pro (my main machine for just about everything - and the central piece of my office-based problogging rig), a Dell D620 Latitude Laptop (XP Professional) - which is used mostly for client work, and my Apple iPhone (principal cell phone and mobile email/web device)… Finally, I travel with a Sprint PCS EVDO Modem - which unfortunately now works only in the Dell laptop since Apple eliminated the PCMCIA slots in the Macbook Pros - and I’m too lazy to get the new express format EVDO card.

On the drive down, we were piled in a mini-van, with four passengers - with four bikes tacked on the back and a rear area full of gear, food, and luggage. Since I wasn’t driving, I spent most of the 11 hour drive through Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri reading feeds, chatting on twitter, doing client work via the Dell laptop, and blogging on The Blog Herald and a few other places. It was a pretty productive time.

Via the iPhone, I was also able to handle some client conference calls and deal with a few other issues that weren’t fully wrapped up prior to my departure.

Once we arrived at the resort, we discovered, to my horror, that the lodge we were staying did not have wired or wireless internet as we were promised. While I was frustrated, the Sprint EVDO card works fine, and this morning as I sipped my morning coffee, I was able to skim feeds, participate in Twitter conversations, handle email, and write a few posts from the beautiful vantage point you see above before heading out today.

My point here is that with today’s technology - we’re able to blog and participate in conversations through tools like Twitter no matter our physical location - if we use the right tools. One can just as easily blog, or send tweets, from a mobile device or an iPhone, as they can from a computer or desktop PC - and who knows what tools the future might bring for us.

Even today we read about a man who used his mobile phone along with twitter to notify his friends of his arrest in Egypt. What might the future hold?

Do you have a mobile blogging experience? Share it in the comments below.


About the author: Matt Craven is the former editor & publisher of The Blog Herald. Currently, Matt is the co-founder of Bryghtpath LLC, a boutique web 2.0 firm located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He blogs at Telegraphik & The Blog Herald. You can follow him on Twitter.

© Copyright 2008 The Blog Herald | Submit post to Blogosphere News | More articles by Matt Craven


Comments

8 Responses to “Blogging from Anywhere”

  1. Rob O. on April 16th, 2008 12:19 pm

    My wife & I blogged nearly daily on our Russian Adoption Journal from a rented high-rise Moscow apartment (killer view!) while we were there for a week in December and again for 3 weeks back in January.

    Neither of us had been big notebook users before, but we actually got quite comfortable with the Dell Latitude we borrowed from work.

  2. Jen on April 16th, 2008 12:39 pm

    So let me get this straight…you took two laptops on a bicycling vacation in the Ozarks? Sometimes it’s ok (and even healthy!) to detach for a couple of days. No blogging…no reading RSS feeds…just enjoying your surroundings and your company. Having that separation makes going back to the daily grind a lot easier.

  3. Grant D Griffiths on April 16th, 2008 1:28 pm

    I use a MacBook and iPhone to stay connected with both clients and the Internet. I could not imagine not being able to do just that. I blog from anywhere and everywhere. And with the tools available, there is no reason not to.

    I am of the mindset that if I am not connected, I can not relax. I just don’t think I could due without it. Even on vacation, if I don’t have access, I would not be able to relax and enjoy. Oh well!!!!

  4. Chris Garrett on April 16th, 2008 1:41 pm

    I agree with Jen, while I do take along a lot of similar gear switching off is preferable. My wife still gives me hell about one “vacation” from the early days of Performancing where I was walking around lake louise waving my PDA in the air while trying to get a better signal so I could be shouted at via skype for being offline for 10mins :)

    My last vacation I had no choice, the connections I expected just weren’t there - no phone signal and no internet, wired or wireless. Had the shakes first few days but then settled into it.

  5. Matt Craven on April 16th, 2008 7:01 pm

    When I’m a disconnected vacation, I don’t take anything with me. However, I’m a grad student and that doesn’t stop due to vacation - and this is a cycling vacation more than anything, so I chose not to be fully disconnected.

    I find some of this relaxing in my own way anyways :)
    Matt

  6. olivia on April 16th, 2008 9:01 pm

    I just returned from Mexico, and though my last few trips, to Hawaii and Costa Rica, I did use the computer this time I refrained, and it was the best thing I have done in some time.

  7. Michael on April 17th, 2008 12:42 pm

    I love the fact that most of my blogging tools are online so when I travel to Pittsburgh to visit family I can blog just as well from their computer as I do from my home computer (although I usually bring my MacBook and blog with that.

  8. James Johnson on May 8th, 2008 1:43 am

    I ran across your blog and found your post interesting. I’m not sure if you have heard of CellSpin since you haven’t posted anything in your blog about the service.

    Cellspin is the easiest, FREE, and can do all 4 media types on the go. I love being able to post videos of my daughter while I’m in the supermarket with her. I was worried my phone was not supported but they have over 300 phones supported. Better yet, they support LJ, Flickr, Facebook, Myspace, and many other popular Web 2.0 companies.

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