WiFi CityStates: Chiayi, Taiwan
September 8th, 2006 (3:50pm) Jackson West 13 Comments
Not exactly the largest or most bustling metropolis we’ve covered in our five-part series this week, Chiayi on the southwestern side Taiwan is home to only around a quarter million people. But one of those people is Japundit’s Dan Bloom — a journalist, blogger and best-selling author who has been one of my favorite conduits for information and perspectives from the far east. What makes Dan unique is that he doesn’t even bother with a laptop, relying entirely on web-based applications accessed at local internet cafes.
Since Dan’s a fantastic writer in his own right, and we have no experience travelling, living or working in Asia, we chose to edit his comments for clarity, but otherwise let him speak for himself:
“I do not own a computer myself, never have, and have used email cafes for over 12 years in Japan and Taiwan. I do all my work from a series of email cafes in a small town in south Taiwan. I write my news articles for editors at print and internet publications at the email cafe, 24/7/365, and am in daily contact with editors in Taipei, Tokyo, and New York, plus a large group of fellow writers and reporters on three continents– Asia, North America and Europe — all from my mobile “home” office, the local email cafe. I pay $1.50 at one shop for a cup of java and have free internet access all day for that price. At another email cafe, I rent the computer for 45 cents per hour. I don’t own a computer because I live in fear of machines that always break down and crash. At the mail cafe, I have never lost anything, as nothing ever crashes. This is my writing life: Go to email cafe at 9 am each day and check emails, start where I left off the next day, and I love it.
“The locals here tend to use the email cafes and Internet cafes just to play games all day and all night. I am the only one using the computer for intellectual or information purposes. Rather sad. Good coffee, latte, cappucino, expresson, and low price (about $1 [NT$35] for a cup of coffee). Free computer time Lasts for about an hour, so I stay there for three to four hours each morning. Food is quality,inexpensive baked goods — cakes and pies. Very comfy chairs, a long desk with 5 computers — WintTels with Office — but no speakers so i cannot hear music (damn). A good email cafe is called InterGlobal Access. With 50 computers, it’s smokey, noisy fun.
“Long live the Internet and long live mobile computing. I hate offices and newsrooms and have not set foot in one since 1999. Never will again. Goodbye to all that.”
Dan proves that with hosted applications and server-side data storage, a laptop isn’t even a necessity for the mobile worker. And that even far from one’s ethnic and cultural roots, one can successfully pursue a career and focus on the work they love.
Photo of Chiayi at night by Yi-Tao “Timo” Lee.
13 Comments Post your own comment
Seraphim says: September 8th, 2006 7:33pm
And not to mention you can chill out at the Alishan mountains when you feel like it!
Gosh I miss the turkey rice!
Danny Bee says: September 8th, 2006 9:06pm
Speaking of working outside offices and escaping from your daily cubicle: here are a few choice words on the subject:
ESCAPE FROM YOUR CUBICLE! (an Internet poem!)
http://wmn.cs.ccu.edu.tw/furby/dan/Escape%20from%20your%20cubicle.htm
Escape from your cubicle!
by David Henry Newman
d_h_888 AT yahoo DOT com
Yes, escape from your cubicle
get out into the world
into the sunlight
the starlight
the summer breeze
escape from your cubicle
by bolting out the door
taking the elevator down to the ground floor
as quickly as possible
get out of there!
don’t wait for the closing bell
don’t wait for five o’clock to come around
get out of your cubicle right now
do the right thing
and escape into the freedom
that awaits you outside the door
no more sitting down doing nothing
no more boring meetings
no more slow-moving lunch breaks
no more boring commutes to work
get out of your cubicle right now
at the quickest possible moment
don’t miss your chance to be free
run, don’t walk
fly out that door!
make your escape at this very moment
– mid-sentence! — midbook!–
take this poem with you
as you run down the hall
happy as you’ll ever be
happy as you’ll ever be
is it a done deed?
Did you get out with your soul on fire?
Are you ready to do battle
with all the days of the rest of your life
when you can pursue the things
you always wanted to pursue
paint the pictures you always wanted to paint
visit those far-away places
you always wanted to visit
spend good times with the people
you love and admire
yes, if you’ve read this far,
try it!
right now!
escape from your cubicle
cut off all the ropes and strings
holding you back
and become one with the universe
free at last
free at last
Free from the confines of your confining cubicle
Now!
Escape from your cubicle
Forever … (or maybe just a day!)
hgg says: September 8th, 2006 11:05pm
Are you planning to do other non US cities too, like in India or Singapore in this column?
Maybe, you can have a kind of Best “Bedouin” liveable cities list!
Om Malik says: September 9th, 2006 7:03am
HGG we are currently looking to do other cities as well. definitely cities in India and China.
Ross says: September 9th, 2006 8:16pm
I can’t speak for other places in Asia yet, but I was just in Singapore, Hong Kong and Bali. They would all be other good examples of mobile computing. In Hong Kong and Singapore, wifi networks overlap each other and it is not uncommon to have a dozen or so show up, invariably one of them is free or often among the secure ones you will find the name of a local cafe where they will give you the password for a drink order. And of course there is Starbucks, wifi for days.
In Bali (mostly south central Bali around Denpasar, Ubud and the Kuta beaches) you will find high speed interent cafes everywhere. I assumed this reflected the number of foreign travellers, but the majority of users are Indonesian.
I brought a MacBook with me on an extended Asia/Australia trip thinking I would need it for something. And in retrospect, between Meebo for IM, Yahoo and Gmail for email and the handful of other internet services. Not sure I need the laptop, though I would be interested in a good digital locker service to store things like web pages with visa or travel information. Suggestions?
Dan Moore says: September 10th, 2006 10:06am
This is fascinating. I had a few additional questions for the journalist:
How long did he spend working in an office as a traditional journalist?
What email web application does he use?
Does he use any other web applications (Yahoo! notes, Writely, etc)?
How about email lists? What is his preferred email list software?
What other tools does he use to portray himself as a professional to new possible editors? Website? Cell phone? What else?
It’s a fascinating lifestyle and I wished, as I read the piece, that he’d focus a bit more on how he did it, rather than the food costs where he did it.
Enterprise 2.0 與3個S « 小白的窩 says: September 20th, 2006 12:15am
[...] 由著名科技報導部落格GigaOM所創辦的「Web Worker Daily（網路工作者日報）」就常常介紹或比較線上辦公室會用到的一些網站式軟體，也常推薦適合在外工作的的地點或無線上網城市頌（連嘉義都有喔），可說相當具有前瞻的觀念。Om Malik他說「SWAT」（Solos Working Alone Together）型態的工作方式是未來的一個大商機，吾信服之。 [...]
andreas04: close to attraction says: October 30th, 2006 11:33am
[...] 由著名科技報導部落格GigaOM所創辦的「Web Worker Daily（網路工作者日報）」就常常介紹或比較線上辦公室會用到的一些網站式軟體，也常推薦適合在外工作的的地點或無線上網城市頌（連嘉義都有喔），可說相當具有前瞻的觀念。Om Malik他說「SWAT（Solos Working Alone Together）」型態的工作方式是未來的一個大商機，吾信服之。君不見舊金山在10月11、12兩天要舉辦一個Office 2.0 Conference，其中的主講人皆是現今Web 2.0的大紅人（當然包含McAfee教授），而贊助商也是琳瑯滿目，大小牌皆有之，新舊player亦盡括，那種加州特有的濃濃「矽味」，在此蓬勃展現。當中混著多少現在可能看不見摸不著的錢味，卻吸引了諸如IBM、SAP等等一方之霸前來共襄盛舉。你也許覺得啥Enterprise 2.0、Office 2.0這些名詞很俗很好笑，但是老美就是愛搞創新，就是愛發明新玩意兒。局外人儘管嘲笑好了，他日必見真章。高矮深淺豈是那種事後諸葛分析師所能看透的，一旦你只會動嘴不會動手，世界趨勢就不會照你想的方式去走。 [...]
online poker law says: February 28th, 2007 1:11pm
online poker law
On other hand online poker law
free ringtones says: March 1st, 2007 6:24am
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Near free ringtones
Mr.JerryBanzor says: April 18th, 2007 6:52pm
Hello,
Very Informative Posts.
I really like what you have going on here. I’ll be back soon
Joeywashere says: April 19th, 2007 2:01pm
Pretty Cool Place.
I like your style too.
Cya again,
Joey
Samantha says: April 26th, 2007 10:04am
I’m not quite understanding what all
this is supposed to be about?
Must be me or something…