We’ve been chatting lots about Digital Nomads lately – so reading Steve’s column I wonder if he has our offices bugged 🙂

We are clearly at the tipping point at which notebook sales are going to outpace desktops. And social media tools are going to ignite Digital Nomadism. They are really going to force us to rethink how we communicate.

For instance, email should be decreasing as a communications tool. It’s the last vestige of the opaque. And I’d argue, a productivity hole of unprecedented proportions when compared to the speed and distribution effectiveness of social media tools. The brilliance of social media tools like Twitter and Friendfeed is that I am interested in what I am interested in. The annoying thing about email is that people I assume I am interested in their conversation or what they are sending me. Email is appalling for archival and workgroup productivity – Blogs and Wikis are great. I’d go as far to say that Enterprises that grok and answer the needs of Digital Nomads will be significantly advantaged.

Steve points to a guy I mentioned in my earlier posts on email – Luis Suarez who works for IBM out of the Canary Islands and has virtually eliminated all business email in favor collaborating via social networks. I’m not sure I could go exclusively off the grid – but I do aim to get a long way there.