How efficient would "Airborne Internet" access be?

I recently contacted a journalist for the Los Angeles Times regarding some research he was doing for an article on "Internet in the sky."

I'll be honest, for years I have had day-dreams of what it would be like if I could send e-mail, visit a website, Instant Message a colleague, or even call a client and run a conference (or video conference!). However, the secondary thought to that has been something along the lines of the following statements...

- My air time is some of the only "have to not do e-mail" time I have
- My air time is the time I get to read my novels, or write thank you cards, or leaf through magazines...
- ...of course, given a window of time, with certain tools (such as access to the Internet), different options are available.

I stand by my two quotes in this article (see the end of the article here), and I'm sure to experiment with this as soon as it's available. Stay tuned!

Comments

[Andre Kibbe]

Flying is the best time to process email precisely because you're offline. You can focus exclusively on output without worrying about incoming messages, or other temptations offered by the web at large.

Yesterday I wrote about my experiments with progressive unplugging. I only allow myself to write when I'm offline (this comment was handwritten on a printout of your post). My goal is to get to the point where I only spend an hour a day online.

Not only has working offline been tremendously more productive (with occasional snags that I'm developing procedures to avoid in the future), but there's been a noticeable quality-of-life improvement as well. I feel more present with my surroundings.

I'd recommend downloading your email to Outlook and answering it offline, even when you're on the ground.