Yahoo Travel's The New Digital Nomads - Run Your Business From Anywhere in the World covers the growing trend towards people professionals who are choosing a location-independent lifestyle that allows them to travel and work anywhere in the world.
The Internet and a growing array of telework and online collaboration tools are the key enablers of the digital nomad lifestyle.
As long as they can find a decent Internet connection, laptop carrying nomads can work pretty much anywhere.
Digital nomads who travel to exotic locations get most of the press, but more and more people are also taking advantage of telework tools to take long weekends away from home, live temporarily near relatives and live full or part-time where they want to live instead of where their job is.
This really hit home to us on a recent trip to Portland. We met a lot of people who telecommute to other cities. They do this so they can live in Portland.
We also met people who spend their summers in Portland, but move to warmer, drier places instead of enduring Portland's dreary winters. Unlike the classic retired "snow birds" who fly south in droves for the winter, the people we met are still in the workforce.
A couple of interesting statistics from our research shows how widespread the digital nomad movement could become:
- 22% of all independent workers surveyed reported less than 10% of their revenue came from their local area.
- 14% reported that none of their revenue came from their local area.
Obviously, a large share of independent workers are effectively teleworkers and potential digital nomads.
While the digital lifestyle is not for everyone, we expect more people to choose this path. The oDesk blog has an interesting series of videos on digital nomads.
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