Small Business Labs

The Advantages of Being a "Global Cosmopolitan", or a Digital Nomad

"Global cosmopolitans" are people who have lived, worked and studied for extensive periods in different countries.

And according to a professor from the highly regarded European business school Insead, because of their travels and life paths:

"They have often developed skills that allow them to think flexibly and creatively to find workable solutions to complex work and life challenges." 

In particular, Insead's Linda Brimm has identified five characteristics that frequently develop as a result of the complexity of a Global Cosmopolitan lifestyle.  These are:

• Global Cosmopolitans see change as normal
• As outsiders to fixed cultural rules, they rely on creative thinking
• They reinvent themselves and experiment with new identities
• They are expert at the subtle and emotional aspects of transition
• They easily learn and use new ways of thinking

Obviously, these skills are all useful in our rapidly changing world.

The research behind this has focused almost exclusively on corporate employees from large organizations.

But it seems the same advantages, lessons and skills come from being an independent digital nomad. They too live, work and study (and play) for extensive periods in different countries.

While I find the term "global cosmopolitan" a bit too snooty, I think the research findings are spot on and definitely also apply to digital nomads.

Americans Consume an Amazing Amount of Media

The audience measurement giant Nielsen released new data on the total number of media users across connected devices. Their chart below (click to enlarge) summarizes the data.

Not only are lots of Americans using connected devices, they're spending a stunning amount of time on them. Key quote from Nielsen's article:

While the average American adult spent nearly a week (149 hours 14 minutes) on average watching traditional television each month in fourth-quarter 2014, other ways to connect with content were desirable as well. In that same quarter, U.S. adults spent well over 15 hours each month watching time-shifted content, close to 30 hours using the Internet on a computer, and over 43 hours using any app/web on a smartphone! In addition, consumer’s monthly time spent listening to radio was also a resounding 58 hours and 36 minutes.

Americans also love their social media. From the article:

Consumers are also spending a lot of time on social media: 133 million are connecting via computer, 142 million are using social media on an app or smartphone, and 124 million are using social media on the web on a smartphone.

Given these numbers it's hard to see where we have time for anything beyond media consumption.  

Nomatik - A Coworking Platform for Digital Nomads

Digital nomads are attracting a lot of attention these days. 

The Internet and a growing array of telework and online collaboration tools are allowing laptop carrying nomads to work from pretty much anywhere they can find a decent Internet connection. 

Due to the growing numbers of digital nomads, there are also starting to be products and services developed to specifically support their location independent lifestyles.

One example is Nomatik, an application and platform that helps digital nomads find, meet, work and/or socialize with other digital nomads. 

Founded by coworking veteran and future of work expert Drew Jones, Nomatik re-creates the role of the community manager in coworking spaces - it connects people together.

Not surprisingly, it can be hard for globe trotting digital nomads to meet one another. It can also get lonely on the road. Nomatik aims to solve these problems.

They are doing a fund raising campaign on Indiegogo. Their pitch video, which explains their platform in more detail, is below.