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The Rise of the Digital Nomad
krou writes "The Washington Post has a look at the rise of the digital nomad, workers who have shunned the idea of working in an office, or working from home. Instead, they've taken the next logical step in the evolution of teleworking, and work wherever there is a Wi-Fi or 3G connection, using tools such as Facebook, Skype, and Twitter, to gain both primitive ('If I'm working at home by myself, I am really hating life. I need people.') and practical ('There is no hope for the road system around here.') benefits from this nomadic lifestyle. The need for contact with other people has driven some nomads to start working with others in public places and at strangers' homes. Other benefits from nomadic working include changing the scenery, and starting the work day 'long after many of their colleagues out at the cubicle farm have spent hours preparing for and getting to their workstations.' Coffee shop owners love the trend, and so do some employers, one of whom (an AOL manager), says: 'It's a win-win' because the employee in question 'is happy doing what he loves and from a business perspective, we gain valuable industry knowledge, contacts, and insights.'"
Shunning traditional aspects of society? Check. On the cutting edge of some new trend? Check. Hang out frequently in coffee shops? Check. This should have been titled "Mac-Toting Hipsters Eschew Tradition to Look Cool, Again."
"Going to war without the French is like going deer hunting without your accordion." ~General Norman Schwarzkopf
Seems more like it's just people who want to feel like they're on vacation all the time instead of at work. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against it. I just think the label "Digital Nomad" is a bit of a stretch.
Formerly known as bum.
If you're "using tools such as Facebook, Skype, and Twitter" in coffee shops for your job, then I'm afraid I've got news for you - dicking around on your Mac for attention does not actually constitute working. It constitutes "dicking around".
Also, who are you going to play table football with? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh?
Always proofread carefully to see if you any words out.
Am I the only one with an employer that has the attitude "If I can't see you working, you aren't working"?
In fact, the last few companies I've worked at have been like that. Maybe I've just been unlucky, but "working from home" hasn't been an option at any point in my career.
If all you need is a VPN connection to home office to be productive, suddenly Indians and Chinese and Israelis and Irishman can bid for and compete for the same job. You may feel you are on top of the game and this does not pose any immediate threat to your job. Even if the job is safe, the salaries will be lower because there are people willing to do the same job for less pay, less benefits. Eventually someone will learn to do your job, do it better than you and will be willing to accept lower pay than you.
Unlike the H1Bs, these workers do not pay taxes to USA nor do they spend the money in the local shops and take vacations within USA. It is prospect of getting cheap labor from these countries that prompt corporate America to promote telecommuting. Remember that.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
That's fine for people who don't want or need something like a "steady income" and projects for companies who don't care about things like a contractor's reputation. This sort of thing is good for people with either:
A) Large personal portfolios but small enough egos that they can fit their heads into a room with enough strangers to collaborate on a project that may take weeks
OR
B) Kids looking to start a portfolio or gain work experience.
An interesting concept, to say the least. If done with due dilligence, it could lend a hand with those who do this sort of thing in their off-time but cannot be bothered to market themselves. I wouldn't go as far as to say it will replace the cubicle for 95% of the world's digital gears.
I am the richest astronaut ever to win the superbowl.
I'm just about to go back to working from home. I did it for seven years, but left a job today where I'd been in the office 9-5 with the same people, and I got to say I was sad to leave primarily because the last year there has been so good from the point of view of having people to bounce things off and just as importantly have fun with. As a consequence I have been thinking about this very thing. It won't be practical (or even desirable) to work in a coffee shop all day everyday, but I will make some effort to get out there more often to some local Wifi hotspots. OK, so I'm not going to necessarily talk to anyone, but the hustle and bustle of a public location has got to be better than sitting around in my flat, eating cereal and scratching my nuts. (mental note don't scratch in public).
And yes I need this mess. One of the computers isn't mine and the other two are totally different architectures. And the printouts are schematics of a ship that I am doing work on
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
The summary claims, "Coffee shop owners love the trend," but I believe that's a bit of an overgeneralization. From my admittedly very limited conversations with small coffee shop owners around the SF Bay Area, the general consensus I've found is that the people who make the coffee shop their office (sorry, "digital nomads" sounds stupid) take up quite a bit of space for a long period of time and don't order much. At places where there's a ton of space, it's not much of an issue, but in areas where space is a luxury (e.g. SF, Berkeley, etc.), the owners definitely seem to be a bit resentful. To be fair, it guarantees them some small consistent income throughout the day, but if they lose just a couple customers who would have bought lunch if there was room for them to sit, then they're at a loss. Also pretty much everyone I talked to has a story of some jerk who'd come and use their Internet access all day and doesn't even have the courtesy to buy a drink.
Sadly, PS/2 was yet another victim of USB, which doesn't care what you plug into it, the electrical slut.
I'm currently a student working for a professor at my university and I've been given the opportunity to do most of my work from home. I program for him, mostly in PHP for a website he is in charge of.
I do most of my work in libraries, parks, and restaurants. There are pros and cons to each environment. I think the greatest problem I've encountered is finding reliable and free wifi. Denny's restaurants tend to have free wifi, but it kicks you off every 30 minutes which is a real pain if you're trying to do something that requires long periods of thought.
Public libraries are most preferable, but at least here in San Diego, they are overcrowded and sometimes I can't find a desk to sit at. Libraries at my school are not crowded and have plenty of room to sit, however, parking requires permits. The park by the library is nice, at least during the day time, but sometimes if there is a lot of glare it is hard to work. Also, the wireless signal in a park is much weaker.
Starbucks is a no go for me since their wifi isn't free. And starbucks is the MOST crowded at all times of the day.
The Ralph's used to have free wifi, and is open 24 hours a day, so I would occasionally study or work from there. But recently they stopped offering free wifi. So I stopped going there.
Overall, I'd say the park is the nicest place to work. There is fresh air, light breezes. Ambient noise is neither repetitive nor distracting, but actually, in the same way the ocean is, relaxing. And you can always get up and take a walk to clear your mind. The other problem though is its hard to find power outlets. So you better have a nice laptop with a good battery, or else you won't be out there long.
My page.
...if your job involves working with sensitive information.
I have a bad feeling about this...
This is making me think of homeless MMO players. Red Dwarf had an electronic drug that was essentially a VR life simulation. You get to live out the life you always dreamed of. The best part, of course, is that one of the characters trapped in the game was so full of neuroses and hangups that even his fantasies were a miserable wreck. But for those who had normal fantasies, they'd end up hooked into the game ignoring their own bodies as they slowly starved while lying in a puddle of their own waste. There was also a similar device featured in Star Trek, a game that got people so hooked they wouldn't notice aliens stealing the Enterprise.
When MUD's first became popular, I thought "Surely unemployment would be the addict's best friend. Get fired, lose the house, thus nowhere to plug in the computer, you're going cold turkey!" But the devices are getting so small, so power-friendly, and with games like EVE you can earn game-time just by playing a bunch, it doesn't take much of a stretch to imagine paying for wifi access via selling in-game gold and now the homeless guy living in the cardboard box might not be a wino but a game-o.
As for sending all the work over to Bangalore, I think that there's still going to be cultural barriers to doing so. Companies I've worked at, management has trouble figuring out where to go to lunch with a face-to-face meeting, let alone actually planning things in sufficient detail that a design doc could be sent overseas. At bare minimum an excellent project manager is needed to translate from vagueness to something the techs can understand, whether they're on this coast or overseas. Plus there's the pain in the ass of the differing time schedule. My dad had worked night shift at the phone company garage, a brilliant idea of management where the trucks get worked on at night and thus have greater availability during the day. The only problem is that the parts houses are only open during the day. A truck might be in and out same day on the day shift but for night shift they have to place the part order in the morning, let it arrive during the day, then wait for the next shift to do the work. That's the same sort of thing you're dealing with when working with India. Very delayed turnaround unless you can convince the Indians to work nightshift to fit American hours, a sure recipe for burnout.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Working from the road is fun, but it really depends on what you're doing. When I'm doing any sort of code I need to be at my house with my 24" monitors and reference library (not all my books are electronic). Other times though it makes the time pass faster to work from a coffee shop (in particular, the one across from the college at around noon ).
Anyhoo, some of the things I found I needed to work completely remotely include: :D )
1) 300W inverter
2) USB hub
3) 3G card
4) Skype (actually now a Google voice node
For the really remote days I picked up a Duracell power supply. It's large (has a fullsize car battery inside) and *heavy*, but lets me work for 8 hours completely away from mains power. I can get by with the laptop and the 3G card, but the power runs out after a couple hours. It seems like a lot of stuff, but it lets me work from the beach or a park.
BTW, I was near the beach once and in the middle of typing when a bunch of really rough looking teenagers started milling around. That was a tense moment until a guard came along to check around. Won't go there again, but it's something to keep in mind if you want to get far away.
I can see how Skype may assist in working, but it completely fails me where Facebook or Twitter would come in handy as *tools* for *work* for the vast majority of jobs.
yeah okay i'm one of these. web app developer been commuting for years.
Here's what stinks about working out of a panera or most cafes.
-It's usually freezing cold in summer, so i have to dress for winter in July.
-Yeah i have to buy food or drink, and usually it's fattening.
-Many places crank the lobby music so i can't hear my own music without causing ear damage.
-Lunch can be crowded and more loud than usual.
However I have enjoyed spending a month living in another state, with my sister, and just working out of a dunkin donuts during the day. Got in some family time at night and weekends I could not have otherwise.
Working at home (or out of cafe) does get a bit lonely. I miss the zany whacky coworkers, etc.
These people don't generate as much business as you might think. And they drive away business in fast food restaurants by taking up a whole table for hours.
Way way back in the days before the Internet, CompuServe Information Services ($6 an hour plus phone bill, often referred to as CI$) important. At that time, there was a guy named Steve Roberts, aka "Wordy," who travelled around the country on a recumbent bicycle with a TRS-100, posting updates to CIS.
Googling suggests that he is still experimenting with a nomadic lifestyle... I think... Some posting suggest he has an email address at microship.com It's not clear to me whose website that is or what, exactly it is about... but perhaps it is his and perhaps he is still experimenting with a nomadic lifestyle.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Dynamically forming new teams all the time won't work because you have to personally get to know people to know what you can expect them to do. Keyword searching of resumes doesn't really meet that requirement. It's not just a matter of satisfying potentially irrational emotions in humans (such as loyalty and trust), but also the fact that each knowledge worker has different knowledge. Even a sports team, doing a relatively simple and well defined task e.g. playing basketball, has to play together for a while to perform well together.
>work wherever there is a Wi-Fi or 3G connection, using tools such as Facebook, Skype, and Twitter,
Seriously, how much real work happens on ANY of these platforms?
They provide more distractions than help.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
all you are arguing for is an artificial inflation of costs
the guy working from india also has 1/10th the cost of living of the mcmansion living $1/gallon hummer driving american, so of course he can underbid you
why do you think it is your right and privilege to cost so much more than you are rightfully worth?
protectionism doesn't help anyone, it just slows down progress
and this is speaking as a programmer living in the usa
if someone can do in manila my job for 1/5th the price, i don't understand how i can justify my rate anymore. how can you?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Clearly, you work too much!
+1 Disagree
"B) Kids looking to start a portfolio or gain work experience."
- I'll take B.
I dislike how this "news" is packaged as a strategy, I'm guessing that some wanna-be up-and-comer marketing droid took a good look at what he noticed he and some of his unemployed-but-looking graduate friends were doing, and thought to spin it as a strategy rather than what it really is.. people who can't get more than temp-work and are stuck in coffee shops to a) get out of the house so they won't spend time sleeping or playing WoW, and b)prettying up the fact that they're stuck in a coffee shop with nothing to do but browse facebook.
I would rather have seen this die than actually become news on slashdot.. This is a clear case of marketing-speak, and I was kind of hoping that recent events in the last 9 years or so would help people to stop this kind of non-news.