Major magazine chronicles "digital nomad" trend

ATHENS, GREECE -- One of my favorite magazines, The Economist, published a very good special report last month called "Nomads at last" in which they explored the "extreme telecommuting" lifestyle.

The article starts out talking about a café in Oakland, California, I hadn't heard of, which was opened expressly to serve the need of "digital nomads" and called the Nomad Café. I'll have to check that out next time I'm in the area. (Like the hippy movement, it appears that the San Francisco Bay Area has become the epicenter of the global "neo-Bedouin" movement as well.)

Here's an excerpt from the lead article in the Economist's special report:

"Urban nomads have started appearing only in the past few years. Like their antecedents in the desert, they are defined not by what they carry but by what they leave behind, knowing that the environment will provide it. Thus, Bedouins do not carry their own water, because they know where the oases are. Modern nomads carry almost no paper because they access their documents on their laptop computers, mobile phones or online. Increasingly, they don't even bring laptops. Many engineers at Google, the leading internet company and a magnet for nomads, travel with only a BlackBerry, iPhone or other “smart phone”. If ever the need arises for a large keyboard and some earnest typing, they sit down in front of the nearest available computer anywhere in the world, open its web browser and access all their documents online."

In addition to covering the trend of "extreme telecommuting," where you "work from home," but in another country, the article also points out how increasing numbers of people, including teenagers, live like digital nomads even in their own towns.

In typical Economist fashion, the special report provides a sweeping and detailed look at the subject. It's a must read. Below are links to all the articles in the report, so have at it.

By the way, the reason I didn't find out about this until a month after it was published was that, unlike my other favorite magazine, the Atlantic Monthly, the Economist isn't available on the Kindle, which is where this "digital nomad" reads his magazines.

Nomads at last

Labour movement
The joys and drawbacks of being able to work from anywhere

The new oases
Nomadism changes buildings, cities and traffic

Family ties
Kith and kin get closer, with consequences for strangers

Location, location, location
It matters

A world of witnesses
When everybody becomes a nomadic monitor

Homo mobilis
As language goes, so does thought

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