Digital Nomad

Description

1. From the Nomad Network:

"Technically, we’re “Location Independent Professionals,” but we like the sound of Nomad: wandering the steppes, the mountains, the beaches or anywhere else, Nomads aren’t tied to one spot. We’re revolutionizing the idea of “work." Thanks to advances in telecommunications, many people, people like you, don’t necessarily have to go to an office to do their job. Basically, this means we work remotely. It’s just that instead of working from “home” or a local coffee shop, we’ve taken things a step further and work from different cities, different countries, different continents. All we need is a laptop, an internet connection, our skillsets and a bit of entrepreneurial spirit."

(https://nomad.network/Digital_Nomad)

2. From the Wikipedia:

"Digital nomads are people who travel freely while working remotely using technology and the internet. Such people generally have minimal material possessions and work remotely in temporary housing, hotels, cafes, public libraries, co-working spaces, or recreational vehicles, using Wi-Fi, smartphones or mobile hotspots to access the Internet. The majority of digital nomads describe themselves as programmers, content creators, designers, or developers. Some digital nomads are perpetual travelers, while others only maintain the lifestyle for a short period of time. While some nomads travel through multiple countries, others remain in one area, and some may choose to travel while living in a vehicle, in a practice often known as van-dwelling. In 2023, there were 17.3 million American digital nomads, which was a 131% increase since 2019."

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_nomad)

History

From the Wikipedia:

"The term "digital nomad" started to be used in the early 1990s to describe a new type of high tech traveling lifestyle made possible by the growth of computer networking and popularization of mobile devices like laptops, tablets and PDAs. In his 1992 travelogue Exploring the Internet, Carl Malamud described a "digital nomad" who "travels the world with a laptop, setting up FidoNet nodes."[9] In 1993, Random House published the Digital Nomad's Guide series of guidebooks by Mitch Ratcliffe and Andrew Gore. The guidebooks, PowerBook, AT&T EO Personal Communicator, and Newton's Law, used the term "digital nomad" to refer to the increased mobility and more powerful communication and productivity technologies that new mobile devices introduced.

Craig McCaw predicted in 1993 that the union of telecommunication and computing would create a new nomadic industry. By enabling people to conduct business from any location, wireless communication and digital assistants would facilitate a return to a nomadic lifestyle where people moved as they wished and took their environment and possessions with them.

The 1997 book Digital Nomad by Tsugio Makimoto and David Manners used the term to describe how technology allows for a return of societies to a nomadic lifestyle. Makimoto and Manners identified an emerging "digital nomad" lifestyle freed by technology "from the constraints of geography and distance." One of the first use of digital nomads in research was in 2006 in the paper Towards the Epistemology of digital nomads by Patokorpi."

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_nomad)

Statistics

From ChatGPT:

""The Rise of the Digital Nomad" by MBO Partners (2021): According to this report, in 2020, there were an estimated 10.9 million independent workers in the United States who identified as digital nomads or digital nomad wannabes.

"Digital Nomad Survey" by FlexJobs and MBO Partners (2019): This survey estimated that 4.8 million Americans described themselves as digital nomads. However, it's worth noting that this survey was conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic, which might have influenced the numbers.

Remote work data: Remote work, which often overlaps with the digital nomad lifestyle, has become increasingly popular. Global Workplace Analytics reported that in the United States, the number of remote workers had been steadily growing even before the pandemic, reaching around 4.7 million in 2019."

More information

• Schlagwein, Daniel (December 6, 2018). "The History of Digital Nomadism". International Workshop on the Changing Nature of Work (CNOW). [1]

• Nash, Caleece (February 2018). "Digital Nomads Beyond the Buzzword: Defining Digital Nomadic Work and Use of Digital Technologies". Transforming Digital Worlds. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. iConference 2018. pp. 207–217. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-78105-1_25

• Hannonen, Olga (September 2020). "In search of a digital nomad: defining the phenomenon". Information Technology & Tourism. 22 (3). Springer Nature: 335–353. doi:10.1007/s40558-020-00177-z. S2CID 256404642. [2]