Digital nomads are a type of people who use telecommunications technologies to earn a living and, more generally, conduct their life in a nomadic manner. Such workers often work remotely from foreign countries, coffee shops, public libraries, co-working spaces, or recreational vehicles. This is often accomplished through the use of devices that have wireless Internet capabilities such as smartphones or mobile hotspots. Successful digital nomads typically have a financial cushion. The digital nomad community has had various events established to host members of it, such as the Nomad Cruise. Digital nomads may vary depending on status; common types of digital nomads include refugees, affluent people, younger people, and entrepreneurs. People who become digital nomads often do so due to positive reasons, such as financial independence and a career that allows for location independence. Negative factors for why people become digital nomads include a reduced amount of full-time employment, political unrest, and a high cost of living in their country of origin.
Video Digital nomad
Definition
One of the earliest known uses of the term digital nomad originally was in 1997. It was the title of a book published by educational publishing company Wiley. It was written by Tsugio Makimoto and David Manners. It is unknown if the phrase was coined in this book or if they took a term that had already existed. Digital nomads can use wireless Internet, smartphones, Voice over IP, and/or cloud-based applications to work remotely where they live or travel. Digital nomads may use co-working spaces, cafes, house sitting agreements, and shared offices. The foundation of the digital nomad movement is remote work, allowing people to do their work at home or otherwise through the Internet. Digital nomads may also sell a number of possessions in order to make travel easier, and may also sell or rent their house.
Digital nomads tend to travel while they continue to work with clients or employers. This sort of lifestyle may present challenges such as maintaining international health insurance with coverage globally, abiding by different local laws and sometimes obtaining work visas, and maintaining long-distance relationships with friends and family back home. Other challenges may also include time zone differences, the difficulty of finding a reliable connection to the internet, and the absence of delineation between work and leisure time. Services such as PayPal are popular among digital nomads. Skype is also a common tool for people to use to communicate through voice, text, and video chat across long distances. YouTube has also been used by digital nomads as a means by which to earn revenue without having to have a central workplace or living space. An important step in being a digital nomad is ensuring that all relevant documentation (such as visas and passports) is kept up to date. If you do not, it can lead to legal difficulties when traveling abroad. A solid grasp of any official languages of the countries you are visiting is also important, as a lack thereof can prevent a person from engaging with the locals. It also creates the risk of complication if you have to go to the hospital.
The term location independence was coined by Lea Woodward in 2006 as a word used to describe the digital nomad lifestyle.
Maps Digital nomad
Popularity
Before the term was coined, there were people who fit the term. An early "digital nomad" was Steve Roberts, who in 1983 rode on a computerized recumbent bicycle and was featured in the Popular Computing magazine. In 1985, a satellite system called Motosat was established, allowing greater access to the Internet. Digital nomads over time gained more ability to live that lifestyle. Such advancements include Wi-Fi Internet and Internet-enabled laptops. The digital nomad lifestyle is rapidly growing in popularity since 2014, when websites ranking cities by cost of living, weather and internet speed to help nomads choose where to live and international conferences for digital nomads like DNX sprung up. Since then the movement has coincided with the rise of remote work becoming a viable way to work, especially in technology companies in Silicon Valley. Digital nomading began to become popular with brand names in 2009. National Geographic started the "Digital Nomad blog," and Dell Computers launched a short-lived website called Digital Nomads. A documentary about the digital nomad lifestyle was funded through Kickstarter and ultimately earned $37,000 in funds. The documentary was created by wife and husband Christine and Drew Gilbert, and was titled The Wireless Generation. A cruise called "The Nomad Cruise" was founded in order to offer a means by which digital nomads could meet and interact.
Virtually anyone can attempt to live the digital nomad life, though certain groups are more representative in the community. These groups include younger people, entrepreneurs, refugees, nomads overall, people from well to do nations, and more.
Popular destinations
Certain destinations are among the more popular locations for digital nomads, including Chiang Mai, Thailand and Bali due to a low cost of living and reasonably high quality of life. Other cities include Tallinn, Tarifa, and Tbilisi due to critical mass and greater acceptance of the digital nomad lifestyle as well a relatively lower cost of living. Cities that have a higher cost of living exist for digital nomads, include Singapore and Oslo. Other notable movements loosely related to digital nomads rising in popularity include Vandwelling. Due to the popularity, opportunities for people to live as a digital nomad in the area exist to facilitate this. In the United Kingdom, certain cities such as Bristol, Birmingham, and Brighton are popular. This is due to the lower cost of living compared to London. Organizations such as Innovation Birmingham exist to accommodate 90 technology companies.
Cause for the popularity
The digital nomad lifestyle became significantly more popular in recent years due to a number of factors. Internet connectivity becoming more widespread, even to rural areas, has done a world of good to help people travel to more areas (digital nomad or otherwise). Jobs becoming less location-dependent (such as graphic designers and writers) has also contributed to the ease of digital nomading. There are some negative factors as well that cause people to become digital nomads. These include political unrest in their home countries, a high cost of living where they live, the diminishing of long-term employment, and more.
Legal developments
Many digital nomads tend to come from more developed nations with passports allowing a greater degree of freedom of travel. As a result, many tend to travel on a tourist visa. While it is technically illegal for a digital nomad to work in a country on a tourist visa, many digital nomads tend to reside in locations with a lower cost of living while working remotely on projects outside their country of residence. In most countries, as long as the nomad is discreet and is not taking a job away from a local person, the authorities will turn a blind eye to nomad work. Visa runs are also often common in the digital nomad community. Some nomads have also attempted to legalize their stay by taking up part-time jobs in teaching English as well as taking university courses in their host country. In addition, digital nomads are often using their status as permanent travelers to escape the tax liability in their home countries without, however, immigrating to the tax system of another country. Nevertheless, this practice is considered controversial amongst digital nomads.
This has resulted in the creation of several programs targetted at digital nomads such as the e-Residency in Estonia and a SMART visa program in Thailand. Estonia has also announced plans of a digital nomad visa, following its growing e-Residency applications. Some digital nomads have also used Germany's residence permit for the purpose of freelance or self-employment in order to legalize their stay.
Notable digital nomads
There have been several people whose business has seen them some success. These include:
- Chris Guillebeau
- Rolf Potts
- Tim Ferriss
See also
- Fulltiming
- Global nomad
- Location independence
- Telecommuter
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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