Future Workforce – Digital Bedouins??
A couple of interesting articles on being a digital bedouin. Here, Dan Fost, San Francisco Chronicle staff writer, describes the digital bedouin subculture in San Francisco. This Computer World article gives some guidelines for being a digital bedouin.
Update – 3/19
Here is a BBC News article on the same topic also referencing Dan Fost’s writings. The BBC article calls these workers – neo nomads and prefers this term to laptop warriors!
The premise of being a digital bedouin is that your office is wherever your are! While most of us have seen a host of articles on why being constantly connected is bad. These articles take a different (and more compelling for me) view that being a bedouin provides flexibility and freedom.
BTW, the Computer World article sounds alot like many workers in IT services industry, at least to some extent.
While I’m not certain that companies will be completely populated with digital bedouins, the concept and basic model has appeal. Even if it is unlikely that employees would be conducting business from a beach in Aruba, the model certainly applies to many global companies with widely distributed facilities and of course, customers. With the way air travel has become, it is almost imperative that business people consider the airport as an office. Just this week I heard a colleague describe his office as “United Airlines seat 7B”.
Posted: March 16th, 2007 under General.
Tags: balance, life, work