The Safe Nomad

Call them what you will: Digital Nomads, LIPS (Location-Independent Professionals), or even MOBOs (Mobile Bohemians). They don”t really care about labels.

Refer to them with envy or compassion, admiration or irony. You could try to learn from them and their lives or attempt to talk some good old sense into them, but they will painstakingly pursue their passion to wander and work around the world with few to no strings attached.

They are the spearhead of a post-industrial lifestyle that emerged a decade ago from the cubicles of the Western world, fueled by the democratization of travel and technology. It”s hard to say how many Digital Nomads there are; maybe ten thousand, maybe ten times that. But one thing is for sure: their perspectives are as wide as their world is small. They meet and interconnect, co-live, co-work, build networks and platforms for sharing ideas and skills. While skipping through airports and bus stations and 10-bucks-a-night guesthouses, they shape the future because they live in it.

Bitdefender partnered with travel journalist Brad Florescu from www.tedoo.eu for the “The Safe Nomad” special project, in an attempt to comprehend the realities of this phenomenon: what does it take to become a successful digital nomad? What makes people choose this path? How does technology empower them to do so? And what gives these people the peace of mind to do their thing, and feel protected?

Brad, himself a veteran digital nomad, traveled 8 weeks around South East Asia, visiting destinations popular among the cyber-nomadic community and interviewing some of its most interesting members.

From the artsy Chiang Mai and the palm-fringed Koh Phangan in Thailand, to the surfer”s paradise of Canggu and its yogi counterpart Ubud in Bali, Indonesia, from the majestic Siem Reap, home to the iconic Angkor Wat and the fast-growing capital Phnom Penh in Cambodia, to the increasingly traveled Hoi An and Da Nang in Vietnam, the digital nomad scene evolved one step at a time, destination by destination, perspective by perspective, like a modern version of St. Exupery”s “Little Prince”.

 

Over the following weeks, we invite you to travel with us, through all these breathtaking tropical destinations and, in the process, discover what fuels this digital nomadism that gives us a glimpse of the social, cultural and working environment of tomorrow.