How time flies – it was on Labor Day 2006 we launched WebWorkerDaily, mostly because I believed that broadband was going to change the world, not just by bringing information to us faster but also how it was going to change the way we worked. Having reported on broadband for a lot longer than I care to admit, the direction we were heading in was pretty clear.
Six months later, it is becoming clear that we are not alone in this way of this thinking. The thriving community here on Web Worker Daily is testament to that. And today, The San Francisco Chronicle is writing about this trend, though focusing more on the “Bedouin” start-ups.
Dan Fost writes about the many different variations about the office-less start-ups, and has been kind enough to include WWD and GigaOM in his Sunday Feature.
“There is nothing more free than being a Web worker,” Malik says. “There is no boss. You work for yourself. This is the new Wild West. The individual is more important. That’s the American way. It’s about doing things your own way. Web workers represent that. … It’s the future, my friend.”
The context of the quote is that there are going to be more Web Workers in the near future as the very nature of the work force changes, and we have discussed that on many different occasions over here.
I do want to take this opportunity and thank the team of writers – Chris, Judi, Mike, Matt, Liz, and of course Anne who have helped turn my wild idea into reality. It is their efforts and you the readers who are the true reasons WWD exists. (So forgive me for being a bit pompous by bringing up the quote!)
Interestingly, Fost points out that this SF bedouin culture is not something new.
Venerable insurance firm Lloyd’s of London was actually started in a coffee house… Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote some of their best work in Parisian cafes. And in San Francisco, writers and poets of the Beat generation, such as Jack Kerouac and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, wrote in the cafes of North Beach.
Another reminder that what’s old is new again!
Bonus link: Jeff Nolan shares his thoughts and reminds us that phrase Going Bedouin came from Greg Olsen.
Congratulations, WWD team! Keep up the good work (and writing)!
I know this place has already become a daily must-read along with my morning cuppa. I’m not exactly living in a mecca for web workers, so it’s great to have a resource like this, full of like-minded souls, to help me get out of the vacuum.
Thanks guys, I enjoy what you write and wish you all full power for the next 82,666.
One thing though, it would be great if you didn’t just blog for blogs sake. I know page views are important for you but I for one wil be reading less avidly if there are more posts of the “what kind of donut do you eat whilst web working”.
All the best!
Nice piece and definitely inspiring. I see these guys working away at the local coffee shops, and I just say “All the power to them!”
Congrats WWD. Terrific service. I’ve learned about so many great tools in the little time that I’ve been an RSS subscriber. I look forward daily to my feed and I think your signal:noise ratio (i.e., useful posts that I read in full: not so useful posts) is higher than anything else i subscribe too. If I could only take two RSS feeds “on a desert island,” it would be WWD and the creativity exchange (http://creativeclass.typepad.com/), which has little to do with my work but is consistently compelling.