Exploring digital life – 12 cities in 12 months

A couple of years ago I found myself quite bored at work, unhappy with my projects, and I was daydreaming about travelling the world and explore how people in different countries use mobile devices and what innovative services or solutions arise that are not well-known in other parts of the country. I compiled list of cities that I was interested in (Riga, Belgrade, Tel Aviv, Ammann, Addis Abeba, Cape Town, Seoul, Manila, Melbourne, Valparaiso, Medellin, Vancouver) and looked at it whenever I felt bored at work, thinking “One day! I’ll do that!” The idea would be to spend a month in every city – 12 cities in 12 months on all continents. I eventually changed jobs and started my PhD journey, which I find just as exciting, however, in the back of my head I still have this idea.

Turns out – other people are daydreaming the same dream and even turn it into reality. I have come across several similar projects: With Remote Year you can apply for the full package and everything – from travel to coworking spaces will be organized for you. The German writer Meike Winnemuth has travelled 12 countries in 12 months after winning half a million euro and wrote a book about it, however, her focus was on travelling and less on working from abroad. A similiar research project I came across were the innovation roadtrips by Anita Zielina and Klaus Weinmaier. It looks like they did not continue their trips after the first five cities, which is a shame, since I was a bit jealous:

Innovation Roadtrips – spannendes Projekt http://t.co/OFavupR4sH (sowas hatte ich auch mal vor, aber nie umgesetzt… #hättehätte)

— Sabine Berghaus (@stadtnomadin) February 15, 2015

And I remember about a guy who travelled 12 cities in 12 months plus blogged about his challenge to read 50 books in one year, unfortunately I can’t find the link to his blog anymore.

So – will I quit my job now to travel the world? No(t yet). But I’ll test the idea during my “workation” in Tallinn this summer. I’ll spend four weeks in Tallinn, working 50% from away and I am planning to schedule informal interviews with start-ups, researchers or other interesting digital experts and hopefully learn more about innovation, bringing ideas to life, and the influences of digital technology on people’s behaviour and habits. So if you have any tipps and recommendations for Tallinn – please let me know.