Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Branimir Brkljač; Taken without interventions from the blog Iskusni Početnik
Since the beginning of this year I have socialized with a number of very interesting people. Some I knew since before, and many of them I met only this year.
Tomi is a Japanese and works with artificial intelligence. Mirche is a Romanian and doing something for a US company (I explained this great), and American Kendal spends entire days flying drones (again I explained this great).
Philippa is from Australia – a literary editor by profession, who prepares concepts for film adaptations of literary works which she then sends as suggestions to production companies. Britney is a British American and deals with consultancy jobs. She came with John, a British Indonesian who is a videographer (so now I at least have some idea what a videographer is).
I knew American Cedric from before, but we got to see each other again and we had a great chat. He is still in blockchain and cryptocurrencies, which only means that we talked more about everything else than that, because I really don’t know much about what he works on to put it quite mildly.
Luis from Wales has his own YouTube channel, and Sara is from Morocco and is engaged in the promotion and development of social entrepreneurship in northern Africa and in the Middle East.
Luca is an old friend. We see each other regularly. This Italian-born Canadian, who lives a bit in London, a bit in Switzerland, and a bit in Italy, is dealing with photography, and because of the nature of the job he is constantly on the road. And since we’re talking about Luca, let me mention Aneta, a politologist and entrepreneur, co-founder of Belgrade’s independent theater production “The Reflector Theater”, whose engaged shows spark discussions on emotional social issues. She went to London as a winner of one of the most prestigious British scholarships, the Chevening Scholarship.
I always love seeing Habib, a German who lives in Berlin and draws roots from Montenegro, because in each conversation he breaks you to pieces and spins you five times around your axis, and in the end you are grateful for that. It happened to me again this time. I guess that’s why he immediately ‘clicked’ with Boris, A Zagreb guy with origins in Split. I actually introduced them, and you are yet to hear about Boris and his business. I spent time these past few months with him as well.
And how interesting it is to listen to Uroš, guy from Belgrade, who has a master’s degree in international law from Cambridge, and who did his specialization in Paris and The Hague, as he explains why he left the academic career of a teacher at Law School in Belgrade to completely dedicate himself to his entrepreneurial project “Gastro Balkan” – foodie tours in Belgrade. And don’t get me started about Nataša, who is certainly the best pastry maker in the world, because she combines the top-notch knowledge gained during schooling at one of the most prestigious, world-famous gourmet school, “Le Cordon Bleu” in Paris, and during her specialization in chocolate desserts in Belgium, with her authentic, unmistakable creativity. And yet she believes that what she’s doing is nothing special. With Lenka, a girl from Novi Sad on temporary work in Belgrade, I always like to talk, especially when I have some serious dilemmas and I wonder what to do. This 25-year-old marketing manager always helps me with her great advice.
There were more very interesting people and great collocutors, but you “can’t fit everything in one song”. And I didn’t meet all these people while traveling the world. I just regularly went to Mokrin, a village in the north of Banat, on the intersection of Serbia, Romania and Hungary. All of them were either already there or came and went. Some stayed for a week or two, some stayed a month or two, and some of them just dropped by. Some of them are still there, and some don’t even know how long they will be there.
Ten years ago, when I accepted the proposal of a group of young architects called “Autori” to renew the abandoned rural property in Mokrin, and build modernly designed facilities transforming it into an urban center in rural surroundings, I didn’t even dream that “Mokrin House” would become what it is today. Just a couple of years ago, the global movement of digital nomadism started, made primarily by freelancers who can do their job anywhere, so some of them decided to use this opportunity to work together and travel. And some of them discovered Mokrin House and started to come.
For me, meeting of the people I see there is a privilege today. If nothing else, it helps me recognize the trends I read and write about. But also to understand, in my expert-beginner way, that the generation gap actually exists. (insert smiley here)
But let’s set aside my personal mulling. The main reason for this story is to point out another example of what the consequences are of the IT technology revolution. Mokrin House as a project would have been inconceivable just a couple of years ago. There are three key moments that have made it possible:
- First, the number of jobs that don’t require a person to be in a particular physical location is increasing. This trend will only grow further, and so will the number of those who want to travel and work;
- Second, access to the internet as the global information network is basically a given today, and its capacity to transfer data and communication is growing exponentially. We are just a step away from internet access being officially listed among the basic human rights;
- Third, with the change of media infrastructure that carries communication today, each individual with a smartphone in their pocket has become a media channel.
Viewed from the perspective of the Mokrin House project, the first of the above trends enabled the creation of a relevant market, and thanks to the second trend the selection of products for that market is constantly expanding and enriching, as more and more locations become accessible to offer services sought by the users. And finally, the third trend enables relevant marketing communication using “testimonials of satisfied users”, as it was once called and used only in direct marketing and TV sales.
And this third trend was the key to success of the Mokrin House as a destination for digital nomads. Because not everyone needs to know about the Mokrin House, but only those who are interested in it, and for them, the experiences of those similar to them are what matters. And they tend to find each other, recognize each other and connect in the infinite galaxy of the internet. As Seth Godin simply explained it: “People like us do things like this!”
Some two years ago, one of the residents of Mokrin House was Sam. Sam is an Englishman and also does something with computers. Digital nomad is his way of life, and through his work he has travelled the world.
During one of our conversations below the walnut tree in the yard, I asked him when he was planning to return to England. He looked at me with that I-don’t-understand look in his eyes and repeated the question: “England?” I tried to be more precise: “I mean, when are you going home?” He replied, “I am a Mokriner. This is my house now.” Back then I didn’t understand, but now I know exactly what he said to me: “I am a citizen of the world.”
