You can be a 'digital nomad' (no, really!)

You may have heard about the extreme telecommuter lifestyle and thought to yourself, "Wow, I would love to do that, but, nah, I could never make it happen." Wrong job. Young kids. Can't afford it.

Extreme telecommuting is possible because of the Internet and electronic mobile devices, software and services. Thanks to the revolution in digital communication, you can for the first time in human history work on the other side of the world as if you're on the other side of the office.

With conventional, traditional work, you're supposed to spend the best years of your life commuting in heavy traffic every day to an ugly building where you slave away at a desk under fluorescent lights. Once a year, you get a two or three-week vacation, where you go somewhere nice and live a little. Later, when you're too old to climb volcanoes, you can retire.

Extreme telecommuting turns all this around. You take that vacation time and sprinkle it over your entire year.

I'm here to tell you that you can make it happen, and also to give you some very real advice on what it takes to turn your dream into a reality. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. I'll tell you the good news - and the bad.

For more enterprise computing news, visit Computerworld. Story copyright Computerworld, Inc.