When I visited Portland last year, I saw the future.

Collaborative workspaces. Freelancers co-operatives. Independent tech meetups. Urban farmers, bakers and furniture-makers. It’s all happening in Oregon.

I came back to Brooklyn and couldn’t stop talking and thinking about it.

Portlanders are already living the new economy -- connected, collaborative, independent. We call it New Mutualism -- and Portland is one of the epicenters.

That’s why you’ll be hearing a lot more about Portland from us over the next few months. We’re going to be talking with the Portlanders who are making collaboration work and showing the rest of the country how it’s done.

We’ve already got a series of events planned for the Portland freelance community, and we’ll be highlighting individual freelancers and organizations on our blog.

We’ll take the best of what’s happening and share it with you in a way that will be useful no matter where you are.

This feels like the early stages of something much bigger--a broad network of connected freelance communities.

Right now, we’ve got our eyes on Portland -- and you should take a look, too.