Coworking

= In coworking, freelancers and contractors share work space – and sometimes professional or philosophical affinities.

URL = http://blog.coworking.info/

Advantages

From the "The Current State of Coworking" workshop (2010):

"* Healthy coworking spaces help retain local talent; cities can play a role. La Cantine is partially sponsored by the city of Paris. The city of Santa Cruz, California, helped create NextSpace in order to retain local talent. As one person put it, “People heading over the mountain to Silicon Valley to work are too tired in the evening to participate in their own city culture.” Hillary Hartley, co-owner of Citizen Space and active in Gov 2.0 initiatives, mentioned San Francisco's city hall is intrigued by coworking, and has even considered "municipal coworking" as a way of fostering and maintaining talent in the Bay Area.

• Keeping things local creates (unique) coworking spaces. With the growing popularity and press coverage of coworking, some "rent-an-office" businesses have re-branded themselves with coworking to attract business. Authentic coworking, however, thrives when the community self-organizes into a space or when community voices are woven into the culture of a space. "Members have a voice," said Raines Cohen of Hub Bay Area. Just in San Francisco alone, these voices manifest themselves as Citizen Space, Parisoma, Sandbox Suites, Hat Factory, and Cubes & Crayons (not to mention spaces elsewhere in the Bay Area and start-up incubators, some of them pursuing ideas associated with coworking)

• What role does corporate sponsorship play in coworking spaces? We briefly touched on this. Coworking spaces have a wide diversity of models to remain financially sustainable. Citizen Space is member and owner supported, but has been looking into sponsorship opportunities. We are doing so with both the integrity of the space and the needs of the members in mind. Other space have direct corporate sponsorship and are fine.

• Organized community is vital. Sharing experiences with other people was sweeter than the donut I had for breakfast that morning. Online forums and other digital venues are needed, but don't underestimate the speed of light insight that springs from real-time, face-to-face discussions. A community of coworking owners/managers/coordinators staves off isolation, and is a huge resource for knowledge- sharing and motivation. The informal coworking meetings that take place at the SXSW gathering are important in this regard, too. With that in mind, Chris Heuer offered space at the Social Media "clubhouse" during SXSW for coworkers to meet. Chris also suggested starting a monthly coworking video chat, using something like TokBox. Who’s interested? An organized community also brings buying power for more affordable office equipment, IT services, etc.

* "Coopetition" works. Especially in cities or regions with multiple coworking spaces, embracing the community aspect of this movement is a good thing. As manager of Citizen Space, I recently reached out to other spaces in the city with this in mind and it is has been extremely valuable. It feels great! Sharing expertise and cooperation with competing spaces provides benefits to the whole community." (http://shareable.net/blog/the-state-of-coworking)

Discussion

Tara Hunt on the conditions for successfull coworking:

"Spike: Your advice to someone wanting to start a coworking space?

1. If you can’t be a ‘patron’, i.e., someone who can support the space yourself without making any money for the first year, then find one. This way, you can put community ahead of making money and build a nice atmosphere.

2. Build community before you get a space. We did. Indy Hall did. New Work City is. Caroline Collective is. Office Nomads did. This is consistent across the board. Get the support first before you get the space. You can’t just build it and they will come.

3. Build out simply and slowly once you have 1 + 2 covered. We started simple and have built out from there. I know there are spaces, like Launchpad, that are investing hundreds of thousands of dollars into infrastructure and that is cool, but not everyone has to. People just want a space to come to so they aren’t working alone anymore. If the need for a fancy photocopier comes up more times than not, THEN invest in it. We don’t even have a phone system, just VoIP. Everyone uses their own cell phones. We don’t have a photocopier. Only 3 people have EVER asked (in 1.5 years) and there is a Kinkos nearby. I don’t know. Providing a nice space with a great atmosphere is key. The other stuff is overhead." (http://blog.launchpadcoworking.com/2008/04/12/an-intervew-with-tara-hunt/)

Examples

1. Citizen Space
2. Citizen Desk

More Information

1. Coworking Community Blog
2. Office Nomads Blog