On Dec 6, 2007 6:41 PM, jfg17 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > My take is that "co-working" facilities, broadly defined, are already > ubiquitous and that they offer people flexibility and variety and -- > believe it or not -- a feeling of community. When I work in my town > library, I feel connected to my neighbors. When I work at Dunkin' > Donuts, I feel connected to a different community, people who share a > positive association for that brand. > > I think the ubiquity of WIFI and the openness of towns, retailers and > others to supporting the new workforce may be a "good enough" solution > for most people, obviating the need for them for the potentially > superior experience offered by a co-working facility. > > What do others think? Is co-working a major new movement, or an option > that will only appeal to a minority of individuals whose needs exceed > the (sometimes free) work options already available?
Welcome John, and thanks for your post. Your point is well taken and hits on both the opportunity and challenge of coworking. First, I like to make the point that coworking spaces are "competing with laziness and free". That is, people are typically lazy and are content to work from home, even if it means inventing imaginary pets to keep them company (as one of our Indie Hall friends did). It also means that we're competing with the "freeness" of working out of cafes, Starbucks, on park benches and similar venues who make money not by renting you space temporarily, but by feeding you or selling you other stuff. To put it bluntly, it's unlikely that you're going to make a mint running a coworking space given "the competition". That said, coworking addresses needs that many people end up experiencing, to a greater or lesser degree, when they go independent, or move, or work from home, or regularly work out of cafes (as cafe and dining room-worker refugees ourselves, we're familiar with how things were before we had a coworking space). For us, the benefits of coworking are: 1. community: Having consistent folks that work around you is key. You might get this at a cafe, but it can be really variable. Seeing the same folks day in and day out helps you build up connections like you would with regular coworkers; but because you're often in different companies or industries, a lot of interesting cross-pollination happens. Beyond that, being able to leave work and head to a cafe or bar with your fellow "coworkers" is something that often doesn't occur when you're already working out of a cafe. Of course it's an existential choice as to what kind of community experience you're looking for, but we've found that the community of coworkers coming and going from Citizen Space is the greatest reward that we could ask for. 2. serendipity: Citizen Space is an international hub for wayward travelers and independent workers. We like to offer it as a refuge to folks visiting town for a conference or as a place to catch up on email for 30 minutes before heading to another meeting in town. It's the kind of place that we wished someone else offered when we were independents working from home or cafes much of the time. And since it is pretty conveniently located and an available resource, we get a lot of really interesting people coming and going, interacting and leaving traces of themselves behind. This randomness leads to a number of fortuitous meetings that might not otherwise takes place, and provides us, the proprietors, the chance to meet people we might otherwise not be able to. 3. stability and serenity in your work environment: Depending on how you work, this is a big one. Cafes can often be overbearing on one's productivity... for us, our favorite cafe often ran out of tables just as we arrived, forcing us to waste time looking for another space somewhere else to work. Additionally, the noise of a cafe, though stimulating, can be really bad for taking phone calls or having meetings. Theft is also a concern in open public spaces. And then there's the awkward tension that arises from sitting in a cafe for any number of hours and only buying a single coffee or pastry... not exactly a sustainable relationship. On top of that, our favorite cafe had to close up a number of power outlets after receiving $400 monthly power bills... and what did people do? They simply bought extra batteries, clearly not addressing the root issue. 4. a space of one's own: Then, if you consider that working from random places like libraries, cafes and elsewhere requires that you're truly portable, you begin to forget how much more productive you can be with a 30" display, an external mouse, external harddrives, solid-state printers and RELIABLE wifi. These things can be hit or miss in the wild, so having a dedicated space predicated on providing room for these accouterments becomes key. On top of that, if you want to hold events, it can be hard to find public space that can accommodate you. If you have friends in offices, that's an option, but being able to arrange a space to your own liking — installing projector screens or whiteboards for example — becomes an additional benefit of working out of a coworking space. As well, if you're a late night worker and cafes close before your productivity streak runs out, you quickly begin to appreciate having a "third space" that is open as long as you want it to be. 5. a place to work that's not your bedroom: Working from home can be great — you can get the laundry done while you're on the phone with clients or cook dinner as you finish up email. But, there are limits to this perceived "freedom". Probably one of the greatest benefits of coworking to workers with home offices is the fact that the coworking space is NOT their home! Especially when you're in a relationship where one partner works in an office with other people, the social isolation can lead to "gushing" experiences when the socialized partner comes home to the solitary one and is inundated with updates from the day. It's not that this is bad per se, but that coworking spaces can provide good antidotes for this kind of social imbalance or alienation. 6. a chance to build something unique: Besides all those practical benefits, there's something bigger going on here that should be acknowledged: in spite of all the technology and the ability to work "wherever" we want, there's still value in coming together in shared spaces with people that we like and care about. No one says that you can't work alone, but many people do think that working among peers is often better for them — and leads to a more positive attitude and outlook. Being able to join with a strong community like the coworking community and to be able to create the work-life experience of the future — and to define for ourselves what we want from where we work, for me, is critical. For a point of historical context, I used to work on a project called CivicSpace, which was used to organize the online grassroots of the Howard Dean Presidential campaign. It struck me as odd that we were building software to help people connect when our *physical* civic spaces were going away, being underfunded or replaced with malls. When I discovered Brad Neuberg's Coworking, it struck me that there was something to his simple, basic premise of getting people together in a common space on a regular basis, and facilitating interaction. True, it's not significantly different from cafe working, but for folks who have experienced both, there is definitely something qualitatively different about coworking, and that's perhaps because it's entirely up to the individual to get whatever they need out of it, while operating firmly in the context of local community. Let's face it: social networking might help us meet and connect with lots and lots of people that we might not otherwise, but it's certainly not the be all, end all, nor is it a replacement for our IRL human connections. Coworking facilitates these real-life connections, and hopefully brings people together in the context of the individual pursuit of one's passions. No one owns coworking, and everyone can participate, should they choose. Coworking may not be superior in every way to what's available today, but it doesn't have to be. What's important is to have the choice, and to work, somewhat collectively, to figure out ways to make this choice be possible, and be sustainable over time. Chris -- Chris Messina Citizen-Participant & Open Source Advocate-at-Large Work: http://citizenagency.com Blog: http://factoryjoe.com/blog Cell: 412.225.1051 IM: factoryjoe This email is: [X] bloggable [ ] ask first [ ] private --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
