Kyle, I wholeheartedly agree on all fronts. +1 for everything you said. Coworking spaces started popping up in 2006 because a critical mass of people who: 1) got tired of working from home, 2) had the technology to work elsewhere, and 3) had the tools to organize together. But that critical mass was and mostly still is concentrated in cities.
There are examples of suburban coworking communities, though, and I think that as more and more people start working independently or telecommuting, suburban coworking is going to grow. So Mike, so answer your original question, it definitely makes sense to have coworking spaces outside of large metropolitan areas-- but they may have to start small and grow slowly and organically as the need for it rises... just like it did in cities. In suburbia, there are already many neighborhood communities, so it makes sense that when enough of those people start working from home, they'll start coworking together. I've read of several examples of this-- groups of people who work in each other's homes, who have no idea that Coworking or Jelly exist. That's how these things get started. Ultimately, there should eventually be some sort of a coworking space within walking or biking distance from most of the population. If people started to then use those spaces instead of commuting long distances, we could start seeing a positive impact on our gas consumption and carbon emissions. In theory :-) Tony Bacigalupo ------------------------ Coworking: http://nwcny.com Book: http://imouttaherethebook.com Recession: http://runwayproject.org Personal: http://tonybacigalupo.com On Sat, May 9, 2009 at 6:33 AM, Kyle Mulka <[email protected]> wrote: > > I don't operate a coworking space myself yet. This is just my opinion, > so take it for what its worth. I'm a software developer currently > working at a coworking space called StartPad in Seattle: > http://startpad.org > Next week, I'm moving to Ann Arbor, MI and will be working out of a > coworking space called Tech Brewery: > http://techbrewery.org > > In order to make a coworking space work, you have to get enough people > together who want to commute to the location and work together. Unless > you are running it as some sort of charity giving away resources > (which I wouldn't recommend), you have to collect enough money from > the people who work there to pay for all of your expenses, including > your own time spent on it. > > As far as I know, coworking is a fairly new trend. Since coworking is > so different from what people were doing before, it takes some time > for people to explore it, get used to it, etc. It requires a shift in > the way people work. It's a change in lifestyle. I think the coworking > movement is growing slowly because of this. I would say that currently > its pretty small. There's a lot of room to grow. I think it will grow, > and I think it will grow a lot. But its going to take time. > > Because there aren't a ton of people who are currently interested, or > even know about coworking, I can imagine it would be hard to start a > coworking space in the middle of nowhere and expect it to work out. On > the other hand, I think in order to fulfill the definition of > coworking, you just need two people working together. So, find a > friend who wants to cowork, and use a spare room in your house or > something to start. Once you can get enough people in your area > interested, find another bigger, better location and open it up to the > public. I'm sure there are other people on this list much more > qualified than I to tell you how to go about starting a coworking > space. > > So, what I'm saying is that I don't think there is anything special > about the city. It is just that there are enough people interested in > commuting to or within the city to warrant open-to-the-public > coworking spaces. But hey... if you know a few people in your area who > are interested, start small. > > A final thought about coworking... When you generalize the idea of > coworking, its really nothing new. The specific idea of individuals > working together in the same space from different companies I think is > new, but not the idea of people sharing resources, belonging to a > community, and paying for a piece of the pie. Look at things like > apartment complexes. Instead of renting by the day like some coworking > spaces, they rent by the month, or by the year. Instead of working, > its living. Look at gyms. You pay a membership fee, and you are free > to use whatever equipment in the building you'd like. You don't tend > to see gyms and apartment complexes in rural areas, and I think the > reason for that is the same reason you aren't going to see coworking > spaces in the middle of nowhere either. > > -- > Kyle Mulka > http://www.kylemulka.com > http://twitter.com/mulka > > On May 8, 9:48 am, Mike Strock <[email protected]> wrote: > > I live a bit North of Seattle in Washington state. There a at least a > > couple coworking spaces in Seattle that I know of, but nothing for those > of > > us that don't necessarily want to travel to Seattle to utilize a > coworking > > space. > > > > Does a coworking space make sense outside of large metropolitan areas, or > is > > one of the benefits of a coworking space that it is located centrally to > a > > large sector of the population in a densely populated area? > > > > Mike Strock > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
