Hello all, This is a great discussion and I believe many of the things said are true, since there is still no stone rules about what coworking is.
I would like to raise another point, though, that I didn't see discussed here. One of the aspects of coworking is the absence of boundaries and fixed formats. This is one of the cool things about it. But, as we all are and deal with human beings, familiarity is a safe haven for most of us. I agree that the uniqueness of each coworking space makes it a place where people want to go back and where they feel confortable. But what if you could take that familiarity with you? One of the good aspects of franchising is that you know what to expect form that place anywhere. Anyone who has traveled to a far place knows how relieving it is to find a McDonald's when you don't know where (or what) to eat. I believe the same thing could happen to coworking. If you travel to another city or country and you can find a place to work that is similar to the one you use back home I'm sure you would be much more comfortable. Also, there is the big cities life issue. Those who live in a huge city, like I do, would agree that moving around in a rainy pre-holiday day is almost impossible. What if you could, instead of driving for 2 hours in a traffic jam to get to your regular coworking space, go to a very similar one just two blocks away? If you could have basically the same services and hospitality you find in the other one, I believe you would embrace it immediately (I would). I guess that's what a franchised coworking space is about. Not standardizing to the point where it becomes impersonal, but replicating your working environment to multiple locations. We, from Pto de Contato (www.ptodecontato.com.br) are trying to do that here in Brazil. We have two places in the city of São Paulo and we are testing this ideas. So far successfully. I believe scale is good, but we cannot miss the point that the structure is not all we provide in a coworking space. The human aspect that many of you have pointed out is a key element as well. Marcus T. -- 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.
