Hi Adrienne, the arguments that Alex presents in his post are completely plausible and based on his and other people´s experiences (including my own) valid. The free coworking, as an incentive for people to enter a coworking space, that Alex describes, is a different free coworking though, than the free coworking I am talking about. The big difference is the aspect of working by yourself or working with others.
The free coworking I am talking about, is by definition a coworking with others on a common project. Why is that important? Because the free coworking I am talking about is about the social capital of coworkers in a coworking space. Only when the coworkers interact, work on common projects and bring their different resources and expertise to bear will the social capital be activated. That is why a free coworking offer where people work by themselves will not work. It is not attractive and not sustainable. If you look at the seats2meet free coworking model you can see that offering a free seat is not enough. Seats2meet for example offers a free meal and tea as well. On top of that do they provide a physical- and IT- infrastructure which encourages interaction and common projects. That is one way how the social capital is activated and free coworking works. Another example is the Gangplank example where people like to give „to give“ rather than give „to take“ i.e. people freely give more than they take. That is also an aspect of free coworking and another way to activate the social capital. I am sure there are many more ways to activate social capital to attract the financial capital necessary to run a coworking space. Please join the development: http://www.coworking-news.de/free-coworking-resources/ and share your ideas. More on aspects of free coworking please see the article on shareable.net "a case for free coworking" that Alex mentioned below. Greetings, Felix On 3 Apr., 15:00, Adrienne Normand <[email protected]> wrote: > http://dangerouslyawesome.com/2010/06/a-case-against-free-trial-cowor... > > Adrienne > > Sent from my iPad > > On Apr 3, 2012, at 7:17 AM, rachel young <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > > > > Felix, > > > I'd love to read your reply as well. Maybe answer here for the group to > > read? > > r. > > > On Apr 3, 2012 5:24 AM, "Felix Schürholz" <[email protected]> > > wrote: > > Hi Adrienne, please send me Alex´s email or tell me where I can find > > it, so that I can answer him and you fully. Greetings, Felix > > > On 2 Apr., 21:50, Adrienne Normand <[email protected]> wrote: > > > I really enjoyed Alex's email yesterday about the case against Free > > > Coworking. If coworking is of value to you, why wouldn't you pay for it? > > > It obviously has a cost, why would you not reciprocate the owner/providor > > > for making coworking available? > > > Adrienne > > > > 2012/4/2 Felix Schürholz <[email protected]> > > > > > Looking at the recent entries in the “Free Coworking > > > > Directory<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsBt-syY2tDCdDhjbl8wemh2...>” > > > > it is apparent that from the last 7 entries 6 come from the USA, and of > > > > those, 5 from California. It remains to be seen whether this is a > > > > coincidence or the start of a stable trend. With now 3 free coworking > > > > offers in Los Angeles with Droplabs (Free Basic Use), kleverdog > > > > coworking > > > > (every other Friday) and Indie Desk (every 2nd Monday of the month) we > > > > have > > > > a first free coworking capital in California. I hope other cities will > > > > follow this wonderful example and collaborative endeavour. > > > > > If you want to know more about free coworking please refer to our > > > > resource > > > > page <http://www.coworking-news.de/free-coworking-resources/>. > > > > > -- > > > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > > > > Groups > > > > "Coworking" group. > > > > To view this discussion on the web visit > > > >https://groups.google.com/d/msg/coworking/-/atTfwaCihaoJ. > > > > 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. > > > -- > > 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 > > athttp://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. > > > -- > > 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 > > athttp://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. -- 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.
