I was doing some digging and found it not so easy to contact the editors of 
the AP Style Guide directly without a content subscription, but I did find 
this: https://twitter.com/apstylebook

Does anyone want to join on a tweet campaign to get their attention 
#NoHyphenInCoworking anyone?

Also, found this: https://twitter.com/dhminthorn

Jacob, he seems to be a Washington state native, maybe you can reach out 
and invite him to Office Nomads to check out coworking?



On Tuesday, September 23, 2014 1:15:25 PM UTC-5, Alex Hillman wrote:
>
>  Lots of great analogies in there, Oren. http://ihighfive.com/
>
>
> -Alex
>  
> On Tuesday, Sep 23, 2014 at 8:51 AM, Will BennisLocus Workspace <
> [email protected] <javascript:>>, wrote:
>
>> Hi Oren,
>>
>> I really appreciate your thoughtful reply about this. And it's definitely 
>> pushed me in the direction of greater support for the "cause." Two 
>> particular points that I can agree with: (1) the name is being spelled in 
>> two different ways for no very good reason. We might be able to solve that, 
>> and get it spelled in the way most people using the word want it to be 
>> spelled, so why not do it? (2) The way it's spelled matters to a lot of 
>> people in ways that are not specifically about language clarity and are 
>> more about identity and community support. And for those people, the 
>> preferred spelling tends to be "coworking," so why not respect that?
>>
>> I'm in. I can respect that. 
>>
>> Best,
>> Will
>>  
>> On Saturday, September 20, 2014 9:41:49 PM UTC+2, [email protected] 
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi Will, 
>>>
>>> I know what your name is, I was just trying to make a point. :)
>>>
>>> I respect and value your points about no horse in the race and that the 
>>> indifference of the "co-working" fans would never lead them to debate this 
>>> to such an extent and that clearly this is something the "coworking" fans 
>>> are pushing here. I also see your point about the flexibility of language 
>>> and I agree no entity can stop language from changing and adapting and 
>>> being interpreted differently in different contexts. 
>>>
>>> All that being said, I find co-working to be disrespectful. There is a 
>>> distinct difference between your example of "personal computing and 
>>> computing" and "co-working and coworking". One refers to a rapidly adapting 
>>> industry where the nature of what was being described changed over time. 
>>> While coworking is rapidly expanding and comes across new variants all the 
>>> time, I don't think anyone is claiming a full transformation is happening 
>>> like in your computing example. 
>>>
>>> Nobody in journalism misspells kibbutz in writing and nobody just 
>>> started calling them collective agricultural communities either. Kibbutz 
>>> means something because it staked out the term and owned it. I see the 
>>> exact same thing happening with coworking except that spelling it 
>>> co-working means a distinct unfamiliarity with the subject matter. 
>>>
>>> Maybe I'm making some assumptions here, but this was one of the first 
>>> things I learned about coworking. I don't know a single major organization, 
>>> association, product, content hub, group or otherwise large group of 
>>> coworking people identifying under the "co-working" banner. We're all 
>>> squarely organized under the "coworking" banner. So what if some space 
>>> operators choose to spell it co-working? Obviously that's their choice as 
>>> an operator and they're welcome to do so, but to me it's always been a red 
>>> flag that they're disconnected from the global community. Maybe I'm wrong 
>>> in assuming so, but in my experience it's been validated pretty 
>>> consistently. 
>>>
>>> Even if there is little ambiguity in co-working vs. coworking (because 
>>> there's nothing currently called co-working), it's still very undignified 
>>> not be regarded as important enough to have a consistent spelling. That's 
>>> the core issue at hand from my perspective and maybe you disagree, but 
>>> that's why I think we're talking about entering the dictionary and the 
>>> style guides. It's for the same reason that a apple is in appropriate but 
>>> an apple is ok. If I said I'm going to eat a apple, you'd understand me but 
>>> look at me funny. We're just trying to get the journalists to realize that 
>>> from our perspective, co-working = a apple. 
>>>  
>>>
>>> On Friday, September 19, 2014 5:19:38 AM UTC-5, Will Bennis, Locus 
>>> Workspace wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hi Oren,
>>>>
>>>> I appreciate your reply about this!
>>>>
>>>> Actually, my name is Will, not William, damnit!!! :)))) 
>>>>
>>>> But I don't think this is really the same.
>>>>
>>>> First, "coworking" isn't a company name or a given name / proper noun. 
>>>> It's not your name or my name. It's not even "the movement's" name. If 
>>>> "personal computing" became just "computing," what would you think if 
>>>> Apple 
>>>> or Microsoft or a handful of influential early players in the personal 
>>>> computing industry campaigned against the change and said that we can't 
>>>> change "their" name, and that it was as though their given names were 
>>>> being 
>>>> mis-spelled? I'd personally think they should leave the English language 
>>>> alone and that it wasn't the role of people in an industry to try to 
>>>> manage 
>>>> what have become common nouns in the English language. I have run a 
>>>> coworking space for more than 4 years now. I care what you call my space 
>>>> or 
>>>> what you call me and I care about coworking, but the idea that spelling 
>>>> coworking differently from how people who run coworking spaces think it 
>>>> should be spelled, or that misspelling is like misspelling a proper noun 
>>>> seems to me like a stretch. 
>>>>
>>>> Second, to the extent the name is owned by the community of coworking 
>>>> space owners, or at least we have a meaningful stake in it (which I think 
>>>> we do), then who are *we*? You write that after 10 years, the coworking 
>>>> movement has earned it and that the "rest of us have all settled on 
>>>> coworking." But I don't think that's true. I see new coworking spaces all 
>>>> the time that put a hyphen in the term. As I wrote in the previous email, 
>>>> my (unsubstantiated) hypothesis is that there's really a pretty small 
>>>> group 
>>>> of coworking space owners who care about coworking being spelled without a 
>>>> hyphen. I've never seen poll results and I doubt the question has even 
>>>> been 
>>>> put to a wide audience of coworking space owners (and presumably members). 
>>>> Even within the industry I'd guess the vast majority don't care (if there 
>>>> were an option included in the poll), and I wouldn't be at all surprised 
>>>> if 
>>>> an international poll of coworking space owners and members showed that 
>>>> the 
>>>> majority even thought the better spelling would be WITH a hyphen. Why 
>>>> wouldn't you have heard that? The same reason I almost didn't make the 
>>>> last 
>>>> post in the first place: "the other side" (the side that would prefer a 
>>>> hyphen or just doesn't care), doesn't have a horse in the race, because 
>>>> for 
>>>> that side language is organic and functional and they don't see themselves 
>>>> as owning the name or as there being a meaningful difference in whether 
>>>> it's spelled with or without a hyphen. (To be clear, I have no idea about 
>>>> "the other side" or what justifications might be; I've never seen any data 
>>>> on this; but it also wouldn't surprise me). And the name coworking belongs 
>>>> to a much wider audience than just us coworking space owners by now, just 
>>>> as "personal computing belongs" to a much wider audience than Microsoft or 
>>>> Apple. And the Internet (or now internet) belongs to a much wider audience 
>>>> than the people who originally coined the name. That's a sign of the 
>>>> maturity of the word, and something to be proud of as a movement. Not 
>>>> something to fight against. 
>>>>
>>>> Third, even if we were a coherent community who almost universally 
>>>> agreed that spelling it without a hyphen was superior, wouldn't it be good 
>>>> to examine the counter-arguments? If, after we all gave it some thought, 
>>>> we 
>>>> agreed that it really didn't matter and that we should let its spelling be 
>>>> determined organically, then wouldn't we have saved each other a lot of 
>>>> time working to change something that was better left to grow on its own 
>>>> according to systems that my be wiser than we are about naming?
>>>>
>>>> My few cents, anyway.
>>>>
>>>> Will
>>>>  
>>>> On Fri, Sep 19, 2014 at 9:30 AM, [email protected] <
>>>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I'm with Marius on this one. 
>>>>>
>>>>> I think the important thing here is to get us in the dictionary with 
>>>>> the spelling we use. 
>>>>>
>>>>> To me, the spelling issue has always been indicative of a bigger 
>>>>> thing, which is official recognition as part of the English language. 
>>>>>
>>>>> After 10 years, I think the movement has earned it. 
>>>>>
>>>>> William, how would you feel if everyone started calling you Bill or 
>>>>> Will-iam? What if the difference between Will-iam and William was just in 
>>>>> written language and not in speech? You even stated that the reason you 
>>>>> spell it coworking is out of respect for the rest of us that have all 
>>>>> settled on coworking (you even prefer co-working!). That's all we're 
>>>>> asking 
>>>>> of journalists in this case. And if they're denying our requests on the 
>>>>> basis of being or not being in the dictionary, then let's get in the 
>>>>> dictionary. 
>>>>>
>>>>> Also Derek, the cowering autocorrect annoys me too! It never learns! 
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Wednesday, September 17, 2014 12:47:01 PM UTC-5, Marius Amado-Alves 
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> FWIW, I agree with Will's arguments except the "cow" one.
>>>>>>  
>>>>>> To summarize, the spelling is irrelevant, because there is only one 
>>>>>> coworking, irrespectively of how it is spelt. As Will points out, 
>>>>>> working 
>>>>>> with others in a company is never referred to as coworking.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Nevertheless, I think there is interest in diccionarizing the terms. 
>>>>>> (And then, while we're at it, with the preferred spelling? It would be 
>>>>>> interesting to watch what happens to the guides.)
>>>>>>  
>>>>>      -- 
>> Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com
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