Local efforts – Page 3 – The Global Coworking Blog

They’re Working on Their Own, Just Side by Side

Yesterday, an article about coworking was published in printed version of The New York Times (written by Dan Fost).

Coworking sites are up and running from Argentina to Australia and many places in between, although a wiki site on coworking shows that most are in the United States. While some have grown-up-sounding names, most seem connected somewhere between the communalism of the 1960s and the whimsy of the dot-com days of the ’90s, like the Hive Cooperative in Denver, Office Nomads in Seattle, Nutopia Workspace in Lower Manhattan and Independents Hall in Philadelphia.

Click here to read the full article.

Umbrella Offices in South Brooklyn, it’s kinda like coworking

without using the word “coworking,” umbrella office‘s founder David Krieger states his goal is “to bring people together, host meaningful seminars, speakers, dinner parties and put some art on the walls.”

if you click on the Christopher Batchelder‘s profile you’ll see his goal to be “to create an innovative office-share that fosters committed, diligent and excellent work. It’s hard to stay at the top of your game as a small office and/or freelancer. We want the intensity of the communal environment to help take people to the next level!”

now doesn’t that sound familiar?

so if you’re in the south brooklyn / gowanus area, shoot either one of these two guys an email and see if they start interjecting our most favorite hyphenated/non-hypenated word.

Office Nomads in FORTUNE Small Business

Berkeley Coworker Sean O’Steen pointed out a great article about Seattle’s Office Nomads space over CNNMoney/FORTUNE Small Business, including a great quote:

[Office Nomads founder Susan Evans] has found that the benefits of coworking go well beyond getting people out of their cars. “It’s about having a work community and being around people who are also interested and inspired.”

Dec 13 Event: Co-Hopping San Francisco

The group of us who run coworking spaces in San Francisco, including: Citizen Space, The Hat Factory, Sandbox Suites, The Altrupreneur Center and AF83 are really excited to be throwing a conjoint Co-Hopping Event on Thursday December 13 from 6:30-10:30 pm. We are also really excited to have Bio-Diesel Betty (aka Lindsay Hassett) entertaining us between venues in her bus with the Bamboo Floors, pillows and, what else, bio-diesel fuel.

The route map looks something like this:

And can be found on Google Maps. The event commences at Citizen Space (425 2nd Street, #300), but you could potentially begin at any of the spaces on the route and catch up with us as the bus will be making the loop throughout the evening. There will be food and drinks at each of the spaces and the event is totally free.

The night is intended to give people a flavor of the different spaces, meet the peeps who run them, find out a little more about coworking and just generally celebrate. 🙂 Hope you can come out and celebrate with us!

Coworking in Argentina

CoWork Central It’s been an amazing month since I started calling myself a “Space Catalyst”.
I’m proud to announce the creation of a coworking space in Argentina, right in Buenos Aires city.

I’ve been very happy about the response in my local community. With all the freelancers I talked to, they are all telling me that they’ll love a coworking space in the area and they cannot wait until it’s open. Many of those are designers and programmers.

With these positive comments I started working on a brand, registering domains, doing some real state research and since yesterday I started an online survey for all those argentine freelancers (following the steps of Tara’s survey and the business plan from CubeSpace that was really helpful), with the help of some freelance friends that are helping me in areas involving: press, marketing, design advice, and diffusion mainly.

Although the survey is 100% Spanish, if you’ll like to take a look just point your browser to: http://www.cotrabajo.com.ar

So far, the survey is getting very positive results. The data collected will let us know several issues about the local freelance market, not only coworking-related stuff.

Also, we thought it would be a very positive thing to give something in return for the time spent in answering the questions. First, the participants can enter into a small contest to win several t-shirts with a design customized by each one of them, and second, to all those blogs that are linking to the survey’s homepage, we’re going to add all the links pointing back to them in order to send some traffic back.

I’ll keep up on the results of the survey and with the progress of the space, that I’m keen it will be the first of many in Latin America.

21 Sept. an invite to brooklyn coworking’s metamorphosed location

dear fellow NYC freelancer,

it’s been a while since we shared the wifi-hotspot-double-mocha-frappa-whatchamacallit, exchanged tips on client management, conference hangovers and discussed the virtues of Kurt Weill and Yochai Benkler’s Wealth of Networks. i’m sorry i haven’t been back to that coffee shop.

i have to let you in on secret. well, it isn’t really a secret, but one of those NYC underutilized facilities… last summer, beka and i banded together to create Brooklyn Coworking at Not An Alternative (NAA). we broke free from hourly coffee purchases and created a space for new york’s alternative working community – a cafe-like community and collaboration space for programmers, net-artists, online organizers and independents.

about a month ago, brooklyn coworking undertook a metamorphosis, tore down some walls and is no longer limited to a cozy café environment. if you attended Glowlab‘s Conflux, you’ve seen the spaciousness!

are you tired of complaining to your cat about broken code or a bad client?

wondering what is the next wave of social software?

looking for an invigorating environment to call an “office?”

if you are in NYC on friday, 21 september, join my best friends for williamsburg’s coworking open house and happy hour! i promise you an absolute delight!

you’ll find all the deets on Not An Alternative’s Blog.

XOXO from india,

noel hidalgo

photo courtesy of the NAA’s blog post…

The Philadelphia Inquirer loves IndyHall

A reporter and photographer spent several hours at IndyHall this past Wednesday and the product of their work hit newsstands this past sunday morning…we’ve got a bunch of printed copies of the biz section of Sunday’s Philadelphia Inquirer but if you’re not near a copy (or your newsstand doesnt carry it) you can read it here! If you do grab a copy, we’re on the front AND back page of the business section.

Photo of the front page via Mika Kania

The local response and support has been absolutel incredible, lots of drop ins coming out of the woodwork to check out our space.

Our grand opening is September 1st, if you’re in or near Philadelphia I encourage you to RSVP and attend!

Let’s walk through through IndyHall together!

We shot a little video earlier this week and I finally figured out how to cut together some stuff in iMovieHD.

Check it out, and leave comments/tags! Oh…sorry about the fact that I’m talking crazy-fast…I’ve been drinking a LOT of coffee!

[viddler id=40e87a66&h=437&w=370]

We’ve been open all week for free use. Our internet was spotty since we were borrowing a connection from a neighbor until today, when we had our DSL line installed. On Wedneday, we had 15 people working from the Hall and the Philadelphia Inquirer spent about 4 hours here interviewing and taking pictures.

Tonight, just 5 days after our first day in the new office, we’re having our first official event, a brainstorming session organized by one of our members for his client. We’ll be videotaping that as well, so expect o see that posted to the IndyHall site.

We currently have 15 desks and chairs put together, and next week will be fitting out our lounge and conference room. If all goes well, we have a good deal on digital projectors and other office equipment like that.

We’ve got a lot of donated gear too, from furniture and items for the kitchen, lounge, and office supply closet to a recovered server rack for our networking set up.

Our free use will roll into membership driven use on September first, but not without a big bash! Keep an eye on our Upcoming Event and RSVP if you’d like to attend the social event. We’ll have an open house all day, and in the early evening we’ll switch over to reception mode, crack open some champagne, and toast, before heading over to our partner bar less than a block away. I hope to see lots of people on the 1st, it’s going to be awesome!

Citizen Desk Now Open

Who would have thought a small town in central Wisconsin would be on the cusp of Co-Working?

After a few months of contracting in San Francisco, I was inspired by the “goings on” at Citizen Space. The energy and camaraderie was something missed here, so I decided to create my own “nice place to work” in little ol’ Wausau.

Here’s how it happened: While working at an area coffee shop, a local landlord approached me and asked why I didn’t have an office. He’s an old friend, so he offered me a small office that was tucked away upstairs and said it was mine for $100 a month.

I told him about the experience I had in SF and how nice it would be to have something similar in Wausau. Then he did something highly unusual – he offered me a top floor office that had been dormant for some time. We worked out a sub-lease agreement where I pay only for the desks that are filled – of which he furnished. He also gave us chairs, tables, fridge, Internet service and free utilities — and HE paid to have it painted! How great is that?

So, for minimal investment (a vinyl sticker and a coffee maker) – we now have our very own co-working space. It’s with great pleasure – I introduce to you, Citizen Desk. <– thanks Tara & Chris

Citizen Desk Door

Updates from the Philadelphia Front

A lot has been going on in Philadelphia! Our ever-growing group of creative and independent business people is about to come together to open our first coworking space! We have a bazillion things to do to prepare for signing our lease on August 15th (everything from space planning to purchasing equipment to scheduling broadband installations…nevermind signing member agreements and collecting payments!). We plan to soft open as quickly after that as possible with a grand opening soon to follow. We’ve got a wonderful space in Old City Philadelphia (32 Strawberry Street, map), which puts us in an awesome neighborhood with easy access, lots of restaurants, as well as regular foot traffic. Really, it couldn’t be more ideal!

To ring in this excitement, I’ve relaunched our website to now include a group blog, allowing contributions from our members. Our membership plans are posted on the site as well, as well as much of the information regarding our plans. As dates harden, I’ll be sure to post here again so people can attempt to make it down for our opening if they are nearby!