Howdy,
Spike Gillespie here. I’m the blogger for Launchpad Coworking. Launchpad Coworking is a (co)work in progress. We hope to open our space this summer. Currently we’re planning the space, meeting other coworkers, and checking out how other people around North America are interpreting coworking. I’d love feedback and input from y’all so please check out the blog and let me know your experience with coworking.
Thanks,
spike
Back in July, I received a ping from Patrick Tanguay from Station-C coworking in Montreal suggesting that we should band together and submit a panel for SXSW Interactive 08 (the conference at which we had met, in fact).
Over the course of the next week, we shared ideas and, with input from Chris and Tara of Citizen Space, about how we might approach this topic to be a bit more general to appeal to the entire audience. We came up with a title and synopsis!
Coworking and the evolution of the independent worker:
A few years ago everyone wanted to work from home. Now we realize, working alone sucks. What new resources and communities, both online and off, are enabling workers to really step up their game. Coworking spaces are opening everywhere and playing a central part in this new way of doing business.
After submitting the panel and having it voted on, weeks passed. Months passed. Panels began being picked and posted for the conference. Our expectations were set appropriately (we’d be first time SXSWi presenters), and we weren’t shocked to not hear back.
As the last few weeks have been filled with lots of twitter-chatter and question-asking about our SXSW plans, I decided to email the event director, Hugh Forrest, to see if he had any news since we never really got an official “no” on our panel.
As it turns out…we weren’t out of the running! I found out this morning that we’ve been slated to join the list of Core Conversations, a new format to SXSW that reads a bit more like an unconference (see BlogPhiladelphia). This format, rather than a panel, is more of an opportunity to converse and share experiences and knowledge about our journeys in the “indy” workforce.
I’m SUPER excited about this, as it will give us a platform to unite the coworking community as it converges on the city of Austin from all over the world. Last year we had a really fun coworking meetup at Barcamp Austin, this year, we get an official session and location, as well as a spot in the program, to hold it!
I’d like to work with a handful of key people to help make sure that the 1 hour session we have is loaded with interesting and valuable information, so for those of you attending who have something in particular you want to share, drop us a line.
I’ll be posting more as I hear more about the time and date. We’ll also have to organize a coworking lunch or brunch or something like that. I know there are currently ~8 people from IndyHall who will be attending the conference, and many more from Philadelphia I’m sure. If you’re going to be attending and interested in coworking (or Philadelphia and our social/creative scene on any level), drop a line in the comments and we’ll be sure to look you up once we’re in Austin!
Jan 11, 2008: Open coworking Brighton at The Werks
In the spirit of Open Coffee / beer / juice, The Werks is opening up
on Friday’s for free coworking to developers, writers, creatives,
freelancers and independents.
The deal: come along (9:30 onwards), use our space, broadband and
facilities and in return; respect the space and the people in it,
collaborate and if you found it worthwhile come again.
Homepage: http://coworking.pbwiki.com/CoworkingBrighton
Upcoming: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/399483/
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.”
Coworking Tour Slideshow
Thanks so much to Rosemarie Lion for putting together this awesome Slideshow from the Co-Hopping Night! Rosemarie and crew came all the way down from Sonoma, where Sonoma Coworking is brewing. 🙂
Thanks to everyone who came down and participated!
Adding ACCESSIBILITY to our List of Core Principles
A while back, I listed the core principles of Coworking that Citizen Space ascribes to:
- Collaboration: One of the great benefits of working in a coworking space is that you will meet all sorts of people with all sorts of knowledge.
- Openness: We believe in transparency and openness. In a world where people are free, but ideas are not, only a few benefit. When ideas are free, everyone benefits. Therefore, we encourage open spaces and discussions. Sorry, no NDAs allowed.
- Community: We thrive on connections and mutual support here. It is important that everyone give into as well as benefit from the strong (international) community coworking has become.
- Sustainability: Shared spaces are also better for the planet, so we like to take that a little further and make certain our space is very environmentally responsible. Check out the Green Business Certification process we are going through and Ivan’s post on the process.
I posted these to the list and people generally agreed that these were important and the defining philosophies behind Coworking as opposed to alternatives like coffee shops and shared offices and rent-a-desks.
Just recently, though, I realized that we missed a BIG one: Accessibility.
There are all sorts of reasons why Accessibility needs to be included in those bullet points:
- Coworking spaces are about offering affordable alternatives to the community…giving a financially accessible option to independent workers. If the space isn’t accessible, indie workers continue to work out of their living rooms and coffee shops, which Coworking is supposed to address.
- Coworking spaces are about creating diverse and open spaces for everyone irrespective of physical or perceptual abilities….thus being physically accessible is an extremely high priority for Coworking spaces. We are fortunate to have found a wheelchair accessible building for Citizen Space because we’ve had several events here that required wheelchair access we would have otherwise had to turn away. That would have been a shame because they are great events.
Thanks to Anthony Tusler, who is working on Coworking Sonoma, for bringing this important issue to light. We have started a thread on this subject in the Google Group and have set up a wiki page to start collecting resources. We will also be adding Accessibility to our core values.
For those of you who own spaces that are not currently accessible, let’s start chatting about how we can help you make them that way. 🙂
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!
Cowork Central is now Open
Now it’s official. I’m really proud to announce that the first and only latin-american coworking space is now open. We also launched our brand new website with photos’n stuff.
Thanks for the support and friendly advice to the guys at the coworking group and everyone who supported the project so far.
So if you travel to Buenos Aires, don’t forget to visit us 🙂
Fernando Maclen
Cowork Central | Buenos Aires , Argentina.
We’re Open!!!
Here we are looking dorky in front of our fabulous new sign! The opening was wonderful last night and we are lucky to have so much support. Thank you everyone. Jacob, Seattle, WA
CooBric – New York Coworking finds another home!
In the past three months, we have seen a lot of great changes in the coworking community here in New York City – and CooBric is along for the ride. We have been fortunate to find another cafe-based home at Gramstand – where the tea is unique and the space is gorgeous.
With free wifi, a basement space that is nicely furnished with a conference table and lots of space for meetings and personal work space. You can learn all about the space on our blog – where Tony has put up a post with directions and other adjectives.
Come support coworking in New York by visiting Gramstand.
And, while cafe-surfing a great, the CooBric Comm team is working to find a permanent physical space for our team in the future – but we can use your help. Come and join our effort by signing up for the CooBric google group and send an email to one of the CooBric Comm team members with any leads. We thank you for your help!
