The Coworking Wiki: Building The Movement Together

Post Author: Kevin Skiena.

Imagine what would happen if McDonalds and Burger King shared recipes and business models, or if Comcast and Verizon viewed each other as allies in their efforts to bring cable and high-speed internet to everyone. In a capitalistic society, where competition is branded as the best way to keep prices low and the customer happy, openness and collaboration can work against your business interests. Why give away your advantages?

Enter coworking. The values of coworking are openness, collaboration, accessibility, sustainability, and community. These qualities may seem to fly in the face of capitalism. Why should we share? How can my business thrive if someone else is diluting my presence in the marketplace by offering the same services?

We can easily forget that two companies marketing the same service are, in a sense, marketing for each other. What our community has to offer – the exact reason why collaboration suits us better than competing – is the individuality and uniqueness of the communities we create. Space owners and operators recognize that chief among their goals is to foster feelings of support and camaraderie. They may do this using particular techniques or activities, but even if another owner adopts the same practices, it would be impossible to produce the same results. Coworking works as a business model because of our intense desire to feel part of a community, and no matter how much of our techniques we share, every community will be different. Jacob Sayles, Coworking Wiki Upgrade Project Director and Co-founder of Office Nomads, thinks of new coworking space owners in his area as business partners. “When I hear that a new coworking space is opening in Seattle, I want to meet the people opening it,” he says. “I want to buy them drinks.”

A Platform for Growth and Collaboration

The Coworking Wiki was formed as a way to grow the movement and share our values. It’s a free, community-owned and operated web tool meant to help anyone looking to start, find, and run a coworking space. It offers shared business plans and advice. It has links to well-researched press about the movement. It showcases collaborative efforts between spaces, like the Coworking Visa program, which allows a freelancer or small business entrepreneur the use of an office while traveling in another city. The wiki allows us to aggregate and organize all of these resources in one place while reviewing its content and ensuring its neutrality. Today it is one of the top 3 web search results for “coworking” (behind Wikipedia and coworking.com). It’s highly visible, averaging about 500 hits a day, and it’s often one of the first places people new to coworking will go to learn about the movement. But there’s a problem . . .

Until now, the wiki’s content has been moderated by a small group of dedicated volunteers. The movement has grown exponentially, and the demands of keeping the wiki organized and up-to-date have simply become too much for the same level of commitment. Many links on the wiki are broken or misleading. Section heads are missing content, and contact information is outdated. Many wiki visitors feel overwhelmed or lost. It doesn’t have to be this way.

The Upgrade Project

The wiki has amazing potential to help new space catalysts, owners, and bring new people to the movement, and we want to help it live up to that promise. A small team of Seattle-based coordinators are working on a plan to improve the wiki’s content while creating a framework to keep it organized and maintained long into the future. We’ve identified the wiki’s key stakeholders, and we want to restructure the site using the concerns of these groups as a guide. We are working for discounted rates and volunteering our time in order to make this happen, but we can’t do it alone.

How You Can Help

Volunteer

Are you great an organizing and consolidating information? Maybe you’re more of a people-person. Our volunteer coordinator, Sarah Cox of Cospace, is assembling a list of is coordinating wiki volunteers and would love to hear from you if you have some time to chip in.

Join the Team

Going forward, the wiki will be moderated and organized by small team of coworking space employees. Their work on the project will become part of their regular job functions (no overtime necessary), and we expect wiki obligations to occupy no longer than 5 hours/week. We are looking for at least 3 more team members willing to make a one-year commitment. If you are an employee of a coworking space, or run a coworking space and are willing to dedicate up to 5 hours/week of your paid time to the project, we’d love to talk to you about joining the effort.

Donate

Your contributions allow for the recruitment and training of new team members, community outreach efforts, and the development of a map-based, searchable Coworking Directory. Our passionate team is fully committed to seeing this through, and they can’t do it without your financial support. Please think about how you could benefit from the shared resources of an upgraded Coworking Wiki and, if you’re able, consider making a contribution.

Spread the Word, and Give Us Feedback

First and foremost in our minds is that this is a community project. Please subscribe to our blog or follow us on twitter. Track our progress, share this information with other community members, and don’t hesitate to let us know what you think.




23 Ways Coworking Will Change Your Career (and Your Life) for the Better

Post Author: gerard.

I’m a writer and when I tell people I rent office space, I can tell they’re often thinking, “what a waste of money.” I mean, sure, I could work at home and save a little cash. We have an extra room with a door and everything. But, honestly, there are so many benefits to my coworking membership that I wouldn’t give it up any sooner than my iPhone.

Here are just a few of the ways coworking can change your life and career:

1. You’ll get twice as much work done at your new co-working desk than you did at home. Really and truly. It’s reverse peer pressure or something.

2. That side project you’re trying to launch? Now you work side-by-side with a bunch of writers, designers, developers and video people who can help you make it happen.

3. Your client needs a big website? But you can only handle part of the project? See number two. Now you can assemble a team to meet those needs in a flash. Or earn some brownie points with a referral.

4. Avoid elderly shut-in syndrome. Seriously, there’s magic just to getting out of the house and talking with real people. Your cat has already heard ALL your best stories.

5. Keep work from bleeding into every corner of your personal life. It’s easier to create a healthy work/life balance when “leaving it at the office” doesn’t refer to the spare bedroom.

6. You’ll effortlessly keep up with all the latest Internet memes. Like this one. Or maybe this one. And I’ll go ahead and throw in a totally self-serving link.

7. It solves annoying business problems. After whining about bookkeeping, my office mates introduced me to a wondrous thing known as Fresh Books.

8. You’ll build and expand your professional network. Even when you’re too busy to make it to that Meetup/event/cocktail thing-y that you didn’t really want to go to anyway.

9. Your grandma will start to think you have a real job. Maybe your mom, too. It’s something about going to an office that impresses the older relatives.

10. Have you looked at your tax bill yet? Your co-working membership is one more awesome thing to decrease your taxable income.

11. Creative energy is contagious. Being around other people working on awesome projects makes you more excited about your awesome projects.

12. If you’re a parent with kids at home, I hear it’s delightful to work in an adults-only space. No crying or tantrums or impromptu Candyland games (well, most of the time).

13. You’ll have people to bounce ideas off in real time. Not sure if that headline is too nutty? Or need advice on a client issue? Ask your desk neighbor.

14. There’s almost always beer and wine in the fridge. And no one cares if you break it out at, say, 3:30 on a Friday afternoon.

15. Wow, you now have two conference rooms at your disposal for client meetings. Or just to take a private phone call. Aren’t you fancy?

16. When you do decide to go to a Meetup/event/cocktail thing-y to network, you won’t have to go far. We host a bunch of them right here in the space.

17. Want to hold an event for you own industry or professional group? Your membership gives you 24/7 access to the space, and you can hold those events here for free.

18. Umm, sunshine=happiness. And we work in an awesome light-filled loft in a historic building. We’re even convinced there might be a secrete passageway somewhere.

19. You’ll sound (and be smarter) in all those client meetings. It’s easier to keep up with what’s going on in the business and tech worlds when you have office mates.

20. You can still work at home when you feel like it. I do it a couple days a week. A coworking membership doesn’t cost all that much, so you don’t have to feel bad about not going every day.

21. You’ll have real-life co-workers again, but no boss. Or weird corporate rules about what you can put on your desk. It’s the best of both worlds.

22. We know all the awesome lunch spots. And want you to come with us. Just be prepared to hear about the latest Internet meme (see # 6).

23. Co-workers are better than a personal cheerleading squad. They want your business—and your most offbeat side projects—to be smashing successes.

Did you make it all the way to the end of this post? You should definitely set up a time to drop in and work with us. We’re even better in person.

– Written by Michelle Taute, Cincinnati Coworks Member, @michelletaute




Evolved: Regus to Coworking.

Post Author: Craig Baute.

Since Regus claimed a few weeks ago to be the pioneers of coworking in the late 1980s a lot of coworking evangelists, myself included, were struck by their audacity to rewrite coworking’s origin story. The coworking community loves to share how coworking emerged from San Francisco in 2005 when the Hat Factory opened and the community-driven concept quickly spread throughout the world with the help of Jelly! But after reading Alex Hillman’s post about the many histories of coworking it made me realize that Regus did partially pave the way for coworking as it is today by creating a new type of work space and business model even, though the two models stand apart now.

So what did Regus teach us?
Regus and many other similar executive suites emerged in the 1980 and 1990s as the workplace changed and responded to new technologies – personal computers, networking, fax machines, the dial-up Internet. The new technology allowed for workers to leave their corporate offices to telecommute from home or start their own business and rent an office in a executive suite. Executives suites shared some spaces, which is how Regus claims to be a founder of coworking, but were designed to provide a perception of stature while sharing some office resources and services. However, they were designed with physical barriers of walls and cubicles to provide seclusion and privacy.

Regus was pioneer in the executive suite industry and did prove that people want to get out of the house to work, that sharing resources could lower expenses, and that there was a market for workplaces sold at the individual level. They might have proved that tiered monthly plans was a viable business model, but I’m not sure. All of these lessons helped lead us to modern coworking.

How coworking evolved from Regus.
There have many great posts about the difference between coworking and executive suites so I wanted to think more about what caused coworking to emerge and people’s relationship with the space since executive suites first opened. Coworking was a reaction to and enabled by technology, just as Regus was decades ago. Instead of the 80s and 90s technology allowing for people to work remotely coworking was a reaction to mobility. New wireless technology allowed for coworkers to share more resources and eliminate the need for a dedicated space since people could work anywhere with a wireless signal. The freedom to move around and still be connected changed how coworkers were able to design and relate to work spaces which lead to the coworking transformation from the Regus business model.

Cultural shift: Coworking eliminated walls, lowered the price, and let people talk.
Coworking started out and continues to be a relationship between people and between space. Coworking spaces tore down walls and built relationships between people instead of things.

Minimal physical ownership of a designated space drove coworkers to think of the space as a collective ‘ours’ and contribute to its evolving form. This is drastically different than the relationship that Regus creates between its members and the space they rent. Regus members have a designated space they can make their own office, but otherwise they provide a cookie-cutter utilitarian space. Regus creates a relationship that is transactional between two companies versus a growing partnership with vested interest found in a coworking community.

Coworking spaces have also managed to keep prices low and flexible in most instances by sharing resources. Modern wireless and web technology have changed what workers use with  daily carrier mail and phone calls replaced by email elminating the need for many of the extra services provided by Regus. Many coworking spaces share speedy Wifi, an address, a printer, meeting rooms, chairs, desks, and other resources. Coworking realized that many people just want a plug, quality coffee, and amazing people around. This extreme form of collaborative consumption enabled by technology allowed for membership prices to be low and flexible because of the reduced expenses compared to Regus’ model. The new lower prices allows for a diverse culture of freelancers just starting out, funded startups, and remote workers to come together in one community.

This all leads to coworking’s greatest divergence/evolution from Regus; a culture of openness and community between a full range of skills and experience. Coworking communities want people to talk and connect. A coworking community is not about proprietary information and secrets but learning together and friendship.

Did Regus contribute to coworking community? Yes. Were they leaders and founders of the coworking movement? No. Regus contributed in their own way to the changing work space but they have a different vision and that’s okay.

This article was contributed by Craig Baute. Craig runs Creative Density in Denver and has other posts on their blog. 




What are the differences between Office Rental Facilities, Startup Incubators, and Coworking Spaces?

Post Author: Tony Bacigalupo.

Tony Bacigalupo is the Mayor of New Work City, a coworking space and community center for independents in NYC. This post originally appeared on Tony’s personal blog, HappyMonster.

The world of work is changing, and that means times of transition. We’re in just such a time now when it comes to places that independents work, with old models being repurposed, new ideas coming online, and mishmoshes galore.

To help navigate this tumult, I am going to describe three basic categories into which any given space might likely fall. Some places fit pretty purely into one category, while some very deliberately attempt to cross all of the categories.

Generally speaking, however, every place has a primary reason for existing, and those can usually be pretty easy to spot. This constitutes my best attempt at helping clarify the core differences between these things.

Office Rental Facilities

Primary reason for existence: Rent space at a profit 

These are organizations whose business models are primarily based around taking a piece or several pieces of real estate, cutting it up into smaller pieces, adding services, and sub-leasing the space out at a profit.

The market is made up of businesses that, for one reason or another, require the privacy and services of an office without necessarily wanting to lease an office of their own. That might mean one-man operations or large teams.

This industry is useful because it makes office space accessible to smaller businesses whose founders are not in a position to take on spaces of their own. These kinds of facilities have been around in New York in various forms for decades.

They compete on location, price, and services. Some are more full-service than others. Sunshine Suites positions themselves as offering lots of basic business services for an extremely affordable price, while something like eEmerge caters to an audience interested in prime midtown location and higher end services.

They generally do not have a formal application process, but may have long-term obligations, sign up fees, criminal background checks, and upcharge for additional services. The relationship is one of landlord-tenant.

Startup Incubators

Primary reason for existence: Stimulate high-growth venture-backed startups

These are places whose models are a little less straightforward, as their success is defined by the growth of the companies they house. They are often subsidized by an entity whose interest is in economic development, like government agencies, or investment firms who hope to discover promising young companies to add to their portfolio.

The market is specifically people with ambitions to build high-growth companies, who do not already have access to what they would need to build their businesses.

In theory, they are useful because they take talented new entrepreneurs and provide them guidance, education, resources, and connections to propel them forward as growing businesses.

They compete to attract and develop talented and ambitious startup founders. Since incubators are subsidized, they provide services at a value higher than whatever it may cost to participate. In some cases, the programs are free.

They always have an application process of some kind. You must fulfill some basic criteria which may include the number of principals, the age of the company, the amount of existing funding, the existence of a prototype, and the industry the company operates within.

Coworking Spaces

Primary reason for existence: Facilitate a healthy community of independents

The newest entrants into the arena, these are organizations that offer membership to a community of like-minded people in a central gathering space. While some may treat these memberships as effectively the same thing as what one might find in an office rental facility, a coworking space does not compete as one.

Uniquely, coworking spaces are often organized organically as a community first before a business entity is formed. They tend to be part of a global movement that generally subscribes to core values of community, openness, collaboration, sustainability, and accessibility.

The market is focused on people who don’t need office space or incubator programs, but access to a place and community to plug into on their own terms. That could mean individuals or small teams whose work doesn’t require much more than a desk and an internet connection. This appeals to groups that the other two industries do not cater to, including: freelancers, contractors, telecommuters, and travelers.

Coworking spaces are open to all who play nicely. They almost always offer a drop-in option, so you need not even be a member to participate. Membership options generally range from single days to 24×7 access, with part-time options offered in between.

Coworking spaces distinguish themselves by their communities. Every coworking community has a different culture, so finding the best personal fit is paramount.

Similarities and Differences

Each area has its merits and drawbacks, but more importantly, it’s important to understand what is most useful to you and your needs. You’re less likely to bump into a potential investor at an office rental facility than you are at an incubator, for example, but you’re far more likely to find a customer or a cofounder in a coworking community than anywhere else.

New Work City, the space I help to run, is a coworking space. It is not an office rental facility, though membership does include basic office services. It is not a startup incubator, though we do house and nurture many successful startups.

We don’t exist to maximize return on our real estate; we simply want to cover the costs we incur and maintain a sustainable model. We empower individuals to get out of the community as much as they put in. Your application process is your own participation, and nothing more. People who don’t fit in weed themselves out.

Most importantly, the office rental facilities and startup incubators service the needs of businesspeople. These people have more or less existed forever. Coworking spaces service the needs of people who do something they care about, while their business entity, if any, may act more as a means to an end. They are communities of practice, where people go to work on their craft.

It is that latter group of people I find the most interesting. In light of everything that is happening in the world right now, the notion of making a living doing something you believe in on your own terms is a liberating one. In it may lie answers to repairing our economy.

By building services and doing things to help people start and maintain healthy independent careers, we have an opportunity to make a really fantastic opportunity to make a long-lasting positive impact on the world.

 




Coworking Spaces and Nomad Workers in Japan

Post Author: Tomomi Sasaki.

Coworking is a growing worldwide movement, and Japan is no exception. Although known for its culture of long working hours and office-bound work style — traditions ingrained into the psyche of the salaried worker — the shift to coworking is not perhaps as surprising as it may seem.


View Coworking / Jelly! Map in a larger map

The phase “nomad worker” hit mainstream consciousness with the publication of “You don’t need an office to work – The Nomad Workstyle” by popular writer Toshinao Sasakiin July, 2009. The conversation was taken to the next level by the earthquake on March 11th and the events that followed. With Tokyo facing several weeks of severely disrupted work and months of reduced electricity usage, the conversation around alternative methods of working naturally accelerated, from daylight savings time to a renewed interest in freelancing. Coworking was among these.

Read the full article on Global Voices


Coworking: No, it’s not an Office

Post Author: Robert Wayne.

I’ll get to the meat quickly but first you must know, my passion for coworking erupted like many house fires, unexpected in the night.

One early morning between 4:00 AM and 9:00 AM this blinding surge became a blueprint to open a coworking space in downtown Salt Lake City. I don’t know where the idea came from… it was just there. I don’t remember ever hearing the term coworking before, but one thing was clear, it was time to open a coworking office.

To me coworking is truly about, collaboration: a unified, high-impact, high-energy workspace. Not really an office at all.

The passion I feel for the community, this collaboration, is blazing inside me. You’ve surely felt it before working on a choice project. Coworking is a blazing fire.

If you want an office, you can go to one of many virtual suites. You’ll get a posh facade and a killer address for your business card. You’ll pay twice as much as most coworking joints and you’ll get a box office that maybe has a window. This isn’t coworking.

To me coworking is about energy first, it’s about the harmony that happens when two or more like-minded people are in proximity focusing on the same thing. In this case, building something, working –coworking. And now that I think about it, coworking is really a mastermind.  The kind that Napoleon Hill swears will change your life.

So I think you can see that coworking is really, not an office. Truly it is more of a mastermind with a footprint.

About the Author: Robert Wayne is a philanthropist, investor, urban mystic, educator, and fund manager. To date he has made millions in real estate, is currently creating a salt lake city coworking mastermind, and notability… has walked on fire TWO three times.




How to Attract Women to Coworking

Contributed by Angel Kwiatkowski of the Cohere Coworking Community in Fort Collins, CO.

Ladies of Cohere wear their Bike to Work tees designed by Suzanne (middle).

Since Cohere opened in 2010 we’ve maintained about a 1:1 female/male ratio. We didn’t think this was odd until people started asking us, “how can you possibly attract that many women?!” Our short answer is: women beget women via word of mouth. The long answer is below…

Men might fit into the popular ideal of what a freelance digital professional looks like. But in the coworking world, women are giving this stereotype a run for its money.

The Global Coworking Survey found that “most coworkers are in their mid twenties to late thirties, with an average age of 34. Two-thirds are men, one third are women.”

But some communities exist in complete opposition to these statistics. And those spaces that are predominantly male are very interested in reaching out to connect with what some consider the untapped freelancing audience: women.

Attracting talented, motivated women to coworking must be done delicately, however. Coworking space owners must not perpetuate damaging perceptions by thinking that a few women-only events and some girly decor will do the trick…read the full post on Cohere’s blog.

 

Coworking Turns 6

Traditionally, society forces us to choose between working at home for ourselves or working at an office for a company. If we work at a traditional 9 to 5 company job, we get community and structure, but lose freedom and the ability to control our own lives. If we work for ourselves at home, we gain independence but suffer loneliness and bad habits from not being surrounded by a work community.

This excerpt is from Brad Neuberg’s first writing about coworking on this day in 2005.

Today, coworking in unmistakably a global phenomenon with spaces and communities active and forming in cities and cultures around the world.

Events take place to discuss the present and future state of coworking. The press has a darling.

But most importantly, as Brad seemed to hope for in 2005, coworking is fundamentally changing peoples’ lives by changing not just where they work, but how they work, and who they work next to.

While it’s trendy now, Coworking is so much more than a trend. Today, we celebrate 6 years of working together as a global community of people dedicated to the values of Collaboration, Openness, Community, Accessibility, and Sustainability in their workplaces.

For today, I’d encourage you to remember that coworking isn’t just an idea, or a trend, or even a “kind” of place.

Coworking is what people want for themselves.

I write this post proudly as a member of this community. Thank you for the most exciting ride of my life.

-Alex Hillman, Indy Hall, Coworking in Philadelphia

Coworking: How to Build Community

Please enjoy five of the best blog posts from Cohere on building community around coworking. Learn more about how and where communities form, marketing tips, story telling and how to start a Meetup group for coworking.

Please enjoy five blog posts from Cohere on building community around coworking. Learn more about how and where coworking communities form, marketing tips, story telling and how to start a Meetup group for coworking.

Where and Why do Communities Happen?

So community literally means to give gifts to and among each other. Which in turn means my community is a group of people who welcome and honor my gifts, and from whom I can reasonably expect to receive gifts in return.

Story-Telling–An Easy Way to Build Community

People thrive on stories. Whether fact, fiction or (as is most often the case) a little of both, stories are what bind us together—as friends, families, companies, religious group, political sway or country. Stories can also enhance the connectedness of coworking communities. We all have stories—whether our own personal story or the story of our business.

Why Being Social Is More Important Than Social Media

I’m often asked about the best way to market a coworking space, or how to attract new members to the community. Many space catalysts assume that because coworking is a natural fit for digital professionals, social media must be the best way to generate interest in their target audience.
No brainer-right? Find computer people on the computer. I decided to do the math and see if the Cohere community supported this obvious theory. To my shock and awe, it didn’t.

Story-Telling–An Easy Way to Build Community

People thrive on stories. Whether fact, fiction or (as is most often the case) a little of both, stories are what bind us together—as friends, families, companies, religious group, political sway or country. Stories can also enhance the connectedness of coworking communities. We all have stories—whether our own personal story or the story of our business.

How to Create a Local Meetup Group

Coworking naturally creates community—it’s the beauty of freelancers and independents working together in a shared office space. No doubt you’ve benefited from this coworking community goodness. But have you ever thought about having a group that is more focused on a niche you’re interested in? Here are 8 easy steps for how to create a local meet-up group for other freelancers and small business owners.

Why Freelance Jobs Are More Secure Than Office Jobs

Three reasons why a room-full of independent professionals bring more stability to the local economy than a moderately-sized corporation.

Lots of people think that freelancing is something you do when you can’t find a real job. Freelancers know, however, that there’s nothing more real than being the CEO, COO, and CFO of a small business all at once.

Some people say they could never live without the security of a traditional job. And I say, what’s so secure about it? What’s so great about living with the fear that an HR person you’ve never met will decide your job’s not necessary any more? Or knowing that an executive in Europe could decide that the U.S. branch isn’t as profitable as it should be, and close it down tomorrow?

Here are three reasons why a room-full of independent professionals bring more stability to the local economy than a moderately-sized corporation.

Freelancers Are Dynamic

Saying that small businesses are more nimble than traditional companies is an understatement. In the time it takes three corporate committees to decide to begin to investigate a creative opportunity, the freelancer will decide, bring in other freelancers to collaborate, and take action to make it a reality. Freelancers are used to rolling with the punches. When business as usual stops working, they can try something completely new tomorrow, not next year.

Freelancers Have Low Overhead

Running a brick and mortar business is expensive. There are utility bills to pay, equipment to buy, and insurance to keep current. If profit margins fall low enough, these costly necessities can drive a company out of business in a matter of weeks. Freelancers on the other hand, have almost no overhead (especially if they cowork). Also, they can eat ramen noodles when the going gets tough.

Freelancers Can Do More Than One Thing At Once

Which has a better chance of surviving a down economy: a large company that does or makes one thing, or a sole proprieter that knows how to do five things? Freelancers are in it for themselves, which means they stay educated, are constantly expanding their networks, and work hard to acquire more skills that will make them competitive in their field. The days of depending on one skill or product to attract revenue are over. Companies are struggling to diversify, while the freelancer depends on diversity to stay in business.

Because of the reasons above (and many more) freelancers are both happy and stable in their work. They can’t get fired, or downsized or restructured. They don’t depend on the wisdom of invisible executives for their livelihood. They don’t worry about losing a big client because they know how find another one.

While the rest of the world gets into the unemployment line, freelancers keep paying the mortgage, shopping in local stores, feeding their kids, and paying taxes. They continue to contribute through both the bad times and the good, unlike a big company, which will probably move its business to Oklahoma City when the money runs out.

Why Are You Glad To Be  A Freelancer? Give thanks in a comment!

Image Credit: Flickr – Patrick Denker