Coworking, Shared Space for Independents
Published by drron April 26th, 2007 in New Workspaces.Several of us regularly attend Ed Vielmetti’s A2B3 Thursday lunch at Eastern Accents in Ann Arbor. Among many of the varied topics we have been talking about is the concept of “New Workspaces,” which has had the attention of a number of people. We want to have a shared space downtown with wi-fi, where we could bring our computer and do work while surrounded by others, who might teach us something while we’re there. So, people aren’t so much interested in incubator space with a shared fax machine, as they are in building a community of people to share ideas. To see where coworking is happening in Ann Arbor, see the calendar at Microcoworking.
Coworking is the name many people are using to describe experiments in this area. In San Francisco, a group called The Hat Factory, set up a space in what used to be, you guessed it, a hat factory. They’re open whenever there is a keyholder working. The shot shown here is a still from their web site’s video tour, which I recommend watching. These sorts of experiments are currently in existence all over the world and the Coworking Wiki is a good place to get info about what other folks are doing.
Another good article about coworking is Workplace Democracy – The emergence of a community of independent workers by Mark Dowds, who founded the Indoorplayground, a coworking environment in Toronto, Canada.
Note this innovation from Socialtext in Palo Alto -
http://ross.typepad.com/blog/2007/04/a_commune_for_g.html
They had extra space when they moved into a new location, and are using it as coworking space for companies. Ross Mayfield says "Real estate is the leading cause of death for startups," and that is one way to reduce the risk for everyone.
I’m interested in this concept as well. To add another resource, there’s a blog at coworking.com which collects items of interest on the subject. They have several different feeds; I couldn’t find one that aggregated them all, so I made one at Yahoo Pipes.
While I am in the nonprofit sector, I too, think this makes a lot of sense. Especially because it encourage folks who would normally be working in isolated spaces to come together and perhaps share ideas and thoughts.
I believe that local communities can be a place of great change and I think it would be great for like-minded workers to come together in downtown Ann Arbor to both revitalize the economy and create something more.
I know that one of the reasons I like Ann Arbor is that is has such a strong sense of community and local flavor. What better way to extend this into the business sector than by a collaborative work space?
I work in a shared office loft in downtown Ann Arbor with 4 other creative firms. It’s a great environment for collaboration and sharing of ideas. People here are designers, web developers, marketers and GIS mappers. It’s much more productive than working out of a home office.
You can see pictures here: http://tinyurl.com/ytvstm
I’ve been thinking about setting up a tiny shared space like this in Mt. View California for the Web 2.0 companies based in Michigan who want to occasionally visit and work in the heart of the valley. Also, it would allow us to jointly create an Ann Arbor MI presence near all the Angels and VCs.
as an update to this -
regular Ann Arbor microcoworking calendar at
http://www.microcoworking.com
traveling itinerary includes Weds a.m. (Primo Coffe) and Friday a.m. (Pure Visibility).
There’s 10 people who have been in today at PV, which is pretty typical.