(Però poi, nei commenti, cambia un po' idea).

Una conversazione interessante, cui prendono parte anche Tara Hunt di Citizen Space, Jacob Sayles di Office Nomads e Alex Hillman di Independents Hall, coworking tra i più conosciuti del nostro piccolo mondo.

Mike and I met up with Bill Erickson and Alex (@emp - eek! I didn't ever get your surname, Alex) last week for lunch. As well as their organisation of the BIL conference we chatted about Tuttle and the coworking experience at The Creative Space - do I believe their tales of $1 per sq.ft? And I am, no really I am, going to get down to the Werks one of these days. What's becoming clear to me is that, having created something of a feeling of community with Tuttle, it feels right to tie it in to a concentrated effort to finally get coworking off the ground here in London even in the face of ridiculous property prices.

This is my current vision - that a group (and anyone who dares call us "The Tuttle Elite" will have very very painful things done to them) of us - those already working freelance - commit to renting (or otherwise acquiring) an office space for a period in which we will work together. The working atmosphere will be somewhere between serviced office, cafe and project war room. People who come along will be actively encouraged to collaborate with others rather than simply pursuing their own stuff. To the outside we might look a little like a consulting, resourcing and training company. It will work best if there continues to be a rich mix of people from different disciplines.

When it comes to actually making this commitment it all gets a bit chicken and egg - Me: "Can you commit to paying rent somewhere?" Tuttlers: "Well it depends on where and it depends on for how much." Prospective Landlords: "So how many people are committed to this?"

So here's something to throw into the mix.

Tom Ball is, right now, moving Cognac out of their 5th floor 450sq ft office on the Strand down to a larger 2nd floor space in the same building. Tom and I reckon it could house up to 8 people working at any one time (as long as it doesn't get too hot this summer) There's a separate little meeting room and a small kitchen. He's looking for people to take it on, but obviously doesn't want to hold onto the overhead for too long so this is a current and fleeting opportunity. It costs around £2000 per month - the details are here on their site.

So are there eight of us who could/would pay £250 pm each, like tomorrow? And put down a month's deposit as well as the first month's rent? or some other combination of people and cash? I recognise that there's a difference between getting Yes-es to these questions and actually getting cash out of people but it's worth asking anyway - even if this just turns out to be an Aunt Sally. Or is there a benefactor or patron who'd put up say, six month's rent in order to enable it to happen - and probably get some benefit in terms of free consulting help - y'know access to that bright interdisciplinary cohort of super-brains?

I'm looking at doing more stuff, more interestingly all the time. So be prepared to listen to me waffle on about it for some time, until it happens.

I was by there this morning recording a video commerical for an upcoming blogger bash on July 30th, 7pm with my coworker @ginnyskal. (plug)

But if your in Raleigh, check out edge-office or go to http://edge-office.com.

Also get ready for @Brianr new coworking space in Carrboro that's coming soon see http://carrborocoworking.com

it's great to see another canadian coworking facility come to life!

Io mi muovo su questi due fronti: coworking groups (qui) ed ex-borsisti AFS/Intercultura (qui).

we won't be updating you on every step of the way, but we will announce key milestones when we surpass them.

now that we have this plan, it is even more exciting for us to be able to put this together. we hope you're excited too.

As a designer, with an avid interest in product development and the viability od creative collateral. My focus for the designers within Brooklyn Fshion Gallery is' Where's your Money at?' A question which invariably acts as a catalyst for change and a conflict to remain authentic to their art!

I explore the Artist Mosaic as it relates to Independent Strategies for Creative enterprise with particular reference to new media and technology.. The artist mosaic project looks at individual artist and the and how they are strengthened within a community. The culture of co-working and collaboration and explores ways to utilizing that within entrepreneurial situation. We interact closely with artist andobservetheir useand adaptation of emerging tools.

Currently we are exploring Virtual space;its design paradigms, then how The creative entrepreneurs adapts to it and thirdly how the consumer uses, utilizes and adapts that space to their needs..
Our first internet installation A-Liners led tothe A-Liners PhotoBlog which then led Russian Designer Alexander Seraphimoff to us. this was the first online exhibit we specifically put together for a creative artist! During That period we gave many designers blogs which all feed to www.aliners.suprglu.com Our focus on the use of internet tools to help artist create showcasing opportunities extend to music www.bigeyedbluesfestival.com and it's community network as a tool for creative entrepreneurs. The development of these projects have become vital for the survival of local creative enterprise. the following links give a wide view of projects and I hope it answers any concerns.

Demarketplace is the most recent installation of Artist Mosaic project which explores modern technology and it's use by today's artist crafters and designers. Our original focus were ' Pop -Up ' facilities and special events such as http://ufashionfest.blogspot.com and VBAS Brooklyn Trade show sponsored By Macy's and we originally used new media solely for documenting purposes. That has since changed and our present project DeMarketplace explores the Virtual marketplace, incubator, office

Artsurfin is a new take on a traditional Art Stroll, We have vast experience pulling together events, have tested and explored every web app and tool we are using. Like most events built around the Internet or developing Mobile technology. Artsurfin as an online concept is new and is the latest project developed as part of the Artist Mosaic project. While www.Brooklynfashiongallery.com is a news portal and content aggregator.. www.Demarketplace.com focuses on the use of the internet for trade purposes. All Programs are beta before official launch in September 2008.
Please visit for documentation on projects we have worked on or produced.

During 2006 to 2007 we took our project to 4W Circe of Art and Enterprise, creating and testing creative enterprise training program. which was featured by Crain's Report and Channel 2 News . We also develop the website for this incubator. http://wcbstv.com/video/?id=94980@wcbs.dayport.com rising Cost has since forced 4W Circle to close it's doors. In June 2007 recognizing that this facility would close We were encuoraged to explore a virtual incubator and retail outlet .

The project has progressed organically , In that new directions are generally initiated by artist request. During Brooklyn Fashion Week we will explore the virtual trade show and mobile technology as an entrepreneurial tool.

We've been in our offices now for a little over a year.  After starting Morgan/Dorado in our guest bedroom, the breaking point came when I had my third coffee shop meeting of the day, when the temperature was 105.  I looked into co-working but decided for my business where we deal with lots of client confidential information our own office was the best bet.

But if you're in need of offices or a conference room from time to time, check out local co-working spaces around you. Might be a good fit.

All of a sudden, small differences in office and general culture are beginning to pop up. Several different French people here have left the (main) room when they received a cell call, which is very common in France (and not unsual here, either). While that's very polite, I can't imagine it is an ideal solution in the long term, when the only other real room is a conference room. I can imagine one day in the future, 4 people huddled together in the corner between the main space and the conference room, trying not to be too loud on their phones....

Now, I know my noise tolerance is high because a) well, I'm American, b) I worked at a school for two years, and am used to plugging in headphones to cover the sound of kids screaming during their break. But in general, I assume an office will have a certain level of noise; people will be on the phone, or talking to one another in the office, etc.

This isn't an insurmountable difference in working style, of course. It's just very acute now that we've gone from a couple of us talking across the room and playing music, to 5 of us in the office being incredibly polite and noise conscious. I know eventually the membes of the space will define what the space will be like - and in the meantime, maybe the middle ground is to have a "quiet hour" in the AM, and then "headphones mandatory" hour in the PM?

In fact, even if we are full booked at the moment (5 desks), we haven't had much attendance in the office these past weeks, and I wonder if the season has something to do with it.

Furthermore, August is a month rather "slow" here in Italy (most companies/offices/stores close at least two weeks), so these days we are checking who'll be around and who won't for the rest of the summer.

To our pleasure, we have received a one-day visit from a blog-friend and are expecting someone from the US too (are you anywhere near here, Susan?).

Besides attendance and visits, we have improved the cowo site (blog, that is) with a list of coworking spaces in Europe and the rest of the world - thanks also to the excellent list provided in the cw wiki - along with few more "coworking resources" such as links to cw videos from Youtube and the wiki, cw photos from Flickr, cw blogs from Technorati... we are open to suggestions and of course ready to include your site, if you like. (Just leave a comment or write to me- max(at)monkeybusinessmilano.it).

Last but not least, we are doing a networking effort with a linkedin group we called "friends of cowo-coworking" which counts, at the moment, 43 members from many countries.

The feeling we have is that coworking is taking its course, and we try to go along with it - developing it but also understanding it... it's good to see people settling down in your place and feeling good about it, we consider ourselves lucky to have such little community, what we mean to do right now is to keep providing such a service and aventually find ways of imrpoving it, but without any rush.

I'd like to get into deeper considerations about cw, but I don't feel ready yet, cowo is only 3 mos. old...

So, thank you for reading this, and ciao from Milano!

Comunque, qui si racconta che ci sono coworking spaces dove esiste un dress-code

(...) as I realized on the first day when the manager coolly scanned my shorts and T-shirt and said, “our members usually dress for work".

e altri dove la proprietaria dello spazio deve andare a casa sua se vuole lavorare sul serio

I wasn’t getting any work done when I was there, because clients wanted to stop and chat.

Stupendo.

E comunque, posti come Cubes & Crayons - dove gli adulti lavorano e possono portare con sé i figli, che vengono accuditi in modo adeguato - sono cose che distinguono le realtà economiche avanzate dal far west lavorativo, secondo me.

C’est une alternative intéressante pour les travailleurs indépendants qui n’ont pas toujours le budget ou la nécessité d’avoir des locaux continuellement à leur disposition. Station C permet d’avoir la souplesse nécessaire pour utiliser l’espace sur une très courte durée, un minimum de deux heures est toutefois requis.

Vous connaissiez le principe du covoiturage il y a désormais le coworking, une façon intelligente d’optimiser et partager les ressources. Pour plus d’informations sur le fonctionnement de la station C :

www.station-c.com

Photo Station C : Christian Guay

Si parla di nomadismo, flesh/skype meetings, virtual offices... e in generale dei vantaggi svantaggi e prospettive del lavoro della vita "always on".

Il coworking non è mai citato direttamente, ma sono argomenti che riguardano certamente molti coworkers.

Nell'articolo è anche citato il ceo di Sun Microsystems Jonathan Schwartz e celebre ceo blogger:

Time provides the structure, location takes care of itself.

Fonte: Ocrampal.

Si vous êtes sur Facebook, rejoignez et faites connaître le groupe Facebook Coworking Léman.

L'effort principal maintenant est d'agrandir la communauté Coworking Léman. C'est uniquement si nous parvenons à rassembler assez de personnes de la région qui sont intéressées par le coworking (et pas juste à titre de curieux, même si les groupes leur sont ouverts!) que des projets concrets peuvent prendre forme.

Impossible de prendre le risque financier d'ouvrir un espace de coworking avec deux pelés et trois tondus qui sont "intéressés". A un moment donné, il faut des engagements fermes -- et si je reste persuadée que la région (et même simplement la région lausannoise) recèle assez de coworkers potentiels pour que de telles initiatives voient le jour, encore faut-il trouver ces personnes (ou qu'elles nous trouvent).

Et c'est là que chacun et chacune a un rôle à jouer, pour faire connaître ce groupe et encourager les gens à s'incrire à la mailing-liste. Pour ceux qui s'inquiéteraient de la quantité de mails que cela pourrait générer, sachez que pour le moment le traffic sur la liste est très bas, et que Google Groups permet de régler assez finement à quelle fréquente on désire recevoir des mails de la liste (au fur et à mesure, en une fois au maximum une fois par jour, ou même jamais -- on peut participer via le web).

If you enjoyed the Green Drinks Station at the CC opening party, come by Beaver's each Wednesday as they support new entrepreneurial projects.

%25 of this Wedesday's profits will support Caroline.

Hope to see all of you there!

Following the success of London's congestion charge, launched in 2003, other UK cities such as Leeds, Cardiff, Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol have begun to explore similar schemes. The UK government approved a congestion charging programme for Manchester - the country's defacto second city - which would charge inbound morning commuters the equivalent of $4-6 and outbound evening commuters around $2. I guess that's around a gallon of fuel each day by US standards!

The rising cost of fuel globally coupled with the UK's antiquated public transport infrastructure could mean that the vibrant urban core of Manchester - undergoing somewhat of a renaissance - could begin to diffuse as commuters opt to exercise their option to work-from-home.

But this isn't a bad thing for Manchester - the city has a great infrastructure, a large media industry (including Google UK's second office and BBC's New Media arm) and is becoming an emerging hub for the digital industries.

However, there's a signal here that civic planners, creative/ digital employers and local government need to think more creatively about urban design. Web Workers can be at the leading edge of such a debate, already adopting to new realities such as remote tools, social media and coworking as replacements and alternatives for traditional commuting and office life.

Can we see traditional centralized employers diffusing across large metropolitan area? After all, kids don't all go to a central 'school district' or doctors to a 'healthcare district', why do we expect large and small corporations to behave this way?

It's not difficult to envisage a city such as Manchester populated by hundreds of coworking spaces with large employers such as the BBC, Google and others sharing these spaces, integrating schools, childcare and public transport hubs...oh wait, that's suburbia!

Seriously, there's a role for the readers of this blog to play in shaping the urban future of the cities we live in as sustainable living becomes increasingly important to urban life. How can this community start shaping this debate and bring its experiences to the table for other sectors?

Ho pensato al Cowo di Monkey Business, potrebbe essere una soluzione ideale, non solo per lavorare ben concentrata ma anche per passare qualche ora accanto a persone che mi ispirano molto e che ammiro. Che cos'è il Cowo? Il termine viene da "co-working", e in questo caso concreto sarebbe:

...un’iniziativa di condivisione spazi all’interno di un ufficio open space di 140 metri quadrati, nel quale lavorano stabilmente le tre persone dell’agenzia di comunicazione Monkey business/advertising in the jungle srl.

L’offerta di postazioni in affitto riguarda 5 workstations composte di sedia e scrivania, lampada da tavolo, computer Macintosh (opzionale), spazi/mobili per accogliere materiale personale.

Fa una voglia! Vediamo se si riesce a organizzare qualcosa, vi terrò aggiornati - anche perché così potrei incontrare gli eventuali milanesi interessati a uno scambio, quattro chiacchiere in un caffè...

Oggi abbiamo ricevuto conferma di un'altra postazione per il prossimo mese, domani è il turno di un altro giovane professionista per il "provino" di un giorno.

E' un'esperienza che si sta dimostrando interessante e ricca di spunti, anche se non mancano dei momenti di oggettiva difficoltà, come quando scopriamo di essere all'improvviso senza adsl, o quando mi rendo conto di aver dato due opzioni sulla stessa postazione (!).

In ogni caso, per ora mi sembra che l'esperienza stia facendo il suo corso, e tutti noi, scimmie e coworkers, stiamo imparando a convivere bene. Andiamo avanti.

Si tratta di una rete di spazi operativi aperti alla collaborazione per sviluppatori, scrittori, free-lancer e professionisti indipendenti di varia natura. Nasce dalle esigenze di chi ha bisogno di un collegamento Wi- Fi, una semplice scrivania, uno spazio più isolato per perdersi in conversazioni telefoniche unito alla possibilità di condividere la propria esperienza di lavoro con gli altri. Alcuni CoWorking space sono stati sviluppati da “nomadi della Rete”, soprattutto imprenditori che cercano un’alternativa al lavorare nei caffè, o all’isolamento del lavoro in casa o uffici indipendenti. I CoWork sono essenzialmente dei locali, veri e propri appartamenti o grandi e piccoli loft, con molte postazioni lavoro, i più interessanti non hanno dei divisori tra una scrivania e l’altra ma sono arredati con grandi tavoli dove le persone siedono le une accanto alle altre; c’è uno spazio adibito a cucina, un sala appartata per riunioni e, a seconda dell’idea dei proprietari, vari luoghi per il relax dove la chiacchierata informale e il confronto vengono stimolati; naturalmente un collegamento Wi-Fi, stampante, fax e fotocopiatrice a disposizione. Parliamo quindi non solo uno spazio lavorativo, ma un vero e proprio incubatore sociale. Un ufficio condiviso, a cui si aggiunge la cultura del “caffè”.

Diverse sono le motivazioni che spingono i liberi professionisti a vivere la propria giornata lavorativa in simili strutture. Chi viaggia molto per lavoro trova conveniente e comodo affittare questi spazi per tutto il tempo di permanenza in una determinata città, alcuni lo fanno semplicemente per uscire dall’isolamento della propria casa, altri per aumentare le opportunità di lavoro, tutti perché uniti dallo spirito di condivisione che permea l’atmosfera di questi luoghi.

Il CoWorking permette questo tipo di aggregazione sociale per un gruppo di persone che, pur lavorando indipendentemente, condividono i valori e sono interessati alla sinergia che può capitare lavorando con persone di talento nello stesso spazio. L’idea di lavorare insieme in un unico spazio, ognuno alle prese con le proprie attività, è frutto di un sentore sempre più diffuso, soprattutto tra i creativi, di concepire il lavoro in modo orizzontale, lontano dai tradizionali concetti gerarchicamente piramidali. Gli stimoli creativi arrivano spesso dal confronto con gli altri e quando questo confronto avviene tra persone che fanno della libera professione il proprio mestiere può accadere che da esso nascano nuovi progetti da sviluppare insieme.

Il movimento creato da Bernie[1] è molto di più di una condivisione di spazi, si tratta di collaborazione tra menti creative, capaci di lavorare in modo produttivo ed egualitario. Nessun tipo di rivalità, nessuna competizione, nessuno sgambetto tra colleghi per ricevere le attenzioni del capo, niente raccomandazioni, niente di tutto questo dato che il CoWorking è l’antitesi del lavoro in azienda. I progetti si sviluppano per affinità, non c’è una decisione dall’alto, anche perché non esiste nessun capo, e la cooperazione ha come prerogativa la meritocrazia, concetto spesso sconosciuto nelle realtà lavorative italiane. Inoltre, la pluralità degli spazi favorisce la rotazione, non c’è un’assegnazione ben precisa, ogni giorno chi affitta un posto si siede dove capita; e questo favorisce il movimento fisico e delle menti. Per questo il CoWorking è definito, dallo stesso Bernie, “l’arte della collaborazione online, o meglio del lavorare insieme in modo eguale”.

Un altro punto di forza degli spazi condivisi riguarda l’aspetto economico. Il costo di una postazione varia da una cifra giornaliera che parte da $10 ai $100 o una tariffa mensile che si aggira tra i $150 e i $700, naturalmente la differenza è legata alla collocazione dei CoWork; i più cari sono a New York e a Tokyo.

Girovagando per la rete si trovano degli spazi molto stimolanti a livello creativo, il più interessante è sicuramente la Hat Factory di San Francisco (hatfactory.net), sul sito il gestore presenta il suo locale con un video molto divertente in grado di trasmettere subito lo spirito creativo che si respira in questo luogo. Sono disponibili anche foto degli spazi e un breve profilo degli altri “occupanti” del locale per dare la possibilità agli interessati di collocarsi nelle realtà più vicine ai propri interessi. Molti sono, infatti, i CoWork a tema, in cui viene stimolato il confronto tra professioni simili per aumentare le possibilità di eventuali collaborazioni.

Soprattutto chi svolge un lavoro di tipo creativo sa bene come l’interazione tra realtà complementari sia spesso una condizione indispensabile per la concretizzazione di progetti. Ma i CoWork non sono utilizzati solo da singoli individui, spesso le imprese start-up affittano spazi per avviare la propria attività riducendo notevolmente i costi iniziali di mantenimento di un ufficio.

Grazie alle nuove tecnologie il lavoro sta cambiando, aumentano in modo esponenziale le persone che decidono di crearsi una propria attività e uscire dalla staticità che il lavoro in grosse aziende spesso comporta. Se prima i costi per intraprendere un business proprio erano proibitivi per molti, ora grazie ai servizi che la rete ci offre e a idee come il CoWorking è molto più alla portata di tutte le tasche. L’importante è avere delle buone intuizioni, molta professionalità e una mente libera dai limiti che una visione verticale del lavoro comporta.

we are looking for a mix of people with board experience, co-op experience, coworking experience, and general business experience, so don't feel like you may not have what it takes to be a director if you don't have all points.

there are three positions to fill, and we figured that the best way to determine who would be suitable would be to ask for a resume/cv as well as to speak to these three points:

1. describe why you want to be on the board of directors for a coworking co-op
2. describe any work or experience you may have done for a coworking facility, shared office space, a co-op, a collective, or any democratically run organisation
3. describe your vision for the coworking facility

please be as creative, innovative, descriptive, or brief as you feel is necessary to convey your answers. applications can be in a recorded format of any kind as long as it is a standard format that we can easily access electronically. applications in non-standard format may be asked to be converted to other formats. applications must be in english.

applications must be sent to both rachel@camaraderie.ca and wayne@camaraderie.ca by jun 15, 2008.

a general description of board member responsibility is:

• make decisions on matters brought before it
• report to members on any actions taken on its behalf
• review and approve budgets prior to submission to members
• promote membership growth and development and membership involvement
• participate in the setting of strategic plans and policies that will guide the affairs of the co-op
• ensure that those plans and policies are properly implemented
• develop, monitor and adhere to budgets as approved by members

please consult the section on directors in the co-operative corporations act before submitting an application.

this call for directors is only open to canadian residents 18yrs of age or older. proof of age and citizenship will be required upon selection.

directors must be members of the co-operative, so if selected, please be prepared to join as a member!

we look forward to all applications!

Do you work from home but miss the office atmosphere? Then simply hire a group of people you don't really like and would never otherwise spend time with, to mill around your living room for nine hours a day.

Priceless! Download the full episode (28mb) and skip ahead to 1m:20s...