Yesterday I took part in my first Jelly session — and I’ve got to say it was a fun and productive experience that I will be repeating in the future. Jellies are informal, free coworking events that are open to anyone. There were 10 participants at the Jelly I attended, from a range of different backgrounds although they were mainly freelancers, as you might expect. At times, particularly in the morning, the atmosphere was studious and productive, but there was also some interesting chat and opportunities to make new connections.

I always find that a change of scenery does me good, but considering that I was working in a room with 10 other people, sitting around a conference table, and occasionally getting stuck into conversation, I was surprised at the amount of work I got through (and that’s despite the speed of the Wi-Fi connection getting a little slow with 10 people working away).

If you’re feeling a bit isolated at home (or perhaps you just want to brainstorm some ideas) and would like to try out the coworking experience, but perhaps aren’t quite ready to commit to membership of a coworking space, attending a Jelly would be a good first step.

The first Jelly was started in New York back in 2006 by roommates Amit Gupta and Luke Crawford, who originally wanted to recreate some of the benefits of working from an office (without having to work from an office): brainstorming, sharing and camaraderie. So they started inviting people over to work from their house occasionally, and thus Jelly was born. It’s an idea that has spread worldwide.

The Jelly I attended was organized by CoWorkingWest and held in the nice office space of The Office, Bristol, UK, but Jellies are held in over 100 cities all over the world. (Some of them are even held weekly.) If there isn’t one near you, you can always start your own — you just need to pick a venue and get some people involved. They are often held in people’s houses, but also take place in other locations, like coffee shops and offices. As long as there is space for everyone, power and Wi-Fi, you can have a Jelly.

Have you tried working at Jelly?

Coworking is a great trend, one that is taking root in even the most unlikely of soil, including areas where it has a chance of making a big difference, like Detroit. For freelancers and small startups, a coworking space provides a great opportunity to work with others, and to have office space to show off when a client comes calling, without incurring the cost of a more permanent lease.

But coworking doesn’t come with zero cost, unless it’s done on the very small scale of inviting someone into your own home, or being invited into the home of another. You could also try meeting at somewhere that doesn’t charge beyond the price of a coffee, like a Starbucks, but how reliable is that really? In a big city, space is at a premium, so there’s no guarantee there’ll be room to meet there. So the question is, is investing in proper coworking space worth your while? How and when does it become a justifiable expense?

Step 1: Identify What You Have to Gain from Coworking

I’m not talking about the good feeling and sense of camaraderie you miss from your days working in an office setting, although you should feel free to list that, as well. It may not have a tangible monetary effect, but it will help with morale, which is always important.

Putting that aside, though, what are you intending to get out of coworking? Have you spoken to others who’ve tried it, and attempted to gauge the actual impact it’s had on their business? Maybe what you’re actually looking for is meeting space for occasional use, which is something else entirely and can be had much more cheaply.

If you are looking to build meaningful professional relationships, the kind that can’t come from email exchanges and the occasional lunch, then coworking presents a tangible benefit. If you need your company to have a public face, and one that exists in a brick-and-mortar sense, and you need that consistently, then coworking presents an attractive proposition. If your working hours are interrupted in consistent and unpredictable ways at your home office, damaging your productivity, then coworking could help.

Step 2: Assess the Risks and Costs Associated with Coworking

Once you know what you want to get out of the deal, carefully examine what it will cost you to get it. Depending on how long you’ve been working remotely, you may be in for a surprise at what a return to the commuting lifestyle will actually run to, all told.

For example, where is the nearest coworking venture in your city? Does your city even have one? (We won’t address the costs of starting your own at the moment.) Will you have to take transit, or do you have your own transportation? Just getting to or from your new office could represent a significant additional cost that your usual budget doesn’t include.

Workspace rental fees is another cost associated with coworking. For example, one near my home in downtown Toronto charges $350 a month for office space that’s accessible 24 hrs, with some meeting room time included. It’s $75 per work day if you don’t need the freedom of 24/7 accessibility. For many of us, those aren’t costs that our working budget can easily absorb.

Step 3: Make an Informed Decision

Once you have all the variables on the table, you still probably won’t have a very cut-and-dry choice. At least you’ll be informed, though. The more you focus on the hard benefits and costs associated with coworking, and the less you focus on your desire to socialize or try something new, the better. If all else fails, work out a set term for an initial trial, and then do a rigorous follow-up analysis to see if it’s economically tenable in the long run, and, more importantly, if you got some tangible benefit, enjoyed it and remained productive.

Photo credit: hyku on flickr

Intriguing “hackerspace/makerspace” i3 Detroit is holding its grand opening tomorrow, with an open house between 12 p.m. and 5 p.m at its new facility at 322 East Fourth St. in Royal Oak, Mich., followed by a party that kicks off at 7 p.m. Unlike some run-of-the-mill coworking spaces, which tend to be more like a cross between an office and a coffee shop, i3 Detroit’s 1,500-square-foot facility contains an assortment of fabrication tools, a classroom and a stock of many common components to use during project builds, which according to founder Russ Wolfe should create “a collaborative environment for people to explore the balance between technology, art and culture.”

i3 Detroit is a non-profit organization, and paid membership ($100 per month) includes 24-hour entry to the facility, access to all tools and preferred admittance to classes.

If you’re involved with an unusual coworking project, tell us about it in the comments.

As a web worker, you have the freedom to work from anywhere that has an Internet connection. A coffee shop or a library can make for just as good a workspace as a home office. But workplaces are not created equal. The differences between individual coffee shops can turn one into the perfect place to plant your laptop, while making another an impossible place to get any work done. The trick is learning to recognize what makes the best workspace for you before you buy a cup of coffee and find a chair.

More Than Just Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi is crucial to a web worker’s ability to work on the road, but just knowing a that your local library branch offers free Wi-Fi isn’t enough to tell you that it’s a great workspace. Knowing how good the Wi-Fi is will tell you how much work you’ll be able to get done, especially if you’re working on something that requires a lot of bandwidth. If you’re working in a coffee shop when someone has to reboot the router every hour or in a co-working space where everyone is a heavy Internet user, you may not be able to get the kind of access you need for your work. Unfortunately, it can be hard to figure out the status of the Wi-Fi until you sit down and turn on your computer. It may be worth booting up and trying it out before you settle in for the long haul.

Depending on how long you plan to work, you may also need an electrical outlet to plug your laptop into. You’ll find different policies on just outlet usage, depending on where you go to work: at most chain coffee shops, there are at least a few outlets that customers can use. In some independent coffee shops, though, it’s becoming more common to find outlets taped over, unavailable for your use. Keep an eye out for accessible power on your way in — if you look around and there are no outlets you can use, it may be time to move on to the next place on your list.

Think Ergonomically

When you’re choosing a place to work, it’s important to make sure that you can sit comfortably for a long period of time. If you wind up hunched over your laptop, sitting in an uncomfortable chair, it’s much harder to get work done than if you find a comfortable chair that allows you to easily reach your laptop. Being able to use a table can make a big difference in how comfortable a workspace is, but other factors can be more personal. Look for chairs and arrangements that match your own preferences for comfort.

Coworking spaces can often provide a step above other options when it comes to comfort. Coworking spaces are usually designed from the ground up to provide guests with a place to get their work done, as opposed to a restaurant that may want to encourage customers to move along so new customers can sit down.

The Cost of the Workspace

Despite the fact that some people view being mobile as a way to avoid paying for office space, there are still costs associated with going into a coffee shop and sitting down. You’ll order at least a cup of coffee, and most people consider it polite to keep ordering food and drinks as long as they are taking up a table. A library may have no cost associated with using it as a workspace, but the library staff may ask you to limit your time if there’s a lot of demand at a given time. A coworking space will have an upfront fee.

It’s important to consider the cost of working at a particular location. Even if such expenses are tax deductible (remember to keep receipts!) they can quickly add up.

What do you look for in your mobile workspaces?

Photo credit: Flickr user theregeneration

Hacker Dojo, a new coworking venture located in Mountain View, Calif., opened for business yesterday. Its location is good news for web workers from the Bay Area looking for a co-working space who aren’t based in San Francisco. Inspired by the monthly DevHouse “hackathon” events, the space is intended to be a venue for hackers, tinkerers and creative people — despite the name, you don’t need to be a programmer to become a member. Hacker Dojo is primarily intended to be a creative community space (a place to hold events, workshops, BarCamps, etc.), with coworking as an additional feature.

While some co-working ventures have found times quite tough recently (CubeSpace in Portland, Ore., being forced to close, for example), Hacker Dojo already has a long membership list. Membership fees are just $100 per month, so that list should grow rapidly.

If you’ve found a great co-working spot recently, let us know in the comments.

Recently, I’ve been talking to many local journalists about the unfolding implosion of the newspaper industry and its implications for their profession.

As the industry struggles to adapt to a world which is moving onto the web, journalists are not only learning to blend social media with traditional reporting, but as UK-based multimedia journalist Adam Westbrook explains, some are also exploring how distributed work teams could replace the newsroom.

Westbrook’s piece introduces the philosophy of Noded working: principles for forming distributed teams for particular projects.

The Noded concept is explained in a book. A downloadable preview describes the philosophy as:

“A group of individuals, often but not necessarily geographically distant, that come together to form temporary or recurring project teams. Unlike ‘distributed teams,’ Noded teams work for a wide range of clients and any member of a Noded team can take the lead to bring in work, manage work and choose their team members.”

Delving deeper, the Noded philosophy can be summarized as seven discrete principles:

1. Personality — Individualism is celebrated, enabling all members of a Noded team to define their own values and vision, but with a shared agenda.
2. Team — Each member is treated as an independent business owner or freelancer. Collaboration is driven by the needs of each project, often involving various combinations of members.
3. Leadership & Roles — There are no fixed roles. Traditional team leadership is replaced by project leadership, likely rotating between members who bring in the business.
4. Goals — There’s no collective group goal, only a range of individual member goals, which together form a kind of autonomy with shared purpose.
5. For Everyone — Anyone from employees of large companies to freelancers and indie workers can be part of a Noded team.
6. No Branding — A noded team isn’t branded discretely, but is a representation of the brands of each member, accompanied by an icon illustrating the Noded nature of the group.
7. Means Business — Noded teams are formed for business purposes.

The Noded philosophy seems to codify many of the existing principles of freelancers who work as part of project teams, defining a set of structures for establishing loosely coupled joint ventures.

Though many web workers are likely already members of Noded-like teams — whether they are aware of it or not — there’s something useful about having the Noded philosophy expressed that, now articulated, makes it easier to understand how to form project teams that cross organizational and disciplinary boundaries.

The Noded philosophy is analogous to co-working in many ways, with one major difference. Where the originators of co-working explicitly encourage others to modify and extend their values, the people behind the Noded concept appear to be establishing sole ownership over the philosophy and seeking to establish their own brand. This is understandable, but somewhat in contrast to their own stated beliefs.

Do your working practices already follow the Noded principles?

Last week I woke up to find that my partner had rearranged my home office. She spent the better part of the morning turning it into our home office.

I shouldn’t have been surprised — I’d told her earlier in the week that we might become more productive if we work near each other. At that time it was merely a suggestion. I didn’t think that one day I would just wake up and find it a reality.

“Oh well, there’s nothing wrong with that,” I thought to myself. It’s not like we didn’t discuss it. What’s the worst that could happen? In fact, I believed we were going to be more motivated and productive.

A few days later, I realized that every benefit of coworking with my partner came paired with a disadvantage.

Inspiration vs. Distraction

As Darrell suggested in a previous post, you should pick a coworking partner that you respect and admire. I knew I could learn from my partner’s work ethic and her ability to make connections. I find her inspiring, but having her around is distracting too. Every time she moved or made a sound, I would shoot involuntary glances to her side of the room. To be fair, she told me that although she’s motivated by my passion for work she got annoyed at how loud I type.

This meant that we needed some physical barriers so that we could block out distracting movements and sounds. At the same time, we didn’t want to completely separate our workspaces. Our solution was to keep our desks six feet apart, rather than side-by-side, and place a small shelf of books in between. From where I’m sitting I can see her monitor, keyboard and hands without being distracted with the other movements she makes. Also, she can barely hear me type.

Common Ground vs. Conflicts

Having similar goals and habits can work for you, but there will always be  conflict no matter how compatible you think you are. For example, we agree on the color of the walls (orange), the position of the furniture and having a small garden behind the sliding door. Things we disagree on: everything else.

The workaround to this issue is to know your priorities as a team and as individuals. Do you need a completely silent work environment or can you adjust to soft ambient music? Is your need for a large shelf as important as her need for more leg room? There will always be compromises. Knowing your priorities can identify the compromises that will least affect you.

If you must argue, pick your battles well. An argument over who makes the coffee is not as important as a constructive discussion on how the other person’s habits interfere with your work.

Collaboration vs. Independence

It’s hard to create privacy when you’re working in one room. This can be a good thing, since you can help each other out of time sinks as well as share ideas. Too much collaboration, on the other hand, can be suffocating.

Facilitating collaboration was easy. The whiteboard in the office allowed us to write our to-do lists for the day and the rest of the week. If I need help with something, I just write it on the box labeled “Requests.” She then responds in a way that was most convenient for both of us whether it’s through email, a conversation, or Twitter.

Even then, we’d often think of a question that needed a quick reply. Asking out loud worked at first, but during peak productive moments we’d rather work uninterrupted. How would she know if it was okay to disturb me (and vice versa)?

Here’s the solution we came up with: a simple “DND” under my name in the whiteboard shows that I can’t be bothered until the “DND” has come off. The same goes for her. Now, it’s almost a reflex to look at the whiteboard and check for the “DND” before I speak.

Coworking with my partner was much harder than I expected. The good news is that with continued effort, we’re slowly getting to the point where the arrangement is making us stronger — both as a couple and as teleworkers.

Have you ever tried sharing a home office with your spouse or partner? What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

Image by nyuszika from sxc.hu

Portland, Ore., has had more than its fair share of trouble from the current recession — it’s seen the biggest drop in employment of any metro area in the country, with jobless rates clocking in at a dismal 12.2 percent in June. But despite the gloomy picture, there are some sunny spots — notably the city’s coworking spaces.

While it remains to be seen whether coworking spaces can be profitable, the founders I spoke with in Portland say they’re up to the challenge. Many learned a valuable lesson from Portland’s first coworking space, Cubespace, which closed its doors last month. The company reportedly made several business missteps, including its monthly lease, said to have been an eye-popping 15-year, personally guaranteed agreement. Its successors, meanwhile, say that by balancing real estate costs, unearthing additional revenue streams, and feeding specific communities’ needs, their coworking spaces will be around for many years to come. Here’s a look at three of them:

Souk: Coworking Basics

Cre8Camp attendees gather at Souk. Courtesy Aaron Hockley

While the now-defunct Cubespace was Portland’s first coworking spot, Souk wasn’t far behind. Opened by Julie Duryea in January 2007, the event- and meeting-friendly space caters to what Duryea describes as “varied and colorful a community” as the open-air markets from which Souk takes its name. This broad-market approach has slowly borne fruit: last year, the company broke even, with a revenue mix from memberships ($275/month, full-time), drop-in desk use ($35/day) and meetings. While the economic downturn has pinched meeting revenue to the point that the company will likely slip back into the red for 2009, Duryea says she’s seeing a slight rebound in meeting space use.

For workers, Souk offers the most standard services of its Portland peers. In addition to the coworking basics — power, Wi-Fi, water, coffee and snacks — Souk hosts events, workshops and classes for its members, and helps them access local resources. “I can see how it’s easier in this city to start up such a thing,” says Duryea. “It’s more manageable size-wise, and there’s a big community of creative class workers.”

NedSpace: Coworking as an Incubator

Futurist Anthony Townsend told BusinessWeek in June that the explosion in web working is creating new kinds of “knowledge ecosystems,” and an ecosystem is a good metaphor for the model being pursued by Josh Friedman and Mark Grimes. The founders of 6-month-old NedSpace aim to separate their coworking space from the Portland pack with a focus on fostering collaboration among high-growth, early-stage startups, rather than independent contractors and freelancers. Currently, NedSpace has 40 companies (encompassing 64 individuals) sharing one 7,500-square-foot space, with a mixture of open-area and dedicated desks ($275-$375/month), as well as open and closed-door offices ($575-$975/month).

In addition to memberships, NedSpace generates revenue from partnerships and sponsorships. As one example, Friedman says he’s currently negotiating with a wireless Internet provider to sponsor free bandwidth for NedSpace; when companies “graduate” out of the coworking space into offices of their own, the provider would offer discount services for their new location. The model is an ingenious way to attract companies that hope to someday graduate, while also appealing to sponsors who want early access to future paying customers (sort of a B2B version of advertising to children).

Friedman, who says access to investment capital is a major limitation of doing business in Portland, also hopes to attract investor partners to NedSpace. Both Friedman and Grimes have experience starting and raising funding for businesses, and Friedman says they have successfully connected four member startups with angel investors. “I know who works hard,” he says.

According to Friedman, the company has been profitable since its third month and will open its second Portland location in August. The company is also seeking to expand its efforts further, with plans to open a third Portland location and a Seattle space in the months ahead. In the future, Frideman envisions NedSpace as a YCombinator-meets-coworking arrangement, and is currently seeking an Entrepreneur-in-Residence to staff the Seattle location and provide advice to member companies.

The Hive: Coworking as Culture

Leftbank's layout encourages collaboration among both companies and contractors. Courtesy Brian Libby

The latest addition to the Portland coworking scene, the Hive, is set to open on Sept. 1, 2009. While other coworking spaces are independent businesses, the Hive is part of the Leftbank Project building in which it’s located. A new green building in Portland’s Rose Quarter district, it features a wide range of office spaces for sustainability-minded businesses, such as software startup FMYI, Upright Brewing Co., consulting firm Blue Tree Strategies and several green design firms. The building is a vertiable rabbit warren of likeminded businesses, and the Hive is an attempt to extend the philosophy down to the micro level, says small business consultant Christian Allen.

“It wasn’t started as a business idea; it was more of, how can we feed this vision? How can we create more community?” says Allen. “I think it will definitely be challenging.” Still, the Hive is well-positioned to compete in the Portland market. It provides the basic coworking amenities with a green twist and competitive rates: individual dedicated desks, which include access to community tables and conference rooms, go for $350/month.

Allen says the community will also play a large role in establishing a long-term business model for the Hive. As needs arise, Allen — who coordinates the Hive as part of her participation in it — says members will collaborate to create self-sustaining solutions for themselves.

This article also appeared in BusinessWeek.com.

Though the demise of Portland, Ore.’s Cubespace coworking community represents a sad development in the nascent history of coworking, the region’s vibrant Silicon Forest will give rise to other coworking options in due course.

In the meantime, there are ongoing successes elsewhere, notably in Italy, with Rome, Milan and Genoa playing host to no less than eight coworking communities.

Last week, I got the chance to speak with Massimo Carraro, one of the leading Italian evangelists for coworking and a phenomenal source of experience and expertise in bootstrapping multiple coworking communities.

Imran: Massimo, please introduce yourself to our readers and your role in developing coworking spaces in Italy.

Massimo: I’m a copywriter and run my own communications agency in Milano, Italy. I first became involved in coworking a year ago, when my partner and I decided to share part of our office space. That’s how it all began, with a blog called Coworking Milano and some word-of-mouth marketing.

We soon started getting requests from other space owners, who asked us, “How can it be done, this coworking thing?”  We realized that there was a lot of interest in the coworking issue, particularly from the media. (We enjoyed a full-page article in national newspaper La Repubblica a few weeks after opening.)

About a year later, we launched Coworking Project by Cowo®, a ”coworking starting kit” and network for anyone interested in sharing their own space. It’s a low-cost proposal, aimed at network-building rather than profit: affiliation costs just €100 ($140) for the first year.  We have kept things very simple, addressing our proposal to people who own a small office, putting them in a position to gain moderate revenues from renting out a desk or two, while trying at the same time to convey a notion of community. By doing so, we believe we give a service to nomadic workers, helping to make Italy a coworking-friendly country. Our network is growing very rapidly.

Imran: What do you think have been the driving forces for the adoption of coworking in Italy?

Massimo: Loosely defined, “coworking” is already an Italian habit. Many people have told me, “Yeah, I’ve done that with my brother, to help him with his startup.” Besides this, I firmly believe that sharing a workspace with a collaborative attitude is simply an excellent idea, and Italians are catching on.

Imran: What’s the general breakdown of residents in your space — permanent residents, drop-ins, part timers?

Massimo: Most of the people coworking with us are permanent residents, with some part-timers. We also have occasional drop-ins from out of town, but not very often.

Imran: What kind of work are they involved in? Do you see much collaboration between residents?

Massimo: We were expecting mostly developers, but in the end we see there are many different professional profiles involved in coworking. Currently,we host an engineer who owns a boat design company, an audio producer, a freelance journalist and a PR professional. Previously, we’ve hosted developers, TV writers and consultants. As far as collaboration between coworkers go, I haven’t seen many joint projects starting up, but residents do exchange views and opinions. I’ve often provided a marketing perspective on our coworkers’ activities.

Imran: What have been the greatest challenges and surprises in bootstrapping and operating Italian coworking communities?

Massimo: Our greatest surprise has been the excellent response through word of mouth marketing alone, followed by incredible media exposure.

Our greatest challenge — yet to be achieved — is to involve institutional partners such as city administrations, or tech companies, to give our project a stronger, long-term vision, like the Amsterdam Smart Work Center.

It’s very clear that coworking may operate in society as a sustainable catalyst of new entrepreneurial talents, both in terms of costs and flexibility. My view is that there many advantages for a wide range of people — students, startups, young entrepreneurs, freelancers — in having an active and prosperous set of coworking spaces; indeed, it should be a public concern to provide coworking. We have tried to involve Telecom Italia, Cisco and Italian mayors in our future plans, with varying degrees of success.

If done properly, coworking can be almost costless, in the sense that it can be activated in existing spaces, something that should be very appealing in a troubled economy. Also, the enormous potential of having a network of qualified places when traveling for work can’t be underestimated.

Another challenge is that it’s impossible to avoid thinking of sustainable profits. Though we’re not profit-seeking for its own sake, with the rate at which we’re adding spaces  — almost one per week — I foresee a time when managing this will be a full-time role.

To raise revenue, we’re focusing on selling web services to coworking spaces and taking a percentage on transactions at affiliated spaces. We’re also considering how nomadic workers and travel services might yield some revenues.

Imran: What are the key pieces of advice you’d give to people thinking about coworking and those thinking about establishing a coworking space?

Massimo: To coworkers: Share your experience, don’t just sit there doing your thing. Coworking is about people, so take advantage of it.

To space owners: Try to share, not just rent a desk. The coworking option for a small business is an interesting one because it breaks the solitude of both coworkers and space owners, so it’s a creative solution. Don’t just think about the money, try to keep a balance between revenue and personal reward, in terms of human exchange.

Do post your thoughts and reactions to Massimo’s observations in the comments below.

CubeSpace, a coworking space and community based in Portland, Ore., that we’ve featured previously (see Dawn’s interview with co-owner Eva Schweber) has announced that it is to shut its doors this Friday, June 12, following negotiations with US Bank, its landlord.

It is a great shame to see an established and well-liked coworking community being forced to close. As Imran noted in his post “Can Coworking Spaces Be Profitable?“, coworking spaces often run on paper-thin margins, sometimes only just breaking even, or relying on being subsidized by a sponsor. Despite increasing demand for coworking space, the tough economic climate means that many of these communities will need to discover innovative ways to generate revenue in order to survive.

As the first generation of coworking spaces, such as IndyHall, Old Broadcasting House and others, enter maturity while new locations and communities start up, it’s useful to reflect on some measures and metrics of success.

Marc Harrison at the Urban Workspaces blog — seeking to establish a local coworking space and community — recently published some thoughts on measuring the success for his proposed space. Marc’s goals are very personal, though universally applicable to anyone looking to bootstrap a coworking community for themselves.

Here are Marc’s key indicators of success:

• People would rather come into the coworking space than work at home, even when they have no work to do.
• Successful residents will eventually outgrow the community and need to move out.
• Corporate workers will use the space to jump from being employees to entrepreneurs.
• New businesses are formed based on relationships between residents.
• Residents become evangelists for the space.
• The space becomes a catalyst for other social groups and clubs.
• There is diversity in the range of professions and disciplines practiced by residents.

Perhaps what’s most striking about Marc’s goals are the absence of solely profit-driven motives. Coworking really does seem to be driven by non-commercial imperatives — social good, deepened collaboration, a sense of belonging.

Elsewhere, the global Coworking Community Blog recently covered the state of coworking in Southern and Latin America, with a post called “How is coworking doing in Argentina.” Interestingly, a Buenos Aires coworking community had difficulty appealing to local geeks and found the bulk of its membership to be international travelers, adding an undoubted cultural value to the community. Perhaps the ability to attract out-of-towners, business travelers and international travelers is another goal worth tracking across coworking communities worldwide.

How would you measure the success of a coworking community?

With the global economy still moribund, tools and services that help you find leads and extract more value from your existing business contacts can only be welcome.

LinkedIn has become the online resume repository of choice and helps curate an individual’s professional network, but how to actually make use of those relationships isn’t clear. Currently, LinkedIn simply delivers an email or an RSS feed summarizing what your contacts have been doing.

Enter SocialMinder, an interesting service that’s just entered a closed alpha-testing phase. SocialMinder claims to:

• Analyze your email archive, mapping email contacts to your LinkedIn network.
• Identify those contacts searching for new business opportunities and neglected contacts that need attention.
• Provide recent business news from each identified contact to use as a discussion point.

The company is currently limiting access to LinkedIn users with Gmail accounts: completing a short questionnaire will enable you to sign up. I’m not sure how effective SocialMinder can be when it’s limited to just these services. However, the investment we give in time and attention to personal and professional networks — Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. — could provide additional business opportunities. I’m guessing that we’ll see more SocialMinder-like tools emerging to help us better understand our social networks.

Alternatively, there are of course non-software, human-centric solutions to this problem. Just recently, a bunch of freelancers in the UK formed an experimental consortium to pool their resources in order to tackle larger opportunities.

The Consorteum is a group of seven individuals with skills in software architecture, .NET development and information architecture that is offering a fixed daily rate for access to all its participating members. Clients are allocated an engagement manager who gathers requirements and musters resources from the consortium members to fulfill the requirements. I imagine we’ll see more of these types of groupings evolving from coworking communities.

Both SocialMinder and Consorteum represent novel approaches in using existing professional relationships to further opportunity. What strategies do you use to find new opportunities?

On April 25th, the Paris-based organization Travailleurs du Web will be holding TDWCamp, a barcamp for web workers here in Paris. Why not organize one in your city?

If you don’t know what a barcamp (or unconference) is, don’t feel bad. The name certainly doesn’t provide any clues if you don’t know the history. Barcamps are like structured brainstorming sessions with crowd-sourced agendas and organic, bottom-up organization. It’s a great format for generating ideas, energy and momentum that can be used by any special interest group, professional or otherwise. I’ll explain.

Somebody decides to have a barcamp. Anyone interested in the subject of the barcamp can sign up. Some participants offer to talk to the group about a topic in which they have expertise. Others indicate what topics they’re interested in hearing about/discussing.

I went to an e-reputation barcamp a few weeks ago, because online identity is one of the topics I speak about. In this picture I took that day, you can see that people wrote proposed discussion topics — like Personal Branding — on a chalkboard in the available discussion slots for the day.

Everybody made a mark in the square of the topic they were going to attend during that hour. Repeat the process for every hour, with a few topics going on at a time. The chalkboard part was quite manic, a bit like being on the floor of the NYSE, but once it was over everybody dispersed in an orderly fashion into their groups and the real fun began.

If you go to the TDWCamp wiki page, and scroll down past the sponsor logos, you’ll see that the first section (in French) is for people who are offering to talk about certain subjects. For this web worker barcamp, topics include GTD, creating a web worker co-op, and the pros and cons of being your own boss. In the Fans column of that section, participants have indicated their interest in these topics.

Below this section, people who are planning to attend have signed up and indicated in the right column the topics in which they’re interested. The first participant has made his topic wishlist: GTD, project management, boosting productivity, inspiration and exchange. He’s also said he wants a big t-shirt.

Can you feel the love? If you can, and you’d like to look into this further, you’re in luck. Barcamp.org has put together a handy how-to page to get you started, with everything you need to know: from creating your barcamp wiki page to getting sponsors on board. After all, somebody’s got to pay for the t-shirts, munchies and location!

So if you have access to a coworking center or network of web workers, you might want to consider organizing a barcamp of your own. It’s fun, it’s stimulating and it’s a nice change from the usual happy hour-type get-together, which can sometimes end up being more about the Packers than work. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but you know what I mean.

Please let us know if you’ve done a web worker barcamp or if you’re planning to. And if you’re in the Paris area, I hope to see you at TDWCamp!

We’ve been running a series of posts on the topic of coworking — the growing movement of independent café-like collaboration spaces for freelance professionals — over the past few weeks. Coworking is an increasingly popular option for the independent web worker because working in proximity with other creative professionals brings many advantages: networking opportunities, synergies and cross-pollination of ideas. It also increases social interaction, reducing the sense of isolation felt by many web workers.

Here’s a summary of the great posts in this series.

Articles

• New Work City: Coworking and More in Manhattan

Pamela profiles New Work City, an innovative coworking space in Manhattan.

• The Coworking Visa Project

A look at the Coworking Visa project, an exchange program that lets members of participating communities work at other coworking centers without having to pay the fees.

• Coworking à Deux: Sometimes a Partnership is Community Enough

Darrell explains that you don’t need to join a coworking community (or set up your own) to get some of the benefits. Find another person to work with and you might eliminate some of the isolation of the web worker lifestyle, but it won’t resemble the office job you might have felt trapped by.

• Coworking in Rural Places

Aliza examines coworking options for those in rural places, including a look at “video coworking.”

• Can Coworking Spaces Be Profitable?

Coworking spaces are in demand, yet usually they need to be subsidized by a sponsor, or at best just break even. Imran suggests some innovative ways to raise revenue without raising the fees or compromising the community’s values.

• Coworking 101: A Brief History

Imran gives a brief tour of some of the highlights from WebWorkerDaily’s coworking archives.

Interviews

• Eva Schweber: Coworking Community Insights

Dawn talks to Eve Schweber, co-founder and “Chief Cat Herder” of CubeSpace in Portland. They discuss her motivations for starting CubeSpace, the challenges thtey;r’ve faced and the future of coworking.

• Coworking Stories: Eclau Founder, Stephanie Booth

Imran interviews Stephanie Booth, founder of Eclau (pronounced eck-lo), coworking space in Lausanne, Switzerland. They talk about the founding of Eclau, her ideas for the future and key pieces of advice for anyone interested in starting their own coworking space.

• Coworking Stories: IndyHall Co-Founder, Alex Hillman

A video interview with co-founder of Independents Hall (colloquially known as IndyHall) a coworking space in Philadelphia. Imran spoke with Alex about his motivations for bootstrapping IndyHall, the experience of running the community, his hopes for the future and advice for others.

• Coworking Stories: Digital Coach, James Ward

Imran talks to James Ward, a “digital coach” based out of the Old Broadcasting House coworking community in Leeds in Northern England. they discuss the positive impact that coworking has had on James’s professional life and his advice to others considering coworking.

I first met Linda Broughton — head of NTI Leeds, part of Leeds Met University — in May 2007, at a meeting on the use of open-source software in the public sector where I planted the seed of an idea to develop a coworking community in Leeds in Northern England.

Within a few months, Linda had launched the “met:space” coworking community at Old Broadcasting House, which has now become the hub for most of the city’s web and new media community (also see my previous interview with OBH resident, James Ward).

I spoke with Linda about the development of OBH and her thoughts on coworking.

Imran: Tell us a little about the background of OBH. What were the motivations for coworking in Leeds?

Linda: It started out as an idea space for our graduates to move on to. We recognized that many of the students’ final year projects had the potential to become commercial businesses, so we wanted to develop a space that could support them in the early days.

I think our views on supporting the graduates have changed as we now recognize that our role is to create a climate where ideas flourish. That means the space needs to attract more experienced freelancers and businesses as well as graduates. I don’t think it would work if everyone was at the same level.

Imran: Do you see much collaboration between residents?

Linda: Yes, definitely. FriiSpray, from Jam Jar Productions, is a collaboration between three members who met here at OBH. Also the Cardboard Laptop Stand is a product developed by two of our members. We are also seeing quite a number of examples of where work is sourced between members. So we see our web designers working with our programmers, and our filmmakers working with our social networking experts. Startups, in particular, need access to good freelancers to help them grow. A coworking community helps to build trust between members which makes collaboration more likely.

Imran: What were your greatest challenges and surprises in bootstrapping Old Broadcasting House – and the largest operational challenges.

Linda: We were fairly empty at first. It took time to persuade people that coworking might work for them. But what’s great is that now people love it! I am constantly surprised by how much our members really love the space. Also it was a revelation to me just how vibrant the Leeds scene is, with so many groups meeting  regularly.

The largest operational challenge is long-term sustainability. We want to keep the rates at a level which does not deter people, while still covering our costs. This is likely to mean attracting more members, and we need to manage this without detracting from the experience for members. Overall, the space just about manages itself. Personally, I really don’t like rules and regulations so everything works on a trust basis. That seems to work just fine for everyone.

Imran: What’re your plans for the future?

Linda: I’d like to grow the community, with more physical space.  I’d also like to see a pipeline of startups from the University and the city using the coworking at OBH as  a stepping stone for growth.

Imran: What’re the key pieces of advice you’d give to people thinking about coworking and people thinking about establishing a coworking space.

Linda: To potential coworkers I’d say think of it as  joining a community. Be prepared to give something to that community. Make some time to get to know other members.

If you’re thinking of establishing a space, don’t expect everyone to join at once. You need some patience to get things going. Go out and find the groups of people who are your potential members and encourage them to try out coworking (offer introductory rates or trial memberships). You need some “fans” to get the community started; they will act as your champions. I would also say be quite flexible, if you can be, on the offer.

The relationship between OBH and the local university is unique, enabling a large institution to access grassroots entrepreneurs and innovators. Coworking can help achieve social goals. We’d love to hear your comments on other community-building offshoots from coworking.

Inspired by my co-bloggers here at WWD, I’ve been thinking about the ins and outs of coworking in very rural locations. While I do travel more and more often, my home base is Tok, Alaska, the first pitstop along the Alaska Highway once you cross the Canadian border.

Darrell’s post “Coworking à Deux” was particularly relevant because, as of this posting, I’ve only identified one other web worker in my community, and she only does it part-time. While her day job is teaching at the local school, she blogs for half-a-dozen education blogs after hours. As far as I can tell, the two of us are the only two Twitterers in Tok. I know many residents are on MySpace and some on Facebook, but web working isn’t part of their day job.

My Definition of Coworking

My understanding of coworking is to create a space — rent, build, borrow, co-op — where people who work remotely and solo can work in close proximity with others, usually people in similar industries but not always. The purposes for doing this vary, but it helps diminish the isolation, provides networking opportunities, allows cross-pollination of services, and generally builds community where there otherwise was not one because of the inherent separation of working remotely.

Finding Coworkers in Remote Places

Coworking clearly doesn’t have to happen solely amongst tech workers, however, in rural places there are often few ways to find non-tech workers to cowork with. In my location, we are so scattered and remote that there is really no general gathering place to meet new people unless you hang out at the grocery store or one of the two restaurants, or attend community events. The only notices we receive about anything and anyone in town are either through our twice-monthly local paper or one of three bulletin boards, so finding potential coworkers who aren’t at least on social networks is very difficult.

How to Cowork in Tok, Alaska

I’ve come up with a handful of potential coworking opportunities for me and the other blogger in town:

1. My house – I have Wi-Fi, a home office setup, a comfy living room and a spacious dining room table. So that makes three options within my own abode that could accommodate another web worker.

2. Her house – I’d have to check with her about her setup. This might not be an option.

3. Fast Eddy’s – This is one of two local restaurants and the only one with free Wi-Fi, although I have trouble accessing it most times I’m there.

4. The Grumpy Griz – The other restaurant down the road. It doesn’t have free Wi-Fi. We could tap into the local telecom company’s wireless service, but we’d have to pay about $25 per month to use it.

5. Another location – If we decided to pay for wireless cards, we could work from another location  in town, although our choices are few. The library? It is only opened when a volunteer is working, and the schedule isn’t steady. The park? Not in the winter, but it’s a possibility for the three months of summer. Until the summertime, there really aren’t any other places to go. No bookstore, no coffeeshop. But in the summer months, our options would expand to a few more seasonal restaurants.

6. Skype or Google Video – We could suck up our limited monthly bandwidth allowance and hang out virtually yet together on Skype or Google Video. But is that really coworking? Or would it be…cheating?

Can Video Chat Really Be Coworking?

When your options — or even suitable coworkers  — are so limited, video conferencing seems a viable option for creating a pseudo coworking “space.” Just the other day, my Denver-based business partner and I wound down our video chat but didn’t hang up. We both just started doing our work while still connected on Skype.

When I realized, I laughed and pointed out to her what we were doing. But do you know what? Before I had paused to mention the fact that we had both started working while our video chat windows were still open, I actually had felt for those few minutes that we were working in the same room. We were independent, yet together. That feeling is what coworking offers, so why not do it via video when you can’t actually be there?

Of course, if you are really rural, you’ll encounter two obstacles to video coworking:

1. Lack of bandwidth could make it untenable; and

2. Bandwidth can be very costly.

Why Not Rent an Office?

For me, I’d say a major reason for working from home is not to ever work in an office again. Even as successful as my business is becoming, I can’t imagine spending a dime on renting a space for coworking because I get major cost savings and profitability for my business from not renting physical space. Many people in rural areas like Tok can’t always afford fast Internet connections, much less an office space. In very rural places, real estate can be quite limited even if renting an office were an option.

Are you coworking in very rural places? How many of you are coworking and how/where are you doing it?