Coworking: Freelance Collective Office

Hat Factory, a collective office in San Francisco.

A few years ago, young programmer Brad Newberg (Brad Neuberg), wanting to think about his career, discovered the solution to the following dilemma: “I have the choice to either get a permanent job that allows me to work in an organized team, or I can work as a freelancer, maintaining greater freedom and independence. Why don't I combine one with the other? ”

As a person accustomed to implement non-standard solutions, Mr. Newberg began to act. He invented a new word - “coworking”, without a hyphen - and rented space in the building, initiating a whole movement.
')
Since the revelation came to Mr. Newberg in 2005, dozens of places have appeared throughout the country and even outside of it, where someone rents office space and distributes desktops, thus creating a community of people who work for different works, but would like to do it in an interesting team.


"This in itself is incredibly inspiring," says John Vlahides, editor-in-chief of the travel site for 71miles.com in Northern California, who rents a desktop at Hat Factory, one of the first collective offices personally established by Newberg, for $ 175 a month. “And if you don’t have inspiration, then where does the creative come from?”

<lj-cut text = “next ...”> Coworking offices appear everywhere from Argentina to Australia, while it should be noted that according to the wiki-site of the movement, most of them are in the USA. Although some of them carry some big names, most are reminiscent of the era between the communes of the 1960s and the dot-com fever of the 90s, such as the Denver Orphanage-Co-operative, the Seattle Office Rogue, the Novotopia Workshop in Lower Manhattan and the Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

Armed with laptops with Wi-Fi and mobile phones, people are trying on a new technological level to apply the ancient tradition of assorted artists and writers who mastered a studio.

Most of them say that they come here for the same reason that prompted Mr. Newberg: they love to work independently and at the same time they are less able to do it if they stay at home alone.

“Even the most antisocial comrades need to be among other people, at least some part of their working time,” said Laura Forlano of the Yale Law School, who studies people working in collective offices and cafes.

Coworking can take many forms. The Hat Factory in San Francisco is a residential attic that is home to three techies who allow other people to work with them in the same room. Some companies, such as the Citizen Agency from San Francisco, which deals with Internet consulting and has done the most for the development of the movement, live according to the “open door” statute, according to which permanent employees rent desktops, and all other temporary visitors can come to use Wi-Fi Fi or meeting room.

A Citizen Agency co-owner Tara Hunt, who calls her office at Citizen Space, lists some of the principles of the coworking movement on her blog. They include a desire to act together, openness, a willingness to live in a community, purposefulness and accessibility.

Many of these ideas came from the open source movement, whose members freely share their work without putting personal financial gain in the first place. Like the same movement, coworking members share their experiences and ideas on coworking.pbwiki.com .

But despite the theory, the situation is not always controlled. Thor Muller, a startup manager for Get Satisfaction from San Francisco, says he let his friends come to work in his offices. But one day, one of his friends began to aggressively lure employees of Satisfaction into his personal startup. I had to drive him away.

“We must treat each other with respect,” says Mr. Muller, still angry.

Miss Hunt and her partner at Citizen Agency, Kris Missina (Chris Messina), say that you need to make sure that people respect their space and will maintain order in it.

“Someone wanted to come here with his dog, but we replied that this is not a good idea,” says Miss Hunt. Mr. Vlehides from Hat Factory complains about "several short-haired guys" who were sitting at the common table talking loudly on the phone, instead of going to another room.

Citizen Space allows everyone to come for free, but if someone becomes a regular, people ask him to pay for the keys. Renting a table and keys along with round-the-clock access cost $ 350 per month. Just the keys cost $ 250 per month. There are seven tables in the room, one large table for visitors, a meeting room, whiteboards and other office supplies, including not quite traditional ones, such as beer and wine.

Among the advantages of the movement of coworking is often called interchange of interesting thoughts. While others are developing their business through increased traffic and advertising, people share useful ideas among themselves.
“I can ask Ryan about video technology, or ask John about the tourism industry,” says Eddie Codel, an Internet video producer who works at Hat Factory, alongside Ryan Bailey, the founder of the Internet. -video start-up Viddyou, and John Vlehidoms from 71miles.com .

Kurt Smith (Kurt Smith), an employee of the Danish company Culgi, which develops various software, for two months, as rented a table in Citizen Space. In his company, we are glad that he has found a place where he will join the way of thinking characteristic of Silicon Valley. “Everybody got blogs,” says Kurt. “Everyone has a Twitter account. But I have never watched the new-minted Pribluda. ”

Nevertheless, inspired by the example of his employees around the office, he gathered his more distant colleagues - Culgi employees scattered across Europe and Asia - into a group on Twitter, which made it much easier to maintain working communication.

Similarly, if someone is looking for a web designer, there is a high probability that someone from colleagues at the office at the next table can take on it or has relevant connections.

Jeremy Pepper, who rents a table in the collective office of Sandbox Suites and writes non-fiction articles on technology, says that he often advises one of the employees on social media who rents a nearby table and works for a large corporation. She, in turn, is also ready to share her professional information.

Translation from English:
Roman Rabwe for worldwebstudio.livejournal.com