Coworking space
Introduction
A coworking (or co-working) space provides individuals or groups with desk space, meeting rooms and offices.
According to wikipedia (8/2017), “Coworking is a style of work that involves a shared working environment, often an office, and independent activity. Unlike in a typical office environment, those coworking are usually not employed by the same organization. Typically it is attractive to work-at-home professionals, independent contractors, or people who travel frequently who end up working in relative isolation.”
Coworking spaces are different from incubators, accelerators, colliders or executive suites, although there can be overlap. For example the impact hub network are part of innovation lab, part business incubator, and part community center.
For Spinuzzi (2012:433) “xoworking is a superclass that encompasses the good-neighbors and good-partners configurations as well as other possible configurations that similarly attempt to network activities within a given space.”. He identified two major configurations or coworking:
- Good neighbors: "unoffice metaphor", work is parallel and collaboration happens as neighbors who want to stay neighbors.
- Good partners: "federated workspace", collaboration as partners.
Features
Coworking space can offer some or all of the following:
- Shared large rooms with tables
- Workplaces (where you could leave your stuff)
- Lockers
- Conference rooms
- A café / social space
- Events and workshops that target specific groups
Often, a coworking spaces promote some specific social values.
In addition, coworking spaces may offer
- Match making services with investors and clients
- Other incubator and accelerator services
Pricing:
- Between 5 and several hundred, depending on time and the space required
Benefits
Links
General
- Coworking (Wikipedia)
Coworking organizations
- ....
Bibliography
- DeGuzman, Genevieve V.; Tang, Andrew I. (August 2011). Working in the UnOffice: A Guide to Coworking for Indie Workers, Small Businesses, and Nonprofits. Night Owls Press. ISBN 978-1-937-64501-4.
- Parrino, L. (2015). Coworking: assessing the role of proximity in knowledge exchange. Knowledge Management Research & Practice, 13(3), 261-271. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/kmrp.2013.47 (Access restricted)
- Fost, D. (2008). They’re working on their own, just side by side. New York Times, 20. They're working on their own, just side by side
- Gandini, A. (2015). The rise of coworking spaces: A literature review. ephemera, 15(1), 193.
- Jones, Drew; Sundsted, Todd; Bacigalupo, Tony (2009-10-27). I'm Outta Here: how co-working is making the office obsolete. NotanMBA Press. ISBN 978-0982306703.
- Schuermann, Mathias (2014-02-19). Coworking Space: A Potent Business Model for Plug 'n Play and Indie Workers. epubli GmbH.
- Spinuzzi, C. (2012). Working alone together: Coworking as emergent collaborative activity. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 26(4), 399-441. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1050651912444070