Update, October 2009: Two years later, and Atlanta finally has a dedicated coworking space! It's called Ignition Alley, and I wrote about it here. It's superexciting!
Original Post:
As I mentioned previously, Coworking is something that's been on my mind for a bit. So what is Coworking exactly? From the Coworking Community Blog:
"Coworking is a movement to create a community of cafe-like collaboration spaces for developers, writers and independents."
This can take a number of forms, from a bunch of people getting together at a cafe (with open wifi), someone's home, or a shared community space in order to get work done. I've had conversations over the last few weeks with a number of people (too many to mention here) about coworking, and there seems to be a lot of interest. Also, given the level of social media connectivity that's (finally!!) forming in Atlanta, the time seems to be right for coworking to start happening.Why do I want this?
If you know me, you know that I'm really into the stuff I work on! I'm big on understanding where the world/web is going, and I'm even bigger on using this knowledge to mobilize communities to make a difference. I'm lucky enough to be working with a team of people who share many of my goals, philosophies, and values, but as we're a virtual team I often feel like I'm missing out on the type of community that being a part of a physical workplace brings.
Bottom line? Working at home sucks. It can be lonely sometimes (not to mention difficult to self motivate) and I want more exposure to a diverse range of people who are as passionate about what they do as I am! (Srsly!!)
Secondly, we often talk about "Web 2.0" and social media as not being about technology, but being about culture. Social media is both a product of cultural change as well as a catalyst for change that's driven by people. For the past two year, it's been difficult being a social media consultant in Atlanta because the city has been so far behind the learning curve.
I think this is rapidly changing. It's becoming much easier to talk about blogs, open source, virtual worlds, etc with people, and we're beginning to see lots of interest in events around said topics and using said mediums. We've had a number of unconferences this year including (but not limited to!) SoCon07, Podcamp, and most recently a Barcamp! I look out at the what's going on in this city, and I see that there's a lot of connectivity between creatives of all types (software developers, artists, entrepreneurs, bloggers, etc) and a thirst for even more community, interaction, and the personal and professional opportunities these would bring.
Historically, it's been difficult for creatives in this city to form such a community because there are too many centers. Atlanta is the poster child for urban sprawl, and until last year I didn't even realize that there was anything to do! Let alone people to meet. But now things are so interconnected that I think we can finally start connecting the dots here.
So, let's do this!
What's next?
Amusingly, while doing a bit of research for this post, I found that someone beat me to the punch! Last friday was the first meeting of a group of coworkers under the banner of Jelly led by one Kristyn Shayon and attended by a number of people I know! So there's already one coworking group within the Perimeter! The next meeting is on Friday, November 16th and you can go to the groups wiki to rsvp. Secondly, I've talked to a number of my colleagues at What a Concept! and we're going to start having coworking sessions as a company on the north side of Atlanta (From Buckhead all the way up to Sandy Springs, Alpheretta, maybe Kennasaw, etc.) We think it would be really cool to extend an invitation to anyone who would like to join us! We'll be posting details on our company blog in the next few days. Eventually, I'd like to have a coworking space that we can call our own. Check out Citizen Space in San Francisco to see an example of what I have in mind! Of course, placement is difficult due to urban sprawl... and first things first: bringing the community together. So rather then try and centralize the Atlanta coworking community to a single place or under a single banner, I'm proposing that we use Yahoo's Upcoming event service so that anyone can post coworking events to a shared calendar. I've created a Coworking Atlanta group, and hope that everyone interested in organizing coworking events will join me in posting their events to this calendar. Join the Atlanta Coworking group on Upcoming, and link to it with the words "Atlanta Coworking" (like I just did) so it will be easily googleible. (And don't tell me that's not a word, Sherry.) As mentioned in the block quote earlier, coworking is a movement that's gaining steam in cities all over the place. If you're interested in learning more and becoming involved in the larger conversation, there's a blog at coworking.info, a wiki at wiki.coworking.info, and a coworking google group where you can connect with members of the global coworking community. Lastly, if you're planning on blogging about coworking activities in Atlanta, posting coworking pictures on flickr, social bookmarking, etc: I propose we use the following tag scheme: coworkingatlanta, coworking, atlanta.
Tags: coworkingatlanta, coworking, atlanta, community, social media
