Coworking Ireland

I got an email from Travis J. Tood in Berlin telling me about Noel Hidalgo who is off on an ambitious “open-source journey around the world documenting free culture, social innovators & global change”.  According to Travis Noel helped build the coworking community in New York and would like to have a sit down and exchange of ideas on his various stops around the world. I wonder if he’d be interested in making a stop at our first coworking location in Dublin?

Philip Wilkinson puts an interesting spin on the idea of coworking in a post entitled – “Internet Start-Up’s : Let’s all share the same office!” -

“I’ve always thought it would be a good idea to get some office space and share with a number of innovative internet start-ups, as opposed to everyone being scattered around London.”

We’ve written previously here about the idea of twinning international coworking locations and it’s great to see Dave Winer coming up with a similar notion during his recent trip to Italy, one he’s labeled TouristCamp -

“Wouldn’t it be great to have a TouristCamp, where people come from all over the world to taste La Dolce Vita while they work on new ideas and technology for social networking over a plate of delicious Italian food, breathing fresh Mediterranean air? In other words, would Italy like to be our host? All that’s standing in the way, imho, is a little international outreach.”

Well we can’t offer Mediterranean air here in Ireland but we do have very fresh Atlantic air! Dave’s main point is worth repeating in the context of coworking – all that’s standing in the way is a little international outreach.

The New York Post talks to Elliot Winard, a software engineer who worked from home for a time after moving from San Francisco to New York City. That was until the novelty wore off and he discovered the downsides of being a free agent -

“Distractions ranged from cleaning the house to playing with the cat to talking on the phone,” he says. “And it was hard to set up borders between work time and play time. I started feeling guilty about not working all the time.”

So what did Elliot do to solve the problem? He started coworking of course -

“Winard had come to the same conclusion some others have started to arrive at in a free-agent era when working outside a traditional office is increasingly common. While the freedom of such an arrangement holds an undeniable appeal, the downside is the lack of any work community. The coworking solution: Build your own.”

Build it and they will come! That’s all well and good but what I found most interesting in this article was a tip for funding independent coworking spaces -

“Socializing is such a part of coworking culture that some spaces rely on parties and shows to pay the bills. In the first several months 3rdward was open, the organizers kept the space afloat with money they earned from hosting parties.”

Hey, I bet that could work here in Ireland

Thomas Crampton of the International Herald Tribune along with Loic Le Meur gave a very interesting presentation at TechTalk Menorca on the future culture of blogging,  and nomadic independents which they’re labeling The Moving Circus. I think you’ll enjoy it -

Technorati Tags: techtalk, menorca

For a number of weeks now I’ve been following the tweets of entrepreneur Paul Walsh (of Segala) on twitter where he regularly notes that he’s, “heading into Adam Street” in London. Not being altogether au fait with the English capital I assumed it was just another street. But today Paul clarifies that Adam Street is actually, “a private club”. Read More…

I’m just back from a weekend break in Berlin and kicking myself that I didn’t discover The Business Class Net before I traveled. This is one very impressive website for a coworking facility, with photo walkthroughs, floorplans, maps and online booking. Prices seem very reasonable too with special offers of €150+tax per fortnight.

Make sure to click on their IDEA link to read about their interesting philosophy of coworking and invitations for other locations to join the network with a BCN-Port in your own city.

Now that NASA is coworking does it mean we can twin with the International Space Station? Hmmm, don’t imagine I’d get much work done there!

Damien Mulley floats the very cool idea of applying the FON model to Coworking-

“Wouldn’t it be nice to travel the world or country and hop from one place to another for plug in for free in return for you having a Coworking facility that allows a few free seats for the nomad Coworkers?”

Wouldn’t it just! So let me see if I’m interpreting Damien’s idea correctly. Let’s say 8 people in Dublin were renting a coworking space between them with 2 spare places available. Now, if that group of 8 people joins “The International Coworking Club” (TICC) and agrees to let any other members avail of their 2 spare places free of charge then they can also travel to any other TICC location worldwide and avail of a cowork space free of charge. Comments?

Martin Hogan, a Green Party candidate for the 2007 Seanad election in the NUI Constituency, has commented below to say -

“For those working in the digital media space, we have a couple of hotdesks with broadband access still available in the new Media Cube in Dun Laoghaire. I would be happy to talk to companies about renting a desk on an ongoing basis for half-days etc.”

Excellent, thanks Martin.