Alex: Our prior counts have been pretty rough - based on Google searches and some directional estimating.
The current count is the first time we've formalized the count process. Having said that, it continues to be an estimate and not a census. By that I mean we aren't attempting to get an exact count. This would take too much time and effort and the additional level of precision is not needed. Instead, we are attempting to get a solid estimate. We've done two prior estimates. Last December (09) our estimate was 215-220. Our December 08 estimate was around 130. Given the shift in methods and the simplicity of the prior counts, I wouldn't read too much into these numbers except to say the number of coworking facilities in the US is growing rapidly. Going forward we will be able to be more confident about growth rates. We include a facility if: (1) the facility self-identifies as providing coworking space; (2) it offers a range of membership options (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.) consistent with traditional coworking spaces (does not need to provide all); (3) it offers some form of community space and/or activities (this is subjective based on our assessment); (4) coworking appears to be a important part of the facility offering (again, subjective and in part based on the size of the coworking space) (5) the facility is active (we look for recent website activity and call if needed). What we've found this time is identifying coworking facilities is a bit like identifying pornography - you know when you see it, but different people see it in different ways. The reason is the growing number of hybrid coworking facilities and non-coworking facilites adding coworking makes identification harder. Incubators and office suite companies in particular are actively adding coworking options. A good example is Semantic Seed in San Jose (http:// www.semanticseed.com/coworking.html). They are an start-up incubator that also provides coworking space. We included them, but only after a fair amount of debate. Another interesting segment is the growing number of shared artisan/ DIY spaces (3rd Ward and Tech Shop being examples). These facilities cater to both professionals and amateurs/hobbyists. We tend to include them if we think the facility is targeting and catering to professionals, even if a large share of their members are amateurs. We haven't looked at the closures at all and I would again caution about reading too much into this data. At some point we hope to have time to better understand what is going on in this area. Steve On Jul 18, 7:08 am, Alex Hillman <dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hey Steve, thanks for keeping up on this! > > > it looks like our estimate will be in 250 range. Our estimate last > > december came to about 215-220. > > Can you quickly provide other historical counts date/month/year relative? > > 1. It is getting harder to do this. > > > > What are your research criteria for including a location? > > > > > 2. There is a fair amount of facility churn. About 10-15% of > > facilities on our list in December have fallen off our current list > > due to closure or shifts in direction. > > Any further information on the bases of these closures/shifts in direction? > > /ah > indyhall.org -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To post to this group, send email to cowork...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en.
