Tara wrote:
> In the comments of the coworking survey results post, Bill MacEwan > writes: > > I founded a co-working space in vancouver (http:// > abetterplacetowork.com), > and we've been trying to answer a lot of these questions. I'd love to > see > more data on people who are "considering" co-working. Mainly people > that are > accustomed to traditional offices and are hesitating to join the > movement > for ____ reason. > > What do you think would provide that extra incentive? > > T Howdy, Tara and Bill, I'm self-employed. I usually work from home (Oakland, California), a nearby cafe, or a client's office. The barriers to me becoming a co- worker are these: * Commute time. The single largest draw on my everyday happiness in any working environment has always been commute time. The 10-minute-by-bike commute helped me put up with a terrible job in an extremely dysfunctional organization for a year longer than I might have otherwise, while the 45-to-90min commute (each way) commute made me absolutely miserable in what could otherwise have been a dream job. Now that I'm self-employed and can choose to simply work from wherever almost at whim while still retaining the ability to fulfill my responsibilities, I find that coworking is simultaneously very appealing and yet unappealing at the same time. It's appealing because I can choose to go work in a space with high-quality folks at a time and in a format that works for me, within reason. It's unappealing because the closest coworking space that I'm aware of (Citizen Space) is at least 45min away door-to-door, unless I take a commuter bus that runs only during conventional commute hours - that would shave 15min off each direction but wouldn't work with my typical schedule. * Ownership. Short-term rentals make sense. For example, it won't make sense for my wife and me to buy housing until we expect to live in the area for ~5 years or more. Similarly, it won't make sense to co-own workspace until my wife and I have settled in the region. Similarly, renting infrastructure so expensive and/or complex that I couldn't reasonably expect to ever co-own or co-build makes sense. For example, I don't have any realistic expectations of having an ownership interest in one of the colocation facilities in which I have servers. These facilities are too complex to run, too capital- intensive to build and maintain, and my interest in server colocation is about the services that it enables, not the real estate involved. (Besides, through the colo-focused tech co-op via which I host my servers, I do co-own that effort in a less tangible way.) However, in order to invest a significant portion of my time in a workspace, I need to have the opportunity to co-own it. I need some assurance that my time spent improving the space won't simply turn into something I can put on my resume once the landlord decides that s/he can make more money by leasing to a bubble-company instead. Obviously the investment in relationships with the other co-workers will likely "vest" regardless, but I've moved too often in my life to want to keep investing time/energy into something that I can't co- own. Also, there are many benefits that come from evolving from the feudal landlord/tenant system into a more even distribution of power and opportunity such as the cooperative ownership model. Bottom line: I'll happily spend a few hours here and there in co- working spaces that aren't within biking distance and/or I can't co- own - especially when I'm traveling. However, in order to be willing to spend >10 hours per week over multiple months/years, I need the space to be within a reasonable bike ride of my permanent housing and I need to have the opportunity to co-own the space with the other participants. Graham --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
