Reading :: The Coworking (R)evolution

 The Coworking (R)evolution: Working and Living in New Territories

Edited by D.G Tremblay and D. Krause

This edited collection focuses on coworking in non-urban spaces. Rather than posting a full review here, I’ll just point you to the review I wrote for Work and Occupations. 

Coworking in Austin: Station Coworking

My previous "Coworking in Austin" posts have been in-depth looks at coworking spaces. But this one is about a space I haven't yet been able to visit.

Station Coworking is planning to open around September 1. It's run by Thomas Knight, who was one of my students a couple of years ago, when I was in the thick of studying coworking. Thomas has been thinking for a while about how people work in organizations, how organizations sometimes limit the potential for collaboration and autonomy, and how to try out different models.

Last year I met with Thomas, and he shared his vision of a new Austin coworking space. So it's exciting to see that vision becoming a reality. If you're in Austin and interested in coworking, drop on by. And tell Thomas I sent you!

Coworking in Austin: One Year Later

I stopped collecting data on my coworking research project in February 2011, and published my article on it earlier this year. But coworking is still going strong in Austin. The following spaces have opened since I stopped data collection:

• CapitalFactory (which has been active as a startup incubator since 2009 but is now managing a coworking space/tech startup campus)
• Center61
• HubAustin
• Make + Shift
• Plug & Play
• Vuka Co-op

And Cospace has expanded to Cedar Park and Steiner Ranch.

More at the Austin coworking spaces map.

"Working Alone Together" is free for a limited time

A little while ago I was excited to announce that my study of coworking in Austin, "Working Alone Together," was available. Now I'm even more excited to announce that the Journal of Business and Technical Communication has made the article free for a limited time. If you're interested in coworking, please do click through and grab the PDF. And let me know what you think in the comments.

Writing :: Working Alone, Together

Spinuzzi, C. (2012). Working alone, together: Coworking as emergent collaborative activity. Journal of Business and Technical Communication 26(4).

Okay, this is the second in my ongoing series on writing publications.  The cite and link above are to the OnlineFirst version of the article, both of which will likely change as the article gets closer to publication. But for now, there they are. If you or your institution have a subscription, please do click through and take a look at it.

Done reading? Let's talk about how I put this thing together. As in the rest of this blog series, here I'll focus on my writing process and choices. The hope is that this "behind the scenes" look will help other scholars to see what went into producing this piece.

The Gist
This article is the result of a research study I started a while back focused on coworking in Austin. Click that link and you'll see a series of blog posts dating back to April 2008. If you have the time and inclination, you can go back to that point and see how my understanding of coworking evolved over time, and in fact you might see parts of these blog posts migrating into the article itself. More on that in a moment.

My analysis was heavily influenced by some of the same issues I discussed in "Losing by Expanding"—in fact, although that piece was published first, it developed from the analytical issues that developed during this and other recent case studies. In a nutshell, the analytical framework I typically use for examining workplace interactions, third-generation activity theory (3GAT), assumes some things that don't hold true in the sort of loosely organized, digitally mediated work that we find in coworking spaces. "Losing by Expanding" articulated that problem and outlines an fourth-generation activity theory (4GAT) approach; "Working Alone, Together" applies that approach.

As you'll see in the article, the 4GAT approach helps us to better understand some of the contradictions we tend to see in coworking spaces.

The Genesis
If you want to know about the exact moment I first heard of coworking, I blogged it. The principals at Conjunctured had just signed a lease for what would become Austin's first coworking space, and Cesar and John Erik were kind enough to sit down with me separately to discuss it. As you'll see in that blog post, I was busily trying to connect their description with the analysis I had just completed for my 2008 book Network and my subsequent thoughts about how to manage projects in distributed workspaces.

I decided to study how Conjunctured worked, so I developed and submitted an IRB proposal, then waited for it to cycle through as I conducted my Semoptco study (heavily influenced by the same themes). By the time I was able to formally interview the Conjunctured principals in early 2009, another space had begun offering coworking (Soma Vida). And by the time I interviewed them, other spaces had announced their intention to open. Eventually, in early 2011, I had to stop visiting coworking spaces and just write the article.

If you're interested in the different spaces, see the coworking tag, where I profiled each space. More on that below.

The Research Methodology
At the time I began my coworking study, I had just finished my chapter in Amy Kimme Hea's collection Going Wireless, in which I argued that researchers must bring participants more consciously into the research process as a matter of self-protection. Traditional qualitative research approaches assume that the researcher is the only one with publishing power, so s/he has traditionally been encouraged to conduct member checks to give some measure of power and self-representation back to the participants. But this is 2012, and many of my participants have publishing power too—they have far more social media followers than I have readers. In this environment, fairly representing participants isn't just a matter of being nice, it's critical.

So as I began investigating coworking spaces, I used several avenues to make sure that I represented coworking proprietors fairly, starting with the space profiles I posted to my blog (which functioned as a trust-building measure in addition to a preliminary examination of each site). I also conducted member checks. Additionally, I leveraged their public social media, such as their spaces' Facebook pages and Yelp profiles—a lifesaver, since coworkers, with their irregular schedules, are difficult to consistently observe.

Given that this study was mostly based on proprietors' and coworkers' statements (in interviews, in collateral, in social media) rather than observations, I had to frame my claims carefully. Throughout the article, I emphasize: this is what coworkers and proprietors say about their work.

The Composition
In previous studies, I've tried focusing on one workplace or a small set of workplaces. But with coworking, I had to examine a whole range of them. It turned out to be a complex management issue. How could I analyze these very different workspaces in a way that would make sense?

To attack the problem, I decided to go back to three basic elements of activity theory: the subject, the object, and the outcome. In the paper, these turned into research questions: Who coworks? What is coworking? Why do people cowork? And once I sorted these out, I was able to connect them quite easily with my coding scheme.

Of course, people open and work at coworking sites for very different reasons. In the first version I submitted to JBTC, I had trouble articulating how these divergent reasons added up to an activity theory analysis; one reviewer thought that the results seemed incoherent and wondered whether coworking was anything more than a label. In my revision, I was able to articulate how these apparent contradictions in the subject, object, and outcome represented two separate configurations of coworking: the "good neighbors" configuration and the "good partners" configuration. It was at this point that the work in "Learning by Expanding" really began to pay off and the theoretical contribution became useful.

The Result
So I'm pretty happy with the result. Coworking is an endlessly fascinating topic, but also somewhat amorphous and a constantly moving target. In this article, I think I've been able to sketch the phenomenon fairly well—although coworkers in places other than Austin might see key differences, and even Austinites might feel that this snapshot doesn't adequately reflect coworking in 2012. But it provides a starting place for understanding coworking as part of a larger movement toward distributed work and perhaps a way to examine and predict further work trends. It develops activity theory to better account for this sort of work. And it moves the ball on leveraging social media in qualitative research. I'm pretty happy with it, and I hope you will be too.

Was this "behind-the-scenes" account useful? Let me know in the comments.

Coworking in Austin: Cospace 2.0

Cospace is one of Austin's coworking success stories. When I first talked to founders Kirtus and Andrew in November 2009, they had just put out some feelers about opening a space. But they had already started to articulate the principles of their space: mutual mentorship, collaboration, face-to-face relationships, flexibility, freedom. By January 2010, they had added a third founder, Pat Ramsey, and were about to close on a lease. They opened the doors on February 17, 2010. It was fantastic to see a coworking space develop from an initial dream to a successful implementation.

Of course, the story doesn't stop there. In the last year, Cospace has expanded its membership roles considerably (now around 43 members); upgraded its furniture (from Craigslist purchases to Turnstone); and developed its vision further. So when Kirtus suggested we get together to talk about the changes in the space last week, I was happy to do so. So on Friday, I sat down in Cospace's glass lounge with Kirtus and Pat to discuss what they call "Cospace 2.0."

Cospace 2.0

What's Cospace 2.0? Really, it's an extension and refinement of the original vision that was already evident in those early days, sharpened and customized through continual feedback. As Kirtus explains it, through 2010, Cospace just focused on serving people in the coworking space. That meant always listening, always engaging, and always being willing to try out new things. Serving meant learning: about users, about their needs, and about the niches Cospace could best serve. And by October 2010, they had realized that Cospace filled three niches, three use cases (reflected on Cospace's website):

• Meet. One segment was interested in Cospace for its potential as a professional meeting space or a group space. In response, Cospace began renting out its two conference rooms and making its open space available for after-hours meetups.
• Work. Another segment simply wanted to cowork - to grab a desk space and work alongside unaffiliated members during business hours. After trying out different configurations, Cospace developed a simplified $100/$200/$300 rating system, with the $300 rate available to teams.
• Build. The teams aspect points to the third segment. Member pricing was too rigid for certain teams, particularly teams assembled by entrepreneurs who were trying to build products. How could Cospace set the right conditions for those teams to develop and evolve? Here, Cospace focused on flexibility, customization, fit - and productivity.

Cospace's 43 members are almost evenly divided between teams and individuals. But, Kirtus says, all of these members are focused on being productive: "getting [things] done." They're not just looking for socializing and networking opportunities; they want to build products and grow companies. And this is what distinguishes Cospace from many other coworking spaces, Pat adds.

Manufacturing, Leading, Learning

Coworking space proprietors tend to take one of three roles, Pat and Kirtus told me:

• Manufacture: In this role, proprietors "make" the space: they set meetings, recruit people, and otherwise define the coworking space.
• Lead: In this role, proprietors function as community managers, shepherding the flock, attempting to make connections and pointing the way for the coworkers.
• Learn: In this role, proprietors seek to serve, to gather continual feedback, and to effect continuous iteration. This is Cospace's model, and according to Kirtus, "it's the only reason we survived."

It's partly for this reason that Cospace, which was originally envisioned as a coworking space for general small business organizations, has become increasingly more tech-centric. "That's Austin," Pat says. Although many traditional businesses could easily work out of and benefit from coworking spaces, people in the tech community seem to adapt most easily: they tend to be more mobile and have already adapted to working anywhere. So although Cospace continues to pull people from other sectors, the tech sector is heavily represented here - both in individual members and in teams.

Keep it Pushin'

In its teams focus, Cospace has concentrated on attracting teams that want to grow. As Kirtus says, they "keep it pushin'": they try to juxtapose teams that are productive, that have a good-to-great mentality, and that will continue to challenge and inspire each other. They focus on inspiring cross-learning in which elite team members can share information with each other, from tech concerns to business tips.

Does this make Cospace look more like an incubator? I ask. Kirtus responds that Cospace is "incubator-agnostic." They're not picking winners and losers, and they're not investing money (although they're personally invested in the success of teams at Cospace). Rather, they simply want to make sure that these teams can make the connections they need in order to grow.

Managing the Community

This brings us to the question of community management. How does Cospace 2.0 ensure that teams can make connections, that members can build trust, and that its operations can proceed regularly. Cospace's new answer - as of this month - is its new operations manager, Sarah Cox.

Many coworking spaces think about hiring a community manager "someday." But in Sarah, Cospace gains someone with expertise in project management, account management, and office management. Sarah has taken on aspects of all these roles at Cospace: giving space tours for potential members, interviewing potential members, taking over the events calendar, revamping the membership agreement, developing a packet for new members, and developing internal process documents to make sure that the Cospace model is consistent (and reproducible). She's the go-to person for members, and she's also building on Kirtus' and Pat's structure, gathering continuous feedback by dropping by and chatting with coworkers.

Beyond those duties, Sarah is also taking over Cospace's social media presence. She'll be promoting Cospace on blogs and Twitter, reaching out to meetup groups, and planning educational and social events. Over the next six months, Sarah will continue bringing in new events and increasing awareness (especially among freelancers). She'll also be thinking through the spatial organization at Cospace, looking for little tweaks that can make a big difference.

As Sarah points out, a flexible workforce implies flexible space. So Cospace will also look for opportunities to serve the Meet and Work niches for flexible work. For instance, one group worked at Cospace for a month while their own office was renovated. Another company, which typically works as a distributed virtual team, officed together here during South by Southwest. Cospace's month-to-month contracts allow that flexibility, and Sarah plans to continue supplying those opportunities.

The Next Phase

So what's next for Cospace?

The headline news is the change in roles.

• Kirtus is still an active cofounder, but is pulling away from day-to-day operations to concentrate on his CEO position at startup GroupCharger. He'll still perform outreach and visioning for Cospace.
• Pat is now performing oversight for Cospace. He'll be in the space, gathering feedback, making connections, and performing outreach (sometimes of a quite unconventional sort). He'll be the public face of Cospace.
• Sarah, as operations manager, will continue building the Cospace community and building Cospace's structure through continual feedback.

In addition, Cospace is thinking about branching out to other cities, specifically Cedar Park and Round Rock. As Sarah develops Cospace's operational documents, the Cospace model should be easier to package and export to new locations.

Let me end on a personal note. I have nothing but admiration for entrepreneurs who take a chance on opening a new coworking space. For me, it's been extraordinary to see how Cospace started. In a little more than a year, I saw a couple of enthusiastic guys turn their dream into a flourishing, sustainable coworking space. May Cospace's second year be even more successful and inspiring than its first.

"Hold on Loosely": The summary and some thoughts

Last week I held two conversations with two very different audiences about loose organizations. On Monday, I presented at Austin's RISE conference to perhaps a dozen local entrepreneurs. On Friday, I held a conversation with dozens and dozens - I have no idea how many, I'm terrible at crowd estimates - at South by Southwest Interactive. What struck me was how very different the conversations were.

RISE

At the RISE session, I gave a brief slideshow to introduce the notion of loose organizations - an umbrella term meant to describe ways in which people are working in less hierarchical, more agile ways that orient to common projects rather than job descriptions or departments. Then I asked several questions about the attendees' experiences with loose organizations. The results tracked fairly closely with the sorts of case studies I've been doing (e.g., independent contractors and coworking spaces in the Austin area). People named loose organizations such as

• independent contractor relationships
• coordinated relationships among nonprofits
• small, locally based virtual organizations (8-10 employees)

These people noted several challenges:

• Maintaining enough transparency to develop trust with team members, while maintaining enough opaqueness to keep clients unaware of the details they shouldn't know about.
• Coordinating projects (using Basecamp, Mavenlink, or other collaborative planning and communication tools).
• Figuring out what to keep in-house (either in skill or in capacity) and what to subcontract or outsource.
• Finding ways to support data infrastructure for loose organizations. Members emphasized cloud-based solutions.
• Finding ways to backchannel latest knowledge about projects and general knowledge for a given field.
• Being able to give up control to other specialists with whom you work.
• Being able to maintain strategy when coordinating transient project-oriented teams.

Hearing these points was gratifying, since they reinforced the sorts of things I had seen and read.

Then I got to Friday.

SXSW

The crowd at SXSW was much more diverse. Participants included:

• A coordinator for a major open source projects
• A representative of a company that produced software by coordinating software development contests
• A manager at a large construction company
• Owners of virtual organizations with employees based across the world
• Coworking space owners
• Members of companies using independent contractors

This crowd was largely not Austin-based - but more importantly, their organizations were generally not local in any sense, and they were generally much larger than the ones I have studied in Austin. Consequently, some of the challenges they mentioned were very different.

Members of geographically distributed organizations focused on challenges such as these:

• How do we attract and interest the right people to work with our organization?
• How do we vet these people and establish trust with them? How do we establish and track a reputation for them?
• How do we make sure we can command them (give them specific enough assignments) without controlling them (micromanaging them)? (This issue is particularly important in some states, such as California, where state regulations say that the amount of management can cause an independent contractor to be reclassified as an employee.)
• How do we keep multiperson teams coordinated, both synchronously and asynchronously?
• How do we make sure that people working in different time zones have times that they can communicate synchronously?

As you can see, compared to the concerns at RISE, these questions are much more heavily focused on long-term coordination and collaboration among people who are not geographically colocated. Part of the reason is that the RISE session participants were generally independent contractors and small businesses - but the SXSW session participants were generally owners and managers of larger, more distributed organizations.

So the SXSW crowd suggested several ways to handle these issues:

• Attracting and interesting the right people: Participants focused on having, sharing, and projecting a clear reason for working in their organization. They expressed this reason as cause, ideology, vision, or mission. They generally agreed that when you devolve decision-making across an organization, especially a geographically distributed one, you have to attract people to work with you. Team members had to look forward to more than a paycheck: perhaps a challenge, a chance to do good, a chance to change the world or participate in something bigger than themselves.
• Vetting and establishing trust: So how do you determine which team members will work out best? Participants had different mechanisms. On one end, one company attracts team members by posting challenges and holding competitions, competitions that represented stages in the software development process. In this case, as with most market transactions, trust is minimal but transaction costs are low; through multiple competitions, team members can prove themselves and improve their standing. On the other end, some companies focused on communicating their mission clearly during the hiring process; people who couldn't get on board with that mission would remove themselves from the process. Larger organizations leaned toward metrics and reputation systems, even rating systems, while smaller ones still went with the gut - but even then, the "gut" was informed by many, many different channels of interaction.
• Commanding without controlling: Here, people generally agreed that they had to simply be clear about specifications and deadlines. One organization had a three strikes policy: you could deliver projects late twice, but the third time, you would be cut out. Many organizations didn't even dictate a common tool set to their teams beyond specific, easily obtained communication software and a narrow set of tools used in their industry.
• Keeping teams coordinated: Again, responses ran the gamut here. One surprise for me was that people did not seem enthusiastic about project management software: one person complained that either you sank the time into it, in which case it became cluttered, or you didn't, in which case it became inaccurate. Instead, people focused on tools that could be used synchronously or with a short lag time. For instance, one reported that his virtual team simply kept Skype on all day so that they could see each other working and have conversations whenever they needed to. Others reported that all team members used IRC or IM.
• Coordinating synchronously. Many insisted that nothing could replace team meetings and synchronous conversations, although these didn't have to take place in the same room. But these opportunities can be difficult to achieve when people work in different time zones or on their own schedules. To open these opportunities, many reported posting availability schedules for team members and making sure that all were available during some part of the day.

My takeaways?

• Challenges look different on different levels of scale.
• Challenges look different on different sides of the table.
• People are finding their own uses for communication technologies.
• Teams are continuing to figure out trust, and they're beginning to apply reputation systems to team interactions.

And perhaps most importantly: Sometime soon I'm going to have to study a large, geographically distributed virtual organization.

Thanks to all who participated, and don't hesitate to leave your own thoughts in the comments.

Coworking in Austin: FG Squared

A few days ago, Steve Golab of FG Squared contacted me, wanting to talk coworking. “FG Squared has created a co-working space inside of our business,” he said, and invited me to take a look.

I met Steve a couple of years ago, through a former student, and later worked with FG Squared to develop the program for Interactive Austin 2009. But I hadn’t dropped by FG Squared in a while, so I was eager to see what they were up to - and particularly how they were developing a coworking space. After all, the majority of coworking spaces in Austin are standalone, not housed in an existing business - although I could imagine the advantages.

FG Squared, Steve explained, started 17 years ago by bartering web design services in exchange for office space. Later, as they grew, they leased their own space. But at this point - especially as more FG Squared employees have begun working from home - the leased space has become too large for the company’s current size. More, because some FG Squared employees work at home part of the time and on premises at other times, the capacity fluxes. At first, the company saw the excess space as a liability. But - remembering the company’s roots, and cognizant of the success of coworking in Austin - Steve decided to turn the extra space into an asset by opening the space to coworking.

Yes, that asset is partially financial: coworking helps to pay the lease. But as importantly, the coworking increases social capital in the tight-knit Austin interactive media scene. Steve facilitates interactions among coworkers; he introduces FG Squared visitors to coworkers and vice versa; he encourages networking. When FG Squared is approached by a client who needs something FG Squared can’t provide, he refers them to an able coworker who works in that specialty or at that scale. He even lets competitors use the conference room, he says.

FG Squared benefits directly in another way: “The office doesn’t feel empty,” Steve added. In fact, as a company, FG Squared realizes the same benefits that individual coworkers do: less isolation, more socializing, more contact with people working on different projects.

Coworkers get several things from this arrangement. One is coffee that, Steve emphasized, is “free and strong.” Another is wifi: FG Squared strengthened wifi throughout the building to accommodate its coworkers. Just as importantly, Steve has instituted an application process to ensure that new coworkers fit into the space: he wants a respectful, safe environment that revolves around interactive design. Currently, he’s developing a membership application and handbook to spell out the coworking space’s ground rules.

So who’s working in the coworking space? One full room is devoted to FeedMagnet, which includes three full-timers and a part-timer. Sometimes they spill out into the rest of the space, which is fine. Individuals also have desks, including an SEO specialist and the manager of a set of bars. A conference room is shared by the coworkers and FG Squared, and a few other rooms are on the list to be converted into coworking rooms.

As I’ve discussed in other coworking blog posts, coworking is partly driven by the trend of outsourcing noncore functions, partly by the rise of mobile technologies, partly by a glut of unused office space. Steve recognizes all of these trends, and he’s looking for a way to genuinely engage with them to provide a win-win situation for coworkers and FG Squared. His goal is to create a space that nurtures entrepreneurs (like Conjunctured or Cospace) within the bounds of another organization (somewhat like Soma Vida or Space12). It would be easy to see FG Squared’s approach as a simple “retail play” to help it make rent, but Steve sees it as genuine, actual community building. I expect this model to become more common as coworking continues to spread.

Coworking in Austin: Perch Coworking

Like many other Austin coworking spaces (Conjunctured, Soma Vida, Brainstorm, Space12), Perch Coworking is in East Austin. But its space is very different. Located "on the ground floor corner of a mixed-use development," Perch has a clean modern design that fits in with the rapidly gentrifying area - and the young independent professionals who are living and working here.

Those two themes - design and local independents - surfaced frequently in my talk with Perch's owner, Lisa McTiernan. Lisa, who does homeowner association management for condominiums, opened Perch in late October. Like many independents, Lisa is often on the move, but still needs somewhere to land and to have occasional meetings. Since her HOA client base is in the central/east Austin area, she began looking for "interesting, affordable, workable workspace in central or east Austin." But she also had other requirements in mind: a beautiful space with a modern design aesthetic ("minimalistic, clean, uncluttered"), natural light, and ground floor access.

Lisa had heard of coworking when she lived in Los Angeles, so she began researching area coworking spaces in downtown Austin. But none quite fit her criteria. And then the space on East 6th opened up. After discussing the opportunity with friends, Lisa decided to open the space as a coworking space that would serve as

a community work space for folks who either are freelancers, entrepreneurs, work from home, whatever the case may be. ... they need a non traditional or part time flex office space where they can truly get some serious work done, network with others, have ... a different environment in which to be productive. And also ... a really affordable office space that's low commitment. Just something really flexible and easy.

Perch is not a large coworking space: It consists of an open-plan room and a conference room. But its aesthetic is clean and modern, with thoughtfully placed tables and a beautiful view to the street. (Its furniture and design remind me of Link Coworking more than any other Austin coworking space.) As Lisa says, it's a pleasant environment to work, "flexible and easy," and Lisa is continually thinking about how to tweak the arrangement so that people feel comfortable in the space.

The furniture rolls away - which is useful since Perch also hosts occasional yoga classes. Perch also recently hosted part of the East Austin Studio Tour, displaying local artists' work. Lisa wants that function to be a regular feature, regularly rotating artwork to keep the space fresh.

These features and Perch's ground floor location mean that Lisa gets a fair amount of foot traffic. They also mean that Perch's members are proud to meet their clients in the space.

All in all, Lisa is excited about coworking in general and Perch's role in particular. She believes that "coworking will move in to ... more and more well designed spaces" and one of its key challenges is to ensure that as coworking spaces grow, they don't become cramped. In that sense, Perch is Lisa's manifesto of what a coworking space should be.

Coworking in Austin: Space12

Some coworking spaces in Austin (Conjunctured, Cowork Austin, Cospace, Link, and Brainstorm) are dedicated coworking spaces: they might hold community events and mixers, but day in and day out, their mission is to provide office and collaborative space for coworkers. Those coworkers form their community. Other spaces, however, serve a different community: a preexisting, often spatially defined community. For instance, at Soma Vida, coworking happens alongside yoga and wellness services, and the proprietors see the entire space as a sort of community center serving the area, particularly small entrepreneurs with families who seek a work-life balance.
Space12 takes the community center approach, as I discovered when I talked with its codirectors, Sam Lee and Paul Wang. But its clientele is quite different, and that different approach netted Space12 the Austin Chronicle's 2010 nod for Best New Collaborative Art and Volunteer Space. More on that in a minute.

From Coworking in Austin: Space12

Space12 is located deep in East Austin, at East 12th and Airport, and aims first and foremost to serve the local, spatial community in which it is located. “It's kind of the opposite of a typical community center,” Codirector Sam Lee explained to me. “We host and we kind of create a space so that people could use it to do their own community initiatives.” After all, he added, “There's a lot of great community efforts already in Austin. Why create another thing, another program that offer services? So, instead of offering services, we're offering space. It's almost like an open canvas where people can come in and kind of realize their own community efforts.”
As Sam and Paul Wang, Space12’s codirectors, explained, Space12 is not a for-profit business. Rather, it’s an outreach of Vox Veniae, an Austin church. Paul explained: “I know most churches expect to sort of, ‘Listen to us, and then you'll get the service.’ We're really trying to bring it back to the original roots I think of Christianity where we share and live together. … . So there's no presentation, there's no process, there's no ‘you have to listen to a ten minute gospel presentation before you come cowork.’” Rather, Vox Veniae sought a multipurpose space that wouldn’t remain empty six days a week, one that would help them meet their mission of serving local communities. They leased this space, which was once a notorious nightclub, and put it to work: as a space for nonprofits, as a community space, as a rec room, as a sanctuary, as a concert venue.

Communities

So what community is being served here? Space12 serves three coworking groups.
First, people from the neighborhood, including students. Some of these people are in great need. “Of the schools in this area,” Paul pointed out, “eighty percent of the parents are unemployed in three schools.” So Space12 finds ways to serve them. “We get guys walking in off the street, and they're like, ‘Hey, I don't know how to put a resume together’ … ‘Hey, can you show me what this thing called Craigslist is? How do I find landscaping work through that?’” At the same time, the neighborhood is rapidly gentrifying, filling with professionals “who do work out of homes, accountants, graphic designers, web designers.” How to get them to connect? “In the same way,” Paul continued, ”I think that we want them to cowork out of here, but still kind of give back.” Whereas at other coworking spaces, coworkers might take breaks and socialize with each other, at Space12 coworkers can volunteer to help neighbors and nonprofits – whether it’s helping someone understand Craigslist, helping neighborhood students use the computer lab, or shelving books for the Inside Books Project.

From Coworking in Austin: Space12

Second, Space12 does short-term space rentals for events. For instance, two months ago they rented space to a film crew. Film crews tend to come together for a short time, perform casting calls, meet funders or donors, and have planning sessions – and it’s hard to do that in someone’s apartment. At the same time, it doesn’t make sense to enter a lease for short-term events like these. So Space12 is well positioned to serve these sorts of short-term coworking groups. (Notice that Cowork Austin also serves the film industry in a similar capacity.)
Third, the church staff themselves work here at Space12. Coworking here allows them to work in proximity, but also to work alongside and serve community members.
Beyond these groups, Space12 provides space to other nonprofit initiatives. For instance, about a quarter of the space is now dedicated to the Inside Books project, which gathers books and ships them to prison inmates. They also house Cipher, a group that performs spoken word and hip-hop. An artists’ collective also uses the space. (See their list of partners for more.)

From Coworking in Austin: Space12

Thoughts

This interview with Space12 came at an exciting time for me. The fact is, lots of organizations have space that is paid for, but that remains empty through much of the work week. Those organizations include clubs such as the Kiwanis and Shriners, but especially churches, whose buildings are practically empty except for a few hours on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings. When, I had wondered, will these organizations see the potential for supporting their members’ activities during those unoccupied hours?
Space12 turns that paradigm on its head. Rather than using a traditional church building for other purposes, it took a building and used it for as many things as possible: church, concerts, coworking, outreach, nonprofits, etc. “There is just a lot of wasted real estate that churches sit on,” Paul emphasized. His message to churches is: “Your building campaign is done. God doesn't just live in the building.”
To that end, Paul and Sam see Vox Veniae opening more Austin spaces for community development, working through their nonprofit Austin City Spaces.
When I thought about existing institutions using their excess capacity, I imagined them serving their own constituents: Shriners officing out of the Shriner Hall, Baptists working with other Baptists. But Space12 turns that capacity into outreach, more truly fulfilling the church’s mission. It’s an exciting development in coworking, and I expect we’ll see other organizations exploring similar forms of outreach as they work to connect to their communities.

Coworking in Austin - Update

Austin now has eight coworking spaces. How did that happen? Stay tuned for more profiles, or click the "coworking" tag to the right to see the ones I've written so far.

View Coworking spaces in Austin in a larger map

Coworking in Austin: Link Coworking

Just over a year ago, I saw an email on the coworking Google group announcing a planned coworking site in Austin: Link Coworking. A week or two later, I interviewed the proprietor, Liz Elam, at a local coffee shop. She had a specific vision of a coworking space, one that she had begun during her previous stint as global account manager at Dell.

Liz, I discovered, is an aggressive researcher. Over the next year, whenever I heard about a new coworking space, I would show up to see it - and almost always, the proprietor would mention that Liz had just visited or was about to visit. She's also visited coworking sites across the country. When I had an opportunity to add a fourth person to my SXSWi 2010 panel, I thought Liz was a natural.

So I've been hearing for over a year about Liz's ideas for a coworking space - ideas that have gone through multiple iterations, but always have certain principles at the core. Liz argues that coworking spaces can use different models, orient to different professions and segments, while still adhering to the precepts of community and collaboration that seem to inhere in all coworking spaces.

Liz told me, "I think what makes Link different is I actually worked out of my home for nine years. I worked in corporate America and I was isolated. I was trying to hold meetings in Starbucks and what I figured out was I wanted a place like this to work. So this is really built exactly like I've envisioned it the whole time, because this is where I wanted to go work. And when I look at other coworking spaces - and I visited over 15 from New York to L.A. - what I found were a lot of them weren't really environments I felt energized by and I really was comfortable in." Many of the coworking spaces, Liz found, just had the wrong vibe for some professionals in their 30s and 40s:

Some kind of felt more like a dorm style, and some were just a little bit more casual than I like. And I think that's great and there are people that love that and good for them. It's not what I am energized by and like and expect in the place where I want to work. So I created the space that I'm most drawn to, anticipating that other professionals in their maybe 30s and 40s are going to want to work from here too.

Coworking has typically skewed younger, toward the "webbie/techie crowd." Liz fully supports these spaces, but believes that "we've been ignoring a very significant, well funded part of the market." Link Coworking focuses on this niche, attracting independent workers that won't be comfortable working in a more casual environment. One profile might be:

somebody that works in high tech ... they probably already have a home office and in that home office they have a beautiful monitor and maybe mahogany walls and they have two kids and a barking dog and a spouse. It's not ideal for them, and they're running around town or going to the airport and they need a place where, a few times a week - maybe two, maybe three - they come in here and get work done in a better environment, and bring in customers to meet in the meeting rooms like we're sitting in, because it's not professional to go and sit in a Starbucks and talk about a $10 million deal. ... This is a place where you can bring your client and be proud to bring them.

Link caters to other independent professionals as well: entrepreneurs, small business owners, independent workers. Current members, for instance, include an entrepreneur, a life coach, a realtor, and an interior designer. Liz says that she is aggressively pursuing independent workers who are women in particular.

At the same time, Liz emphasizes that Link is still a coworking site: it's still a place for professionals to meet, form community, collaborate, bond, and bounce ideas off of each other. "I’m looking to build a community that will collaborate, share and help each other and greater community around them," she told me later. Link is not an executive suite, it's a full-fledged coworking space.

For a coworking space to work, they really require a catalyst. That is somebody that's within the space that manages it, that introduces people that has speaker sessions, really helps form a community. And those don't really happen in executive suites. But there are lots of people who come in here and say, "Hey, I'm on the phone all day, I'm a lawyer and I have to have a closed door," and I recommend that they go look at a Business Suites or a Regis, because I'm not selling closed door offices.

Liz has put different measures in place to make sure that coworking happens. For instance, the website (built in Drupal) shows basic outward-facing information on the members; but if you're a member, you can log in and "go behind the curtain and you can see more information about the people that you're working around." The space, featuring mixed seating arrangements in an open configuration, facilitates interaction and collaboration. Community presentations and events are hosted in the space, open to members. When I visited, Link had only been open two days, and Liz already had stories of how the coworkers had collaborated. And she already sees the patterns emerging: "people tend to go to the same spot, but people also go to where the people are. They only isolate if they need to get something done. But the rest of the time, people want to sit at the same table where the other people are. There are 40 places to sit. They're sitting next to each other."

At moments like this, Liz gets an extra sparkle in her eye. She makes no bones about Link being a for-profit business, but she's also very obviously excited about being a connector and cultivating Link as a space for genuine connections and interactions, all within a beautiful place to work. "I want people to network, support each other, employ each other and possibly start a venture out of Link," she told me later.

Link differentiates itself in other ways. For instance, it provides concierge services: "we take things off your hands so you can focus on work," Liz emphasized. Link also provides a space that has been custom-renovated for coworking - and furnished by Turnstone with furniture designed for this sort of environment. Floor-to-ceiling windows provide a lot of natural light. Power outlets and ethernet plugs are installed in the floor, within reach of each station. Of course, Link also offers wifi, and Liz insisted on a T1 line to ensure high capacity. Finally, Link offers a red phone booth for private conversations (although you of course must bring your own phone.)

From Coworking in Austin: Link Coworking

How did Liz get to this particular location? She had five tenets for choosing a site, and finding a place that matched those five tenets was a struggle:

1. It had to be less than a mile from a major thoroughfare.
2. It had to have abundant surface parking.
3. It had to have outdoor seating.
4. It needed to be on the first floor.
5. And it needed to be within walking distance of retail and restaurants.

Liz looked all over Austin for the right spot, and finally found it in the Anderson Lane Shopping Center: A few steps from Madam Mam's, Korea House, the Alamo Drafthouse North Village, Office Depot, San Francisco Bakery, and other spots. As I observed, someone could drop by a nearby coffee shop on the way to Link, then literally park their car for the rest of the day as they worked, lunched, worked out at the gym, dined, then caught a movie.

What's next? Liz believes that we'll begin to see coworking segment to address different industries, and we may even see dedicated coworking spaces for employees of single corporations - but still holding true to the principles of coworking. Community-building is critical, she emphasizes, but different space configurations are going to support different sorts of work.

One more thing. If you're in Austin, you really should come by for Link Coworking's Grand Opening Party. It'll include tours by Turnstone and a live DJ. I'm planning to be there, so look for me, and tweet me @spinuzzi if you don't see me.

Coworking in Austin: Link Coworking (part 1)

Today's opening day for Link Coworking. Liz Elam has been working like a demon to get this space open, and it's finally paid off. I'll interview her soon for the blog, but in the meantime, drop in. And if you can't, you can take a look at some of the (amateur) photos I shot today. They don't do it justice - it's a beautiful space.

Coworking in Austin: Cowork Austin

Cowork Austin is on the third floor of the Hannig Row Building on 6th Street, just across from the Driskill Hotel. In other words, it's about as close to the center of downtown Austin as you can get: a few blocks north of the river, east of Congress, and northwest of the convention center.

If that sounds familiar, it's because this space has been recently rebranded. It originally opened in January as Texas Coworking, but one of the partners recently left the organization and the other, Blake Freeberg, rebranded the space in August.

So how does Cowork Austin fit into the suddenly crowded set of Austin coworking spaces? Blake describes a spectrum of coworking spaces. On one end are businesses with excess square footage: "Oh, we have an extra desk in our office. We'll lease it out." On the other extreme are incubators such as TechRanch: "coworking with an intention to model and develop your business and mentor you." Somewhere in the mix are communally based models.

But Cowork Austin is more about enabling small businesses: it's "both a place where we can meet and help people or build a platform for them to do their business on. See these things grow. It's kind of an enabling thing." He adds, "I approach coworking from a slightly different angle, not what coworking is, per se, but what it enables. ... it's kind of a low cost business platform with shared knowledge that amplifies your business opportunities at the beginning." That amplification comes from abundant networking opportunities. Cowork Austin summarizes this idea in their tagline, "the un-office office."

Not that everyone at Cowork Austin has to come seeking networking: although those opportunities are there, Blake says, many come because "I don't have to put the deposit down. I don't have to sign a two year lease," and the space is relatively cheap. Coworkers prepay month to month.

What do coworkers get other than a space to work and the opportunity to network: "If you're a member, you have access to our address, you have a keycard to come in here 24x7, and you have rights to use the printer. We have a black and white and color ones coming up. You have the kitchen and you have everything. We do Internet but we don't do phone. That's twentieth century." Blake explained that Cowork Austin expects everyone to have a mobile phone or to use Skype; Cowork Austin has no landline phone. But it does offer parking for $15 more per month.

At the beginning of the month, Cowork Austin was growing: it had 12-14 coworkers, generally working in the tech industry, but also including a book publisher, a movie director, a wildlife conservation group, and a music festival planner. "These are industries that I have not seen in other coworking spaces," I told him. "And they kind of characterize Austin, you know? Film, music, artists..." Nodding, Blake emphasized that "work encompasses people's, not just computing stuff, not just pure business stuff but the art and the music that is Austin. I want to be a kind of holistic place."

That holism has led Blake to open Cowork Austin to different opportunities. For instance, art from local artists is displayed on the walls. They recently hosted a tequila tasting. They host interface design meetings, Women in Tech meetings, a Cassandra hackathon, and they plan to host an all-girl, all-night hackathon. "We have space for [a 20-person] group. Can't do the 50s to 100s. Not yet," he added.

Blake is optimistic that coworking is going to be around for a while. "I certainly don't think it's going to shrink," he told me, "And I think, fundamentally, it derives from professionalism and the tax code." On the one hand, "It doesn't take an army to build out a idea that monetizes things that you can live off of. So, that gives freedom. And on the other side, the tax code fundamentally says that if you hire a consultant you can write them off." So he sees corporations "moving to optimize their core business and hire consultants for everything else." And that means more need for coworking spaces, as those consultants seek offices - and as they seek more cohesive, more networked environments to match they sort of work they have to do.

A brief presentation on coworking

These slides are for my presentation tomorrow at Cospace at the Austin Entreprenerial Scene meeting. They're based on my SXSW2010 slides, but have been modified a bit for length and argument.

Spinuzzi austin-entrepeneur-meeting2010

View more presentations from spinuzzi.

Coworking in Austin: Brainstorm Coworking

From Coworking in Austin: Brainstorm Coworking

Brainstorm Coworking, which has been open since May 2010, occupies most of the second story of a 1910 Victorian house (and Austin landmark) on 1000 East Cesar Chavez. (They share it with the building’s owner, Marion Sanchez of Estilo Communications.) It’s a rapidly changing area: directly below them, on the first floor, is LOC Consulting Engineers; across the street is a new public library; a block east is Big Red Sun, a commercial landscape design firm; a block west is I-35; beyond that is the heart of downtown Austin. As Martin pointed out, the building’s walk score is 88, “Very Walkable,” and it’s easily accessible by foot, bike, rail, and bus as well as car.That accessibility is important: Brainstorm Coworking’s owners, architect Martin Barrera and commercial real estate broker John Hernandez, explained that Brainstorm is targeted toward “location-independent creative professionals,” and especially those that Martin and John knew from their business networks.

(Pictures below are mine; for some much better ones, see Brainstorm Coworking's site.)

From Coworking in Austin: Brainstorm Coworking

From Coworking in Austin: Brainstorm Coworking

From Coworking in Austin: Brainstorm Coworking

For instance, Martin recently ran into his neighbor, an interior designer, who recently launched her own design studio. She's been working from home and meeting at coffee shops. Martin suggested she come to Brainstorm instead. Other coworkers and prospective coworkers include two college professors who live in Austin but teach at campuses in other cities; a financial planner; a social media guru for a local non profit, a blogger, an interior designer, a music producer, and a web designer. But Martin and John also see Brainstorm as an ideal place for insurance agents, graphic designers, engineers, and loan officers: professionals who are location-independent, but who still need to network, to collaborate on jobs formally and informally, and to brainstorm with each other. “We want to attract a diverse group of independent professionals who cowork in a mutually beneficial collaborative environment,” Martin told me.
John and Martin cite examples from their own work: “For example,” Martin told me, “John and I are collaborating on a residential development project in Clarksville, and an LOC structural engineer and I are collaborating on a custom home in Westlake Hills.” In fact, real estate development is a great example of the potential for collaboration at Brainstorm Coworking: architects, engineers, interior designers, brokers, loan officers, and others routinely collaborate and draw on each others’ knowledge and networks to solve problems across their fields. But professionals who work on real estate development projects usually don’t have a one-stop place to conduct this sort of necessary collaboration. Now, with Brainstorm Coworking, they do. You can imagine how others in the target audience could collaborate on similar cross-field projects: design and advertising, lending, business incorporation, and other forms of work that draw professionals into temporary federations oriented to a specific project.
Notice that for the most part, these professionals aren’t the tech-savvy entrepreneurs who characterize many other spaces. But when they hear the concept, John says, they get it. And hear is the operative word: although Brainstorm has advertised on Craigslist, as noted above, their coworkers mostly come from their personal networks. For instance, John recently ran into his nephew, an apartment locator, at a coffee shop. His nephew worked at the coffee shop because it was free, but the atmosphere really wasn’t conducive to work. John suggested he come to Brainstorm instead.
Further, these professionals often want coworking without knowing it. John says that like him, many people start off by envisioning a little executive suite: a place to meet clients, an address, and someone to answer the phone. But everyone has their own mobile phone, and fewer and fewer people want a service answering it. And it doesn’t make sense to lease a space that you will hardly use, nor is a Congress Street address as highly prized as it once was. Brainstorm’s space is fine for meeting clients, and coworkers can use its address. Martin says that Brainstorm has set up a Google Calendar to manage use of the conference room.
What makes coworking possible for their target group, John adds, is the combination of laptops, mobile phones, and wifi. John had worked for a large commercial real estate firm sometime back, then struck out on his own. He had tried leasing a couple of spaces, but found that they weren’t cost-efficient: he wasn’t in the office that often, since much of his work involved meeting people for coffee and touring or showing spaces. Then he tried working at home, but he didn’t like it. He likes to leave early in the morning, visit a couple of spaces, and then go to the office - going back home didn’t seem like progress. Going to Brainstorm does. When people ask John to explain coworking, he points them to Martin. He has a hard time explaining it himself - but, he told me, he just knows that it works for him. When he is here, his mindset is different: he feels more mobile and more willing to meet others.
Similarly, Martin worked for two years in a home office, but as business ramped up, he found it more difficult to separate his work and home life. Inspired by coworking spaces such as Launchpad and Conjunctured, he opened Brainstorm with John. Now he does most of his work on his laptop and the phone. Rather than turning to a shelf for paperwork, he scans his documents and keeps them in cloud storage; but he also keeps a three-ring binder system at home and pulls the appropriate binder when he comes to work in the morning.
Like Martin, John does more work on the computer, and that allows him to be more mobile. Today, his work primarily consists of answering email, scanning listings, and making phone calls. With a laptop, wifi, and a mobile phone, he’s not anchored to a particular place. John recalls that not long ago, when you worked in commercial realty, you would need physical plat maps (just as architects like Martin used to need physical plans). No longer. As these bulky representations migrate to laptops, professionals became more mobile. Of course, the mindset is still there. Many of their target profesionals, such as accountants and attorneys, still expect to have a lockable file cabinet full of paper files. I wanted a file cabinet too, John said, but Martin discouraged it so that we could work as peers with our coworking members - and now I understand why. John leaves most of his paper files at home, bringing only the ones he needs for the day. “My nephew,” John added wonderingly, “does all his flyers on his phone.”
For Martin and John, leasing the space is a win-win. It’s perfect for their own use, so they’re not desperate to fill it up. Their target is much more modest than most spaces: 10 monthly members. At other spaces, the rule of thumb seems to be twice as many coworkers as seats, Martin says. “But we don’t want to manage 28 people,” adds John. They’d have to hire someone at that point, and they are not ready to.
So they maintain four levels of membership:

• A full-time membership ($250/month)
• A part-time membership, 10 days in one month ($150/month)
• A weekly membership, 5 days in one month ($75/month)
• A daily rate ($25/day)
• Conference room rental for non-members ($25/hr)

And they have free parking. That turns out to be a big deal, since Brainstorm is located so close to downtown. Although clients are “location-independent creative professionals,” they still need access to the city, especially for meeting clients and collaborators and for showing spaces. Brainstorm is just a block east of I-35 and on one of downtown’s major east-west streets.
Brainstorm is not only about getting work done, though. Like other coworking spaces, Brainstorm also opens itself up to community events. “For example,” Martin said, “Brainstorm Coworking and Estilo Communications co-hosted an Imagine Austin meeting-in-a-box at Brainstorm, to give Austinites a voice in the comprehensive master plan currently underway in our city. It was a great success and we plan to co-host more community based outreach at Brainstorm in the future.” Martin describes Marion Sanchez, who bought and refurbished the building 15 years ago, as “a huge proponent of our startup” and “a huge part of what makes us great.”
For me, the most striking thing about Brainstorm Coworking is that it represents a shift toward earnestly supporting more traditional information-oriented work, work that has been around for a while but that has typically been tied to location because workers need access to physical representations and fixed phone lines. With those constraints lifted, people such as attorneys, architects, real estate brokers, financial consultants, and interior designers don’t actually need their own offices - but they still need to enact separation between their work and home life, they still need to network, and they need a space with close access to the people they must physically visit. Frankly, before visiting Brainstorm, I had not thought of people in these occupations as being ripe for coworking; now I do. In that context, Brainstorm’s location in a century-old restored Victorian house makes perfect sense.

Some SXSWi panels for your consideration

I'm planning to attend South by Southwest Interactive 2011, which is a terrific cross-disciplinary tech conference. Last year I organized a panel on coworking - a panel that made partially because people like you went to the PanelPicker and supported the panel.

This year, I hope you'll go back to the PanelPicker and consider putting your thumbs-up on three offerings:

"Understanding Humans: New Psychology and the Social Web"

Gavin Bell, Nature Publishing Group

Gavin Bell works for Nature, but readers of this blog might recognize his book, Building Social Web Applications. In this panel, Bell and his panelists will discuss how to apply social psychology - particularly activity theory - to understand and design social web applications. It's a very timely panel organized by someone who knows both sides of the equation.

"The Evolving Workplace: Environments, Methods, Trends and Management"

Liz Elam, LINK Coworking

Liz Elam owns LINK Coworking, which will be opening next month in North Austin. She knows a lot about coworking and about general workplace trends, and she and her panel will examine different aspects of these trends. If you're looking for insight into work environments, work tools, and work relationships, this panel should fit the bill.

"Hold on Loosely: How Loose Organizations Work"

Clay Spinuzzi, University of Texas at Austin

This is my core conversation offering. Instead of speaking at people, I'll lead a small-room discussion on loose organizations, how they work, and how they can scale up to meet challenges. If you're involved in a coworking space, a startup, a network of freelancers or subcontractors, or other professions that involve temporary, loosely affiliated professionals (think: real estate development, graphic design, event planning, financial planning), then think about voting this up and coming to the discussion.

Take a look and see what you think. And if you have other panels you'd like to nominate, leave them in the comments!