Since 2006 a few studies have shown the number of coworking spaces and available seats have roughly doubled each year.
San Francisco continues to have a large presence in the coworking community, and is home to a growing number of coworking places.Also in the bay area, Anca Mosoiu established Tech Liminal in 2009, a coworking place in Oakland. in Miami new places have been opening their doors, among them is CityDesk. Coworking has also spread into many other metropolitan areas, with cities such as Seattle, Washington, Portland, Oregon, and Wichita, Kansas now offering several thriving coworking venues.
The New York coworking community has also been evolving rapidly in places like Regus and Rockefeller Group Business Center. Several new startups like WeWork have been expanding all over the city. The demand for coworking in Brooklyn neighborhoods is almost never ending due to the rise in the Millennials workforce, nearly one in 10 workers in the Gowanus area work from home. The industrial area of Gowanus, Brooklyn is seeing a surge in new startups like Coworkers, who are redesigning old buildings into new coworking spaces.
Some coworking places were developed by nomadic Internet entrepreneurs seeking an alternative to working in coffee shops and cafes, or to isolation in independent or home offices. A 2007 survey showed that many employees worry about feeling isolated and losing human interaction if they were to telecommute. Roughly a third of both private and public-sector workers also reported that they didn’t want to stay at home during work.
Types of Coworking
Coworking is not only about the physical place, but about establishing the coworking community first. Its benefits can already be experienced outside of its places, and it is recommended to start with building a coworking community first before considering opening a Coworking place. However, some coworking places don’t build a community: they just get a part of an existing one by combining their opening with an event which attracts their target group.
Real-estate centric coworking spaces are about selling desks first, with building community as a secondary goal. Players target freelance professionals, remote workers, and small to medium enterprises (SMEs) who need a space and seek a community with a collaborative spirit. Customers also often benefit from professional services such as printing or incorporation or consulting.
Coworking is distinct from business accelerators, incubators and executive suites. These spaces do not fit into the coworking model because they often miss the social, collaborative, and informal aspects of the process. In coworking, management practices are closer to that of a cooperative, including a focus on community rather than profit. Many of the coworking participants are also participants in an unconference like BarCamp and other related open-source participatory technology events.
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