Coworking: The Werks in Brighton & Hove works (ahem)
Coworking most definitely fits into the ‘useful, important, enjoyable and therefore coming to a place near you’ basket, the same basket that contains unconferences, lightweight structures, wikis and wikification in general, democratic working practices and yes, Twitter ;)
What they share is a new remoulding and levelling of the world, a move towards collaboration over command and control, a shift towards warm, human and flexible over cold, automated and rigid: just a better way of doing things, where the fluidity and sharing that is enabled by the Internet and portable easy to use technology (mobile phones, mobile internet, laptops, stuff) are embraced and exploited to their full extent.
If you’re new to the coworking concept you can find learn more by reading this NYT article on coworking in general or indoctrinate yourself on the Coworking Wiki.
Coworking has real momentum, although many with a more historical bent would have no truck with this recent-schmecent rubbish: look at medieval guilds and the like, as Dan McQuillan suggests. Yet again Tara Hunt is at the heart of the recent digital rejuvination of this grassroots-style movement (hats off to she that makes good things happen).
Today I needed to be somewhere else: home would be too crazy; the office would be too interrupted. I had to make serious headway in developing some training materials and needed a productive working environment with low hassle high bandwidth wifi, light, space and Brighton & Hove coworking space The Werks came to mind.
I don’t know an awful lot about The Werks’ story but I do not that their Friday co-working – where all and sundry are welcome for a spot o’ co-working – has gained and gained and gained momentum over time, and that my regular Friday appointments with our business advisor and team lunches have kept me away, but at an interested and enthusiastic arm’s length.
When we recently used a Werks meeting space for a client workshop James mentioned that co-working is now anyday of the week (a good decision all round I reckon) meaning that those wanting a drop-in desk space (or sofa!) can pop in free of charge and get involved. Wickedly nice gift to the community, if ever there was one. So I took James up.
It werked wonderfully for me.
Although I have to confess I didn’t really cowork as work in a coworking space, given my deadline and the need to focus. But I did catch up with the very nice Richard Dallaway, local community pillar Rosie Sherry, the talented Josh and Dave and met for the first time Jim Callender who’s been a contact on Flickr and then Twitter <californian accent> for like ages </californian accent>(Wow, what geekery – marketing guy using pseudo HTML in blog posts, time to buy that farm in Patagonia methinks).
Next time I’ll go with less specific tasks to complete and more of a nosey, collaborative attitude. And I’ll seek to give as much as I can.
But even so, perhaps there’s the rub: though I was focused and working and productive and largely opting out via headphones (and not knowing most of the others on my bustling table of 7 or so other peeps) I still managed to chat to good people I rarely see and have the space to talk with. It was actually really nice.
I love what James and his gang of supporters have been able to achieve. And I can see how the momentum and success is going to grow. The Werks is a wonderful experiment that’s working: the metaphorical petri dish is bubbling with growth and energy, and I’m just delighted that we – the Brighton digital community – have such a wonderful asset to take from and give to.
Will McInnes wrote this on 27.05.08 – 1 comment
It's filed in the Brighton, NixonMcInnes box
On May 27th, 2008 at 11:06 pm, Werk in progress « Coworking Community Blog responded:
[...] but are we finding that our open and transparent approach is the best marketing tool. People are talking about us, making recommendations, coming to open coworking and events and feeling the positive vibe [...]