I think a facility like this would work in Providence.

I do think it would be critical that it have some form of inexpensive video conferencing. There are so many ways to share audio and video over the web that this should not be hard. Many of us are stuck in conference calls and I usually think there must be a better way. Even using commercial services for teleconferencing isn’t great and seems to be “so 90’s”. It could also be something which could be carefully rented out to local teams / telecommuters / consultants who are working for / with remote teams / companies and who want to more fully participate in meetings. Of course appearing more professional doesn’t hurt either.

Given the fact that my fax number points to an email service, I can email documents to local print shops to be printed, bound, and shipped, and all-in-one printing/scanning/copying solutions are becoming really cheap I think the real strength of these shared facilities will be their ability to facilitate dynamic human connections (working and personal) and a degree of professionalism not reachable in my living room. Just because I think my cats are really cool doesn’t mean my clients will...

At this time in my life I would not be a big user of a space like this but I wish it existed a few years ago and I will probably want one like it again.

Adam raises an excellent point with respect to co-working. I am not sure if folks heard this recent report on NPR's Morning Edition recently on the subject of co-working/telecommuting in NYC, but it was very interesting--

http://www.npr.org/templates/s...

It raised (among other things)the issue of folks who work out of their apartments in NYC coming together and sharing space during the week.

I for one recently co-located my new work space in the revitalized mill complex known as the Plant located in the Olneyville section of Providence (along with a graphic designer and industrial designer). We built out our space with co-working opportunities in mind. If anyone is interested in speaking about co-working opportunities further I would be more than happy to meet on the subject.

The reality is that there are lots of cool people doing cool things in cool spaces around here and anything that can be done to foster further collaborations (in this case through co-working and office-sharing) is something worth investigating further!

Thanks for bringing this subject up!

AC

There's been some thinkering of some folks in the public sector to attract out of state new media firms. It's done in NYC, but again ,there is the cost issue out there.

What I think it can be done is that folks like us can poll money to purchase essential shared equipment ( even second hand ) and look for someone with the initiative to provide subsidized rent or for a group to fund low cost rent and collect the monies from shared tennants, as a membership type of arrangement.

There is some affordable space on Harris Avenue, Lower Federal Hill, Pawtucket. Ideally, any incubator needs to be close to fiber, so it can create additional revenue by providing quality bandwidth and added revenue on premium content delivery.

I would be daring and say we need to start to think in terms of coop, so we can foster growth initiatives even further in this state.

Batch Blue is a member of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce. Why don't you contact them regarding using/renting their meeting space and other office services?

They also probably have a line on local business incubators that may meet your occasional need - for a small fee.

There is a difference between office space and meeting space. Both are needed. Office space is needed not only for the "client" visit but also, for example, at the beginning and ending of projects where immediate group communications is needed. In this later case, the group needs to inhabit this space for days at a time. They can't clear out their stuff at the end of each day because, for one, the day really is 24 hours long.

It would be great to understand the overhead costs of such a space.

There's also the other side of co-working that I didn't really bring up in the original post—the collaboration possibilities. gnatelli, that's why I'm really gauging interest at this point. I'm far more interested in the collaboration possibilities of co-working than the actual office space usage. The space would be handy, both for meetings, using things like copy machines that I don't have in the house, etc. But I'm picturing a place where a bunch people are working on things, asking others for their opinions, perhaps finding ways or partnering, contracting, etc.

Reading Adam's last post bring a number of positive ideas

"Computer lab" (at school)
Charettes
Incubators
Coffee shops
Guilds

But also more challenging ideas

Trust
Confidence
Security
Intensity
"Breathing room"

I am not sure what all this means except that the space you are envisioning is very complex both socially and legally.

I think we need to open the bandwidth of this discussion at either a coffee shop or pub. How about Brewed Awakenings in South Kingstown sometime this week.

Since Adam (adarowski) is at DEMO this week how about we use Meet-O-Matic to work out a date. If you are interested in talking about co-working (or just want to study people who think way too much about an issue) select a date at http://www.meetomatic.com/resp...

A get-together to discuss co-working possibilities sounds good to me, and meetomatic.com seems like a great tool. I suspect though that we'd draw more interest and a bigger crowd if it was more central than South County. How about Providence? Andrew?

If Providence works for people, I would be happy to host this discussion at my new office space at the Plant (located at 60 Valley Street, Unit 7) in Providence.

Providence is fine with me.

I am very interested in being a part of this conversation. I live in Portland now, but am in Providence bunches, and a flexible workspace could be a great way to stay connected. Especially with the surprising dearth of hot spots in Providence.

And, I've been thinking about the possibility of starting a place like this. Keep me in the loop. 

Check out The HUB in London.

I'm in the beginning stages of putting together a tech-centric coworking, and coop living project in a downtown building. I did speak to some people at the last Providence Geeks dinner that were very receptive to the idea and I've started to get a framework together to start pushing this project forward. The idea is for this to be a tech user/community driven project - and my initial vision was for this to be a 24/7 collaborative, socially engaging community... I'd like to start getting some good brainstorming sessions going in person. Send me an email if you are interested in helping me coordinate a meeting.

I've been waiting to chime in on this. Extremely exciting to see the high level of interest from both potential users and providers of co-working space.

In my consulting to the EDC we've been actively looking at how to best help introduce co-working options into the local market. As this thread attests, recently the anecdotal interest level has surged on both the demand and supply sides.

EDC Info-Tech & Digital Media Sector Lead Stuart Freiman and I are going to organize an open conversation between all stakeholders for sometime later this month at the RIEDC.

Please stay tuned for details, and keep the excellent info and insights coming.

My name is Matt, and I'm in the commercial real estate business but have become a Providence Geeks Club enthusiast. I'm focusing my work on helping technology oriented companies find suitable office space (FYI: this is a free service to tenants, give me a call if you're interested in learning more 273-1980).

It just so happens that I'm working with a building owner who has recently purchased the Federal Reserve building located at 170 Westminster Street in downtown Providence, the corner of Westminster and Dorrance street.

We are converting the property into an "iBuilding" and will be incorporating several technology upgrades including free building wi-fi, digital directories, tenant web portals, and bandwidth infrastructure allowing tenants to have plug-and-play data access at up to 100 mega bits per second.

We're currently dealing with several Shared Workplace business's about opening a facility at the "iBuilding". It would be the perfect fit! I would really like to find out how many people you guys/gals think would be interested in this type of facility (30, 70, 200)?? I'm eager to receive your feedback!!

Interested. I did a business plan for just such a thing dubbed the Knowledge Factory ~9 years ago. Spaces for low (student archtects, etc) to high rent (sales professionals). 24-hour access, incentives for business cooperation between tenents, etc.

The list is long, I put some considerable effort into the BP. I envisioned a restored warehouse in Providence, a chunk of the Foundry or some such place.

Larry 

I just read an article in Network World mag about a coworking location in Cambridge, MA. It made me look again for opportunities here in Prov. I would also like to findout more... Has the RIEDC meeting/discussion happened yet?

Colleen

In response to Jack & Colleen's posts, we are planning an event here at RIEDC (555 Valley St) for Thursday, Dec 6th, 8:30am to 10:30am. It will probably take the form of panel discussions with both real estate developers and the "user" community as well as participation from the audience. Mark your calendar's and watch for a more formal announcement.

Stuart

Article from Network World http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/102307-coworking.html

Stuart

PBN Article by David Ortiz on the planned iBuilding that Matt Fair mentioned above

http://rinexus.com/news/1636/l...

Congrats, Matt!

We have kind of already done this: http://www.thegrantat250.com

There are 16 spaces all together. One of them is a cafe. A few of them are retail. The bulk of them are design-related businesses of one or two people each. There is also a small art gallery. We have been open for a year. There has been some collaboration already, between businesses to work on larger projects. There is a recording studio with a vocal booth that does mainly hip hop artists but that can also record for web voice overs. We have an architect who has hired one of the designers to do a new website. We have designers that use the silkscreen studio's offerings for apparell printing and poster printing. All in all, it's worked pretty well.

We finally have a shared conference room ready to go for people. Internet is included in the rent, and WiFi is available.

I've been to the Grant a number of times - very, very cool.
What I'd like to see though is some "true" co-working space in RI - pay on a monthly basis for use of a shared space. Depending on what you paid you could have a "hot" desk, dedicated desk, or even a small dedicated office.

We're here in the newly converted Greenwich Mills (listed on the National Historic Registerd) located at the end of division street in East Greenwich (go down division street to the water!) 3rd floor. They just converted the second floor space also, I would love to have more people in the Info-Tech/ Digital Media industry join us here!  Could be a great solution!  Space is available to build out to suit!

www.greenwichmills.com 

I'm a big fan of a walkable lifestyle, something that is very difficult to attain in Providence at the moment. I believe small, ultra-local, co-working spaces/communities have great potential to improve the walk-ability of Providence for independent freelancers and other entrepreneurs in the digital media and info-tech space and would love to hear from anyone who would have an interest in working from such a space on the West Side.

owen, you bring up a good point. maybe the coworking space for our design|geek community isn't one place, but a fabric of coworking locations that shares common threads and interconnections. i know there's a bunch of folks in the Summit area of the East Side that work from home and would benefit from a local coworking spot. Accordingly, it would be hard to convince them to make the hike downtown for the same spot regularly. Unbelievable, but perhaps true.

Not unbelievable at all. My main criteria for a recent office search was that it was a maximum of 15 minutes walking distance from my home! Downtown is a 30 minute hike!

In case any of you didn't see the announcement, the Dec. 6th panel event that this thread inspired has been announced.

http://rinexus.com/blog/2007/1...

Here's an interesting piece from Business Week from Feb 07 about co-working. I'm really looking forward to the event and to seeing how this idea is coming to life in Providence.

http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/feb2007/sb20070226_761145.htm