Coworking

Tarey,

Coworking is alive, well, and blooming in the Twin Cities. It started
last November in Minneapolis at Crema Cafe, 34th & Lyndale. For $15,
you spent Tuesday at Crema and the fee included an excellent lunch.
(Crema is a very good restaurant and they also make their own ice
cream under the Sonny's label.)

Out of the initial coworking experience, two more centers emerged:
Coco in the Lowertown area of DT St. Paul and The 3rd Place in the St.
Anthony Park Neighborhood in St. Paul. I spend a day a week at each.
Coco is now looking for a Minneapolis location.

My wife calls it my "daycare." I tell people it's like an upgraded
coffee shop experience where you don't have to ask someone to watch
your laptop when you use the restroom.

I find it to be a very valuable experience. I was laid off from the U
of MN last August and went back to contract web development for a
living as I seek a new job. Coworking gets me out with other freelance
workers where I can chat and at times form collaborations. We share a
lot of information in real time. We get to know each other socially
and build trust. So your circle of various trusted authorities widens.
When I need to call in an editor for web content, I now have several
choices that I didn't have before and they are people I know directly
or who have worked extensively with people I know directly.

Links follow. Both Coco and The 3rd Place allow you to come and try
them out for free. Each has a different "flavor" and I would
definitely check them both out. (Parking is very cheap in DT St. Paul
and 3rd Place has lots of free on-street parking.) Crema is still
offering one-day-a-week coworking under management of 3rd Place. I
don't know if you can do a free day there. (Please let whoever know I
referred you.)

Here's a blog post I did on coworking in December
http://pfhyper.posterous.com/coworking-55

Coco
http://cocomsp.com/
http://twitter.com/cocomsp

The 3rdPlace
http://the3rdplace.ning.com/
http://twitter.com/the3rdplaceMN

Crema Cafe
http://cremacoworking.ning.com/



On Sun, Apr 4, 2010 at 12:46 AM, Tarey Johnson
<email obscured>> wrote:
> Hi all~
>
> I've stumbled onto a new(at least to me) concept called Coworking.  Is there
any of these setup in Minnesota?
>
> I'm seriously thinking of starting up one of these. It sure makes a whole lot
of sense and I can see how something like this would be great for educating a
rural community to what's happening out of plain sight.
>
> Hmmmmm,
> Tarey@
>        Northwoods-Exposure.com
> _______________________________________
>
>
> Tarey Johnson
> Denham or Sturgeon Lake, Moose Lake
> Info about Tarey Johnson:
http://forums.e-democracy.org/p/3tywZX4q9EW8uwQpgFAz5O

>


--
Peter Fleck
Seward Neighborhood, Minneapolis
Editor, Seward Profile Online News
http://sewardprofile.posterous.com/
Manager, Seward Neighbors Forum
http://forums.e-democracy.org/groups/mpls-seward

My Blog: http://www.pfhyper.com/blog
My Twitter: http://twitter.com/pfhyper
<email obscured>

THANKS Peter!

It's great to hear from someone that actually uses these spaces.

My head is just spinning over the possibilities a space like this would mean to
a rural area.  Plug a fiber line in and give folks a taste of the possibilities
coupled with the exposure to peeps in the area that are actually telecommuting.
I know we have some and the regulars around here have no idea that it's going
on. We have a fancy coffee shop that's a hot spot and I see laptops in there
quite often.

It wouldn't have the corporate feel like in the big city, but that's the part
that cranks me up.  The youth in the area would flock to the place and then
bring their excitement home with them.  It would be inviting to those curious
and open up the chance to educate how this stuff works.  I've been a web
designer in the area since '96 when I first had to help people hook up their
dial up just to create demand for what I wanted to do.  Still folks don't get
it.  I introduced a directory, then a wiki and now I'm deploying CMSs around
and it's just too much for them to comprehend on their own.  A Coworking space
would afford me the opportunity to explain just how this stuff works and why
they want to learn about it.

I'm even a member of Horizons, which is a program for reducing poverty.  I
tried explaining a CMS to them at meetings, but was met with bewilderment. Now
if they had a place to learn how to participate and contribute, the Coworking
space could act as a most powerful marketing tool for getting the community on
board.  We could even identify the youth that wanted to VPN into area computers
for helping solve computer problems.  The local library is always booked, but
they only get a half hour at a turn and what can anyone do in a half hour?

In a rural area, any business has to wear many hats.  The Net opens the doors
to a bagillion hats.  It would be really fun to see how this concept would
evolve.

So excited,
Tarey@

	Northwoods-Exposure.com
_______________________________________

Ran into a minor set back.  That fiber line it metered at $100 per mg.  So if I
want 5 megs it will cost me $500/month with a five year commitment.  With cable
offering 10 megs at $80, it gets retarded.

I'm beginning to see how rural areas are fighting to stay in the dark ages.

Hmmmmm,
Tarey@
	Northwoods-Exposure.com
_______________________________________