zerosum dirt(nap)

I’m calling it now: Coworking spaces are the new startup incubator. No, I’m not talking about shared office space. No way. It’s different:

Coworking is a movement to create a community of cafe-like collaboration spaces for developers, writers and independents.

The whole concept feels very, very right to me. See, I don’t really want coworkers, just like I don’t really want a full-time ordinary run-of-the-mill 40 hour/week job; I’d rather be sharing a space with 4-10 other self-motivated similarly-minded freelancers, who split their days between client work, personal startuppy ideas, and OSS projects. Especially ones that can hack some mean code, or who have a sick artistic bent.

Of course, you need a critical mass to make something like this work, and people who can commit to participation. Those can be hairy obstacles. Coworking spaces usually develop in larger cities because, hey, they have the ecosystem to support it. The numbers are on their side. San Francisco, Washington DC, Boston and Seattle all have fairly well known coworking spaces. There are a number of entries at pbwiki for small cities, but for the most part, those links are just people who are interested should something become available.

Man, I’m jealous. I want a coworking space in my city. Hrmm.