The results of the Coworking Survey
Tara Hunt
So...wow...we collected over 120 responses (including the first 11 via email that aren't in the spreadsheet) and I spoke with quite a few people who said they didn't get the chance to go take the survey, so I think this is representative of the fact that there is quite a bit of interest worldwide in coworking! Yay! Some great information, too...really telling us where we are at and highlighting people's needs.
Some overview results for you:
Countries of respondents
USA 58.18%
Unknown 9%
Canada 6.36%
Ireland & UK (each) 3.64%
Italy 2.73%
Australia, Croatia, Germany, New Zealand and South Africa (each) 1.82%
Afghanistan, Finland, France, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain & Switzerland (each) 0.91%
*NOTE* -- I'm guessing due to the anglo-centric discussions, we are getting much higher response in English speaking countries. This may present an opportunity for those in other countries to champion this movement themselves, by translating important text into their own language?
Stages of people on the list
30.9% - Are currently looking for a space to work from (wanting to be coworkers)
25.5% - Are interested in setting up a space (potential space owners)
18.2% - Other
10.9% - Are just watching the list (lurkers)
10.0% - Are in the process of setting up a space (future space owners)
2.7% - Are currently working at a coworking space (coworkers)
1.8% - Are currently running a coworking space (space owners)
*NOTE* -- The trick, for me, is to turn the 10.9% lurkers (and the 18.2% others) into either future space owners or coworkers and turn those potential space owners into actual space owners so the people looking for spaces have somewhere to work!
The order of importance of features in a space (rating out of 5):
Atmosphere = 4.5
Community Feeling = 4.3
Collaborative Environment = 4.1
Location = 4.0
Networking Opportunities = 3.9
Excellent Coworkers = 3.7
Meeting Spaces = 3.7
Quiet Spaces = 3.4
Security = 3.2
24 hr Access = 3.1
Event spaces = 2.9
Privacy = 2.8
Personalized Space (own desk) = 2.6
*NOTE* -- For those setting up a space, think of creating a really great atmosphere as the #1 thing to concentrate on. There is a great article here on seriously great workspaces. So, do you need art? Comfy chairs? Plants? Rugs? Flowers? Games? Yep. In the end, EVERYTHING was pretty important (nothing scored less than 50%), but Atmosphere and Comunity Feeling blew the others away.
So, how can we help the people trying to set up coworking spaces?
Well, their most immediate needs were:
Finding Space - 13.6%
Money - 10.9%
Partners - 7.3%
Space Management Tips & Coworkers (each) - 5.5%
Structural Help - 4.5%
Networking - 3.6%
Other - 2.7%
...if we could encourage the lurkers, maybe #3 (Partners) wouldn't be such a big deal and they could help us find space (#1). Money? That's a whole other issue. Anyone have good tips? For us, we decided to take fewer risks on the monthly rent (found a fix-me-upper that doesn't have parking spots so the building rent is lower) to make for a better space and not as much pressure on us if we lose tenants...
What are they getting out of the coworking list?
Community - 16.4%
Advice - 14.5%
Support - 10.9%
Promotion - 8.2%
Mentors - 5.5%
Coworkers - 5.5%
Other - 2.7%
...aaaawwwww! Community, advice and support are awesome things to get out of this list and everyone should be proud of themselves for giving so much! :)
The rest of the answers are here: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pVSaj5ixYmAyYm--dbRhgXw in long form. I've removed all of the personal information as far as I know...(like IPs and emails)
Other cool anecdotes:
- most of the lurkers who responded said, "Give me something to do!" (i've created a list of ways to get involved with coworking...some bigger, some smaller: http://blog.coworking.info/2007/04/21/how-to-get-involved/)
- most people who responded have been in love with the idea of coworking for many more years than we've been gathering here...most have never seen it done quite right.
- seem to be quite a few parents on the list...(or soon to be parents) - we need to start thinking about co-daycare!
T.
--
Sincerely,
Tara
-----------------------
tara 'miss rogue' hunt
co-founder & CMO
Citizen Agency (www.citizenagency.com)
blog: www.horsepigcow.com
phone: 415-694-1951
fax: 415-727-5335
MattCoop
highly. Coworking is one of the best ways to turn online communities
back into physical communities, which I think is essential.
It's also awesome to see how many people are eager to contribute. I
think we could really benefit by improving coworking's common pool
resources. I see that there are some great resources already growing
on the wiki, but they might grow faster and stronger if we take a more
structured approach.
Let's ask: What are the top projects? What does every coworking
need? Which resources, if made available to all, would most
effectively jumpstart the coworking movement? Which projects are easy
for us to complete right now? Which existing projects have the most
potential?
Once these questions are answered, the next steps will be clear.
MC
BrianR
people value community highly. Defiantly one of the reasons I'm trying
to start a coworking business. To foster a positive community for
creative workers in Carrboro, NC.
-Brian
> Hey All!
>
> So...wow...we collected over 120 responses (including the first 11 via email
> that aren't in the
> spreadsheet<http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pVSaj5ixYmAx6iT80STE9GA>)
> 18.2%others) into either future space owners or coworkers and turn
> those
> potential space owners into actual space owners so the people looking for
> spaces have somewhere to work!
>
> The order of importance of features in a space (rating out of 5):
> Atmosphere = 4.5
> Community Feeling = 4.3
> Collaborative Environment = 4.1
> Location = 4.0
> Networking Opportunities = 3.9
> Excellent Coworkers = 3.7
> Meeting Spaces = 3.7
> Quiet Spaces = 3.4
> Security = 3.2
> 24 hr Access = 3.1
> Event spaces = 2.9
> Privacy = 2.8
> Personalized Space (own desk) = 2.6
>
> *NOTE* -- For those setting up a space, think of creating a really great
> atmosphere as the #1 thing to concentrate on. There is a great article here
> on seriously great
> workspaces<http://positivesharing.com/2006/10/10-seeeeeriously-cool-workplaces/>.
> The rest of the answers are here:http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pVSaj5ixYmAyYm--dbRhgXwin long form.
Tara Hunt
Well, personally, from the results of the survey, I know we need a couple of things:
1. A way to get the people thinking about starting coworking spaces over that 'hump' to actually running a coworking space. What does that entail?
a. definitely space resources: more people to help find a great space and information for the local.
b. our continued support (it seems to be very highly valued) and advice. even when it doesn't answer the question totally, it seems to encourage.
c. finances? we aren't a bank and all seem to have our own money worries, but maybe there is something here about pointing out resources to make things less expensive to run. we are currently working with Belkin, Zipcar and *hopefully in the near future* Ikea to see what we can do to get coworking startup deals. (oh...and I found fairly inexpensive healthcare options recently that I'll publish soon)
d. internationalization. we need to start translating this information so that it works for people in non-English speaking countries.
2. A way to show people interested in finding a coworking space to work out of where to go. Hopefully local. If we solve enough of #1, it'll be simple.
3. A way to continually support the spaces that exist so that they grow and are a success so that others can follow.
and finally...
4. I believe that all of the above will pull more 'lurkers' in to become participants. The warmer, the more encouraging the community is...the more benefits arise, the more will take that step...
Perhaps we can concentrate our early efforts on making things work for the people in Philadelphia, Seattle and Chicago, who are just getting off the ground? Maybe we need to talk to a commercial real estate agency about this?
Tara
Tara Hunt
BrianR
my fixed and variable costs. Any types of costs ya'll could share
would be helpful.
I'll start another thread about other questions/ideas.
Cheers!
-Brian
> Oh...and Carrboro, NC! :) What do you need from us for support? Just ask?
>
> > > Citizen Agency (www.citizenagency.com)
> > > blog:www.horsepigcow.com
> > > phone: 415-694-1951
> > > fax: 415-727-5335
>
> --
> Sincerely,
>
> Tara
> -----------------------
> tara 'miss rogue' hunt
> co-founder & CMO
MattCoop
that's easily achieved by an online community, is to build our
knowledge base. The "Immediate Needs" part of the survey clearly
indicates which sorts of knowledge are most in demand. If we write a
"for dummies" for each of those areas, it'll help a lot of potential
coworkers take that first step. I, for one, don't know the first
thing about real estate. Here's a first stab, based on the survey, at
breaking out the knowledge base into key areas:
Immediate Needs
Finding Space (13.6%)
* How to search for space
* What to look for in a space
* Working with agents and brokers
* Zoning laws
* Understanding the real estate market
Money (10.9%)
* Obtaining investments
* Collectively managing money
* Tax issues
* Available loans, grants for coworking
* A coworking startup fund?
Partners (7.3%), Coworkers (5.5%), and Networking (3.6%), as Tara
said, will grow as a result of successful projects.
Space Management Tips
* Legal issues: operating agreements, dispute resolution, liability
* How to get cheap resources like furniture, technology (good work on
the startup deals by the way.)
* Which resources to share (that is, which are built into the office,
which are supplied by the coworker as she needs it?)
* Case studies of past coworking models
* How to tailor your coworking to a specific crowd (I'm interested in
coworkings for musicians)
* This is a big category, and one that there's probably a lot of
accrued wisdom in already...
Structural Health (4.5%)
* I'm not exactly sure what this means. I've probably lumped it into
the previous category.
I figure that once we've done a little brainstorming on this we can
organize the wiki in a way that will allow people to channel their
energy into specific knowledge base projects. Also, I'm interested in
how Coworking overall shapes up as a project or movement. Tara, how
you do you present and message coworking when you get coworking
startup deals with companies? And, would it be in coworkers'
interests to make a formal coworking foundation?
MC
Tara Hunt
Tara Hunt
We don't have any 'official' messaging, but we try to get potential investors, journalists, etc. whipped up about the 'movement' like I wrote up in the new sections yesterday:
http://coworking.pbwiki.com/Interested
and how I talk about coworking when interviewed:
http://blogs.talis.com/nodalities/2007/03/tara_hunt_talks_with_talis_abo.php
But we should probably create more 'marketing' materials in order to help others sell the idea to potential funders, donators and local news. I'll get right on that, but I also know there is plenty of talent in the network. ;)
We've talked about a formal coworking foundation, but I don't know if we are quite ready yet. Foundations slow things down - getting into political battles and beaurocratic messes - so until the 'small pieces loosely joined' doesn't suit us anymore, I'd vote to stay the starfish organization we are. Maybe moving hybrid once more spaces get established and the software is finished? Anyone?
Tara
MattCoop
points of view too.
I also ran with Tara's vote of confidence and added "Knowledge Base"
under "Resources" on the coworking homepage. There's some structure
there, but I didn't write any content as I've never actually even been
to a coworking. I'll be hitting one up just as soon as I can get a
laptop.
On Apr 23, 12:36 pm, "Tara Hunt" <t...@citizenagency.com> wrote:
> Oh...and as for your questions:
>
> We don't have any 'official' messaging, but we try to get potential
> investors, journalists, etc. whipped up about the 'movement' like I wrote up
> in the new sections yesterday:
>
> http://coworking.pbwiki.com/Interested
>
> and how I talk about coworking when interviewed:
>
> http://blogs.talis.com/nodalities/2007/03/tara_hunt_talks_with_talis_...
>
> But we should probably create more 'marketing' materials in order to help
> others sell the idea to potential funders, donators and local news. I'll get
> right on that, but I also know there is plenty of talent in the network. ;)
>
> We've talked about a formal coworking foundation, but I don't know if we are
> quite ready yet. Foundations slow things down - getting into political
> battles and beaurocratic messes - so until the 'small pieces loosely joined'
> doesn't suit us anymore, I'd vote to stay the starfish organization we are.
> Maybe moving hybrid once more spaces get established and the software is
> finished? Anyone?
>
> Tara
>
> --
> Sincerely,
>
> Tara
> -----------------------
> tara 'miss rogue' hunt
Chris Messina
add them to http://wiki.coworking.info/ToDo under a section marked
with your full name and location.
The idea is to both capture what people are working on locally as well
as for the community and provide in-roads for folks looking to get
involved and wanting something to do. Who knows, someone might just
take your list and get it down!
This idea is modeled after the microformats community ToDo list:
http://microformats.org/wiki/to-do
Chris
On 4/23/07, MattCoop <mattcoo...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
--
Chris Messina
Citizen Provocateur &
Open Source Ambassador-at-Large
Work: http://citizenagency.com
Blog: http://factoryjoe.com/blog
Cell: 412 225-1051
Skype: factoryjoe
This email is: [ ] bloggable [X] ask first [ ] private
Samuel Rose
one of the best current successful examples of a decentralized/open
international network of people that are actually solving real world
problems, right now. Previously, the only good examples we could point
to were within the open source software community. This is laying the
groundwork for basic concepts and methods that can be used in other
areas, like Open Design/Frabrication, Science and Design Knowledge
Commons, Open Business, and more.
Beyond all that, the nature of social organization in Coworking, seems
to have served Coworkign quite well so far, in terms of growing,
knowledge sharing, and creating spreading ways to solve common
problems. It'd be a shame to ultimately see that squashed as Coworking
starts to run up against problems interfacing with established
corporate and government beaurocracies.
Keep it open, flexible, fractal, decentralized, please :)
On Apr 23, 12:36 pm, "Tara Hunt" <t...@citizenagency.com> wrote:
> Oh...and as for your questions:
>
> We don't have any 'official' messaging, but we try to get potential
> investors, journalists, etc. whipped up about the 'movement' like I wrote up
> in the new sections yesterday:
>
> http://coworking.pbwiki.com/Interested
>
> and how I talk about coworking when interviewed:
>
> http://blogs.talis.com/nodalities/2007/03/tara_hunt_talks_with_talis_...
>
> But we should probably create more 'marketing' materials in order to help
> others sell the idea to potential funders, donators and local news. I'll get
> right on that, but I also know there is plenty of talent in the network. ;)
>
> We've talked about a formal coworking foundation, but I don't know if we are
> quite ready yet. Foundations slow things down - getting into political
> battles and beaurocratic messes - so until the 'small pieces loosely joined'
> doesn't suit us anymore, I'd vote to stay the starfish organization we are.
> Maybe moving hybrid once more spaces get established and the software is
> finished? Anyone?
>
> Tara
>
> --
> Sincerely,
>
> Tara
> -----------------------
> tara 'miss rogue' hunt