Timeline of Working Together-Alone (AKA Coworking)

[Todd Sundsted]

[This material, with a entertaining storyline, will make up a chapter
of the book. Comments, criticisms, omissions, etc. are always
welcome.]

This post lays out some of the history of working alone-together
("alone-together" is taken from the title of an article in Inc. titled
"Alone Together" - http://www.inc.com/magazine/20010615/22790.html).

There have always been groups of individuals who have come together to
work as part of a peer-based community outside of the traditional
communities structures of their time and place.

Early on, most of these groups were made up of writers and artists.
More recently, these groups have a technology focus. Still, the
people and the groups have many things in common.

The people think of themselves as individuals and perform work that
depends heavily on their individual contribution. They seek community
and community-making with their peers. Their community is built
around work, not (primarily) socializing.

In looking at possible candidates for this timeline, I have focused on
groups that:
1) seek community
2) share space/place
3) to work.

Regarding artists and writers, it's probably useful for you to think
of artists and writers as the *original* freelancers and
independents. The tech crowd is just catching up!

I'm sure there are lots of gaps (point them out) and things I could
have mentioned (point them out). I'm going to focus on the sign
posts.

In 1902, Alfred Boucher, a sculptor, opened La Ruche in Paris (in
Montparnasse, well known as a gathering place for artists at the
time). Like some coworking spaces, La Ruche was a live/work
structure, with some artists both living and working there and others
either working or visiting.

In the United States, both the MacDowell Colony (1907) and Yaddo
(1926), provided spaces for artists and writers. However, both were
more of the art colony type (lots of space, individual studios,
solitude during the work-day, and socializing during the evening) than
modern coworking facilities. Both are still in operation.

In 1978, a group of writers founded the Writers Room in New York
City. The Writers Room looks much more like a modern coworking
facility, albeit with a focus on solitude and quiet. It is still in
operation. Really, these writers need to tune in to electronica. I
write all the time with fast-paced psy-trance zipping past. That's
probably why my sentences are so short.

In 1994, Po Bronson (famous writer for Wired) and Ethan Watters and
Ethan Canin rented a set of rooms in San Francisco and created the
Writers Grotto. Great coworking like quote: "By joining forces with
several like-minded independent professionals to get a shared office
space, you can create a sense of camaraderie without compromising the
goals or vision of your own work. It's actually much simpler to do
than you might think." Also... "The Grotto was founded to create
community, not to save money."

In Sept, 1999, John McGann signed the lease on space at 116 W. Houston
in New York City and created 116 W. Houston (later Nutopia). The
entire space was for individuals and small businesses, primarily in
the technology space. Another great quote: "John D. McGann... first
took in freelancers because the space he rented was too large for his
own company. But he has come to believe that sharing space with Web
soloists and even other businesses brings new ideas and capabilities
to his company..."

In Sept, 2004, Neil Goldberg opens the Gate 3 Work Club in
Emoryville. Neil was originally a designer with Herman Miller and ran
his own SF Bay based design firm, and his space reflected an
intentional level of thought to flow and organization I haven't seen
anywhere else, yet. Gate 3 is no longer in operation.

In Aug, 2005, Brad mentions coworking at the Spiral Muse on his blog.
At this point it is being called "coworking" and things start to take
off. It's worth noting that Brad had in mind a style of working and
living far more advanced/balanced/whatever with time for mediation,
yoga, etc. http://codinginparadise.org/weblog/2005/08/coworking-community-for-developers-who.html.

I probably need to mention details for some of the early spin-off
efforts like Hat Factory and Citizen Space, but I can see that my
notes aren't complete here, so I'll have to come back.

In Feb/Mar, 2006, Amit and Luke hold the first Jelly in New York
City. Called "casual coworking" and held periodically rather than
every day, Jelly is still about working together, community, and a
place.

Okay, I'm running out of steam. If there's interested, I'll fill the
gaps.

Bottom line... working together-apart, coworking, whatever *is*
important because it represents the satisfaction of a human need that
has been with us for a century (at least, and let's be honest,
probably more like forever) and it's resurgence is in amidst a group
of workers whose skills (work) is absolutely crucial to the success of
business in the 21st century.

Like the artist in La Ruche, many of today's workers are quite willing
to be independent of traditional work structures and now have the
means to do so. Given the starfish structure of coworking and jelly,
it's very likely that this movement can scale and scale fast to meet
demand.

If I were a CEO, I'd be paying close attention.

Peace...

Todd (AKA Bandit)