I’ve probably said this here before, but when it rains, it pours coworking and Office Nomads coverage. This week already there are three articles on coworking in the blogosphere, and it’s only Tuesday!

First up is a fabulous overview of coworking and why businesses should try it over at TriangleB2B.com. It’s a long-ish piece that explores the origins, reasons and mechanics of coworking (though it does use the hyphen). It’s by far the best piece on coworking that I’ve seen yet and well worth the read if you’re new to the concept or if you’re well versed in coworking but still sometimes getting the “blank stare”  when you explain it. This piece will give you plenty of good, clear language that helps entreprenuers see the value in coworking.

The venerable Web Worker Daily posted another piece on coworking, this time focusing on the history of their coworking coverage. It’s a handy guide to stories describing coworking in general, covering unique business models in coworking and even one on some exotic coworking locales. Read up and join the ongoing discussion there. It’s lively and informative.

Finally, slightly West of us, Jennifer Hargrove at The Kitsap Sun (yes, an actual print newspaper) caught wind of the coworking movement. They published a short piece about coworking and used Office Nomads as the example. Thanks for the kind words and the shout out about the Pink Slip Special!

The image is appropriately titled “The best thing one can do when it’s raining is to let it rain” We used it under the Creative Commons license thanks to flickr user Krikit.

Have an iPhone? Looking for a way to keep Office Nomads (or at least a water cooler) with you at all times? Thanks to our very own Ryan Salva, principal of Capitol Media and stalwart Office Nomads member, now you can. Out of the blue, he created the following excellent wallpaper for you iPhone. Download and bask in its gloriousness!

The other night, I was walking back to my desk here at Office Nomads. It was a bit after 6 pm–later than I usually work–and the office was mostly empty except for a one or two other people. As I passed through the main room I glanced over at three pods of desks that fill the area there and was struck by how lived in they all looked. Office Nomads, I realized, has become a home office of a different breed.

The first time I came in here, way back in November 2007, it was just a day or two after Jacob and Susan opened the space for the first time. The space then was huge and empty. Clumps of desks were gathered around the few electric outlets and network drops while the front desk was just another able in a tangle of wires. There were no couches.

See. No couches

The other night though, as I walked through it, the space looked and felt lived in, and I mean that in the best of ways. Those of us who spend our days here have made it our own. Desks, which now share the space with couches, tables and shelving, are filled with decorations and work tools. People have their own favorite desk chairs and for some reason, one chair is adorned with a sideways smiley face. In short, we’ve all become so comfortable here and with each other that an office–something that is generally thought of as a sterile environment–has become a home for us all in a relatively short amount of time.

Interestingly, I think this means that the physical manifestation of the coworker’s desire not to work from home is fast becoming a new breed of home office.

Jacob and I just returned from my first-ever and Jacob’s second South By Southwest Interactive (SXSWi).  Most people know about SXSW’s amazing music portion, its independent film festival, and all of the parties associated with both.  Admittedly, those were the only pieces of the festival that I’d ever known about.  Well, let me tell you, if you think the music and film portion is fun, you’d agree with me: the interactive is AWESOME.  Not only did we get to see some amazing speakers, but we got to soak up the energy of Austin while we were there – it was teeming with ideas, music, films, and of course, excellent social events to connect us all.

We went to several panels over the 3 days we were there, all of which were informative, exciting, and thought-provoking.  Topics ranged from “Tips for Making Ideas Happen” to “Open Source Disability Tech” to Keynotes from the likes of Nate Silver, James Powderly, Chris Anderson and Guy Kawasaki.

Most exciting for me was participating on a panel titled “Regional Whuffie Building: Attracting Innovation to your City.”  I got to sit alongside four of my excellent coworking colleagues to discuss how coworking spaces around the country are helping to attract innovations and innovators in their cities.  The panel was organized and moderated by Tony Bacigalupo of New Work City in NYC, and also included Matthew Wettergreen of Caroline Collective, Geoff DiMasi of Independents Hall in Philadephia, and Julie Duryea of souk in Portland.  The five of us were able to quickly connect the ideas of Whuffie, coworking, and innovation, then move along to some examples of how we are working toward building centers of innovation (aka coworking spaces and the projects that are launched from them) in our own cities. (If you’re interested in what Whuffie is, please check out the variety of info Tara Hunt has put out on the subject – her slideshow from SXSW lives here.).

Discussing coworking at BarCamp Austin, happening in conjunction with SXSWi.

If there is one thing I can draw out from participating on this panel, it is that coworking spaces and the people who use them are officially on to something.  Work as we know it and as we have been doing it for years (centuries really) is changing for the good, and coworking spaces are a wonderful example of that.  There is so much beauty in idea of coworking:

• Individual workers get to work along side other smart, motivated folks and therefore be more productive.
• Ideas are generated faster and more wholly than when individuals sit in their private offices or homes.  Interesting things happen more often and faster when you put interesting people together. It’s the concept Tara Hunt and Chris Messina at Citizen Space coined “accelerated serendipity.” It might sound woo-woo, but if you’ve ever seen it happen, it’s incredible.
• The noticeable effect that by working next to folks who you don’t work with or for can actually make your work better.
• The local-nature of each space and how they reflect the cities they are in, the neighborhoods they are in, and the individuals who work in them.  Add to that the benefit (in most spaces) of being able to walk, bike, or bus to work – it really beats having to drive through horrifyingly bad traffic every day.

Whatever your reason for coming to a coworking space (or for even thinking to join one), let me tell you this right now: You’re a part of something big.  It is clear that all around us the nature of business is changing.  And alongside that change we as communities (of workers, of neighbors, or of businesses) need to change and adapt the way we work together to be more successful.  Coworking is just one example of how the shape of work is shifting, and shifting for the better.

So rock on, fellow coworkers, and I look forward to seeing more of you in Austin next year.

No magnets needed

What the heck is that? Good question. It is a CoCollage screen and it is the newest addition to the Office Nomads space. A CoCollage is a basically a virtual refrigerator door. A local company puts a large flat-panel screen in community gathering spots such as ours visitors (or residents) a place to post, well virtual detritus of the sort that, if it were real, you’d stick on a refrgerator door with a magnet. According to the company, they want to help people mix their virtual and “real” worlds. They were pretty excited to hang it here since all their other installations are in coffee shops. This is the first one with a stable, recurring user base.

To be honest, it’s kind of strange right now, but I think that’s because it’s so new and we’re all not really sure what to put up there. During the testing/seeding phase, Jacob put a bunch of pictures up there from his house remodel and Susan added shots of our last Open House. Ol’ #2 (Tim) loves to send cranky quotes to the screen and Suzi is putting up some of the more interesting science pictures she has in her store. Tim also likes to mess with people who walk by his desk on the way to the kitchen where the screen is. The other day I passed him only to be ordered back to work by the screen. Creepy.

Anyway, we’re definitely guinea pigs for this new company so the sky’s the limit with what can be put up there and how we use it. All CoCollage wants back is our feedback and you can be a part of it by checking out and adding to the stream from the office or online. So if you’re in the neighborhood and looking for some place to display your latest macaroni art or witty thought, stop by and log on! Actually, you don’t even have to be here to add our ongoing mash-up. Just create an account and start uploading (though, your stuff shows up faster and more often if you’re actually in the space).

Austin, here we come!

You all know we love a good field trip here at Office Nomads.  Well, this time Jacob and I are hopping a plane and heading to Austin for the field trip of all field trips – South By Southwest Interactive in Austin!  And what’s more? Tony Bacigalupo (New Work City), Geoff DiMasi (P’unk Ave, Independents Hall), Julie Duryea (Souk Portland), Matthew Wettergreen (Caroline Collective), and I are on a panel called Regional Whuffie Building: Attracting Innovation to Your City. It should be pretty awesome! If you’re going to SXSWi, please come and join us at the panel.

Um, what the heck is Whuffie, you ask? Well, let me quote by Tara Hunt, maven of Whuffiedom.  Whuffie is:

1. A word coined by Cory Doctorow in his book, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom as the currency of the future.
2. Roughly equivalent to social capital
3. Is the culmination of reputation, influence, bridging and bonding capital, access to ideas and talent, access to resources, potential access to further resources, saved up favors, accomplishments and the Whuffie of those you have relationships with.

As a panel, we are tasked with discussing how to inspire a spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as what it takes to run successful startup or a successful technology career no matter where you’re from. We’ll be discussing why regional Whuffie building can help your region, and giving some some success stories resulting from what each of us has been up to in our own cities.

I am incredibly excited to represent Office Nomads as a Seattle coworking space on this panel, and am even more jazzed to be sitting amongst the coworkng rockstars who will be at my side. Speaking of some of them, I’m going to steal a little thought that my co-panelist Matthew Wettergreen sent out to the coworking group earlier this morning…

Since coworking plays such a large role in rallying the troops of any region, we’d like input from all of you about Regional Whuffie Building. If you’re able, could you answer some questions?

1. What are some of your success stories of regional whuffie building or inspiring a spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship?
2. How have you embraced the mix of face-to-face interaction and technology?
3. What are some individual strategies towards this end goal that you have attempted?

Shout out, and let us know what you’re thinking…