Coworking It!

Feb 11

Civic Hall is a new coworking space focused on civic innovation, created by Andrew Raseij and Micah Sifry and their team at Personal Democracy Media, who’ve long been building community in the space where democracy and technology overlap (e.g. with the awesome Personal Democracy Forum).

Our vision is to make Civic Hall a vibrant, collaborative community center and event space where civic tech innovators from diverse backgrounds can work, network, learn and organize together to tackle and solve civic problems at scale.

They’re accepting applications for membership now, but there’re already a charter class of Beta members, mostly made up of people working in the intersection between tech and civics: think BetaNYC, The Wise City, LuxDigital. I attended the open house / unconference which marked the public opening of the space.

The Good:

The Not-so-good

The Bottom Line

If you’re involved in civics or government, you probably already know about this space, and you probably already know that you’ll be spending a lot of time here. If you’re not in that sector, it might be too specialized.

Jan 23

Hello World!

Thanks Laurea and Martha for inviting me to blog over here at CoworkingIt! I’ve been part of the NYC tech community since around 2005, and used to help organize IgniteNYC with Laurea and Martha. I spent the last six(!) years as the Associate Director of Design at Pivotal Labs in NYC and recently left to tackle new things (first: a sabbatical!).

Now that I don’t have to be in the office every day, I’m looking forward to taking some time off, running around the city, and exploring the Coworking ecosystem in 2015. You can learn more about me on my website and find me on twitter, github, and most other places as “jonathanpberger”.

Jan 20

Please welcome Jonathan Berger!

Hi everyone,

Jonathan will be taking the reins at the Coworking blog and will be posting updates. Martha and I will still contribute when we can but Jonathan will be taking the lead! Martha, Jonathan and I met while volunteering at Ignite NYC a few years back.

You can learn more about Jonathan here -

http://www.jonathanpberger.com/

Look forward to seeing posts from Jonathan soon =)

- Laurea & Martha

Jul 17

The Levi's® Commuter Workspace -

BROOKLYN
July 8th – 26th

WILLIAMSBURG

261 Metropolitan Avenue 
Brooklyn, NY 11211

OPEN HOURS

Monday to Thursday 10 – 7 
Friday 10 – 9 
Saturday and Sunday 11 – 8


Wifi and Workspace

Bike Tune-Ups, Customization and Wash

Tailoring services 2 – 7pm

Coffee provided by Grady’s Cold Brew

Test Rides & Grand Prizes provided by tokyobike

Local Partner Shop Ride Brooklyn

Bike Valet and Wash by Transportation Alternatives

Rides and Workshops presented by Bike New York

Air Conditioning

Mar 31

A Detroit company is reinventing the “open office”—by making it actually open to the public – Quartz

Jan 03

[video]

Dec 30

Berlin coworking, through Martha’s NYC-er eyes

I spent July 2013 in Berlin, checking out the city and wondering what it’d be like to live there full time.  So, in addition to checking out the line policies at Berghain (they seem totally random), I also checked out some coworking spaces.  Like NYC, Berlin has a very clear coworking culture and it’s certainly a bit different.  In some ways, more civilized than the workaholic mindset that so many New Yorkers have.

Here’s a list of Berlin features:

Hours are more sane.  The work-life balance in Berlin is quite even, especially in summer when the sun is only down for 4-5 hours a night. It’s more common for people to role between 9-10am and to really stop working for the day between 5 and 6.  Some people leave then, and others stay and get a beer from the cafe.  This is of course a bit different for those in private offices for startups.  But from what I could tell, everyone was following German laws around how many hours could be worked a week (in an office at least, but again this is a casual observation so who knows?)

Cafes are common.  All of the coworking spaces I saw had cafes for buying coffee, Club Mate (the standard coffee alternative that is oddly addicting), lunch options (typically just one or two a day, changing each day), and beer for after hours.  Some spaces like Betahaus and St. Oberholtz have cafe only spaces that you can go to instead of paying a day rate in the main space.

Service is German.  Which means that there are specific processes to follow and that you’ve got to be a bit more patient with whoever is providing said service.  People may speak with you a bit more direct than they would in the States.  And they’ve be VERY thorough about it. But this is true of well, anything in Germany.

Eye for detail.  Every space I went to was very well designed.  But why wouldn’t it be?  Everything else in Berlin has a clear design sense as well.  This is different than some of the US spaces, which are more varied when it comes to design.

Community is important.  Some spaces even encourage members to join a weekly group dinner to meet other members.

Spaces have a variety of workspaces available.  Some may just have different types of seating areas if you’re just eating, having a meeting, or need silence.  Others have a wide variety of conference spaces, conversation spaces or workshops with 3D printing or woodworking materials.

Spaces are all over.  In NYC, the better coworking tends to be in Manhattan or one of the Brooklyn neighborhoods with more offices (not that there aren’t some really cute and nice neighboorhood coworking spaces, but they’re not really focused on bringing in the dough).  That’s not the case in Berlin.  There are major coworking spaces in all of the big neighborhoods, and each one reflects the neighborhood that they are in (edgier in the East, more traditional in the West, posher in more expensive neighborhoods, edgiest in the edgiest neighborhoods).  So, if there’s a specific industry you want to work with or neighborhood you want to spend all your time in, your coworking space can really help support those goals.

In conclusion, I found the coworking culture in Berlin vibrant yet homey.  And I really really wise I could bring their cafes back to NYC.  Adding a layer of food culture would really make our spaces homier.

[video]

Dec 16

conartistnyc asked: have you heard of the Con Artist Collective?? If so or not, you should stop by. We would love to have a review on your blog. We are located at 119 ludlow.

Maybe in the new year!

Sep 16

Regus offers co-working drop in plans at various locations starting at $29 a month

From Charlie O'Donnell's NYC Innovation Community newsletter today, 09-16-13 -

Ever hear of Regus?  They had co-working in NYC before the term was even invented–yet, no one really thinks of them in the same conversation as GA, WeWork, etc.  Well, perhaps that should change with their new Business Gold plan.  Get this.  It’s $29 a month to drop in to any one of their workspaces and work.  Yeah, that’s right–for less than the cost of a mifi, you can drop into any one of their dozens of locations around the city and work for an unlimited amount of time.  Maybe you’ve been hesitating to get an office because you only need it occasionally.  They’ve got conference rooms, too, and the Gold membership gives you preferred rates on rooms.  You’ll hardly use those rooms anyway, so you might as well pay for them on an hourly basis when you need them.  Have you seen their space on 46th/3rd?  It’s gorgeous–maybe the nicest, cleanest, brightest workspace I’ve seen.  Anyway, their website could use some help, but the offer is seriously worth it.  If you want to sign up for this deal (while it lasts) go here.  Select “US” and the price will switch to $29.