What's going on, Albuquerque?

Casual Coworking

A friend of mine had turned me onto this idea. He had found a place where people could work with others, sort of like an executive suite, but cooler: Conjunctured in Austin.

I found out that they started with something called Jelly. This is a movement of casual coworking.

I was thinking that it might be something people might be interested in here in Albuquerque. My first thought would be to start out with people possibly saying "hey, I'm going to be hanging out at such and such a place to do some work" and making it an event on DCF.

I just want to know what you think of that idea.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by chantal on November 21, 2008 at 3:30pm

Great idea. I'd be down with working with other webbies at such an event near Nob Hill or downtown. Why not post such an event and alert us all to the time/place.

Permalink Reply by Chris on November 21, 2008 at 3:38pm

Yes! I just started working from home full-time and I would like nothing more than to get out of the house every few days to work with like minded individuals. I hadn't looked yet, but I have also heard about people sharing office space. Part of working from home was to avoid the commute, but I'd be interested in a sort of work-from-flying-star-today type setup.

Permalink Reply by Drywall on November 21, 2008 at 3:42pm

Sounds good to me. Five months of working from home has me going stir-crazy.

Permalink Reply by Jack Moffitt on November 21, 2008 at 3:46pm

There's more than a few people in Albuquerque interested in this. The main problem seems to be that no location yet exists that isn't something like Flying Star or Starbucks.

There are three people in ABQ in my company and we all work from home, and I'm sure we'd all like to try co-working some of the time. Being home 100% of the time is no way to live!

Permalink Reply by Drywall on November 21, 2008 at 3:53pm

We just need to find someone with a nice, big house they're willing to have scads of random people hang out in.

Permalink Reply by Chris on November 21, 2008 at 3:57pm

The biggest issue for me is reliable, fast wifi. I'd be willing to spend a little $$ every month, but I'd like to find a place where we can work out a mutual arrangement to use their conference room a few days a month. Like over at Chef Jim White's. Reid...

Permalink Reply by The Dandee on November 21, 2008 at 4:18pm

I would love to do this but I dont like the idea of coffee shops. I always feel like a duchebag when I work in a coffee shop for hours and only buy a couple cups of coffee. I would rather have a place that was always open that I 'rented' space in. Like Conjunctured in Austin or the Hat Factory in San Fran http://hatfactory.net/

However, I wouldnt pass up a social opportunity either.

Permalink Reply by Aaron on November 21, 2008 at 4:50pm

"Build it, and they will come"

Permalink Reply by Daniel on November 21, 2008 at 4:53pm

Thanks for turning me on to this idea.

Permalink Reply by Aaron on November 21, 2008 at 6:27pm

Well, thanks for trying to take action and make it a reality :)

Permalink Reply by Aaron on November 21, 2008 at 4:57pm

Perhaps it could start with regular co-work-a-thons, and then hopefully evolve into something more.

I agree with Chris that a mutual arrangement would probably be preferable to a mass descent on some unsuspecting local business. Fast reliable wifi is a must.

One possible downside to rented conference rooms is that it seems many rented conference rooms have no natural light. Or maybe that's OK.

If something regular starts, we ought to post it where other possibly interested people can find out, to try and help the project's evolution. The wikipedia article on coworking has many good links, and there are several coworking directory sites that we could post it on.

Permalink Reply by JeSais on November 21, 2008 at 5:14pm

I'd be in... working from home makes me crazy. the only thing that keeps me sort of sane is this website.. google talk with my co-worker and classes at UNM. But real non academic face to face co-working would be good. WI-FI very important.