A WorkSpace Idea (for Charlottesville)

I’m excited to see that other individuals see a need for this type of collaborative workspace! A co-working space located downtown that meets all of your needs above has been under development for the past few months. I expect that the new co-working space be fully built-out and operational in Spring 2009.

Please feel free to contact me if you’d like to learn more about the project. I’d love to get feedback on the design.

I have several businesses and am developing others, am also a blogger and work at home, mostly at the computer… I love this idea and would definitely like to know about it if there is enough interest to make it happen. There are certainly advantages to working at home but it can get a bit isolated at times and it would also be great to have others around to occasionally bounce ideas off of. Please keep me in the loop… love it!

Sign me up. I’m serious — I’ve talked to several people about this idea but it hasn’t gotten off the ground. If you do it, they will come — and I’ll help promote the space. I work at home but sometimes need to have background noise/other humans to energize and motivate me. I’m tired of coffeeshops (and buying overpriced coffee for the privledge) and there’s only so long you can hang out at one of those places.

You may check with Elizabeth McCullough at WriterHouse — they have a fee structure for writers to use their space that might be a useful model to copy.

Are you familiar with WriterHouse (www.writerhouse.org)? It’s a space for writers, with all of the amenities described above minus Wii and XBox.

I think this is a good idea, but we have nice office space already. Speaking of which, anyone interested in a Call of Duty tournament? We just got our projector and 5.1 channel sound system setup

You might look into the office space at CBIC as they are looking to rent to entrepreneurs. You may have enough freelancers getting started out that your idea fits under this umbrella.

While many of us have suitable workspaces already (including myself), I often prefer to hopscotch around to various coffee houses and wifi-hop my way to productivity…..I think this concept is a fabulous idea not only for its inherent practicality, but for its potential to foster more interaction in amongst our entrepreneurial confederates…

Sign me up, stat!

@Jeff – I emailed you. Tell me about it.
@Marijean – Thanks! Looking at http://www.writerhouse.org/ now…
@Kyle – My thought was that a lot of people might have nice office space that they pay too much for – especially given the current economy. Also, this is really just a ploy for me to find Unreal Tournament players.
@Duane – Thanks! I’ll check out CBIC. Though, I confess that I’m slightly skeptical of anything with “Council” in the name (sounds too slow moving). Their mission does seem very compatible, though.
@Greg. My thoughts exactly. Cloudbrain has good office space, but I still find myself hanging out at coffee shops because I love the random interactions with people.

Awesome idea. I rent a small office myself, but something like this would be awesome. Sign me up!

It was tried once in 2004 on the downtown mall, but never got much traction and disappeared.

Sounds interesting – I’d definitely come by.

@danpri – what do you think are some reasons as to why it didn’t work out?

[...] http://www.cloudbrain.com/2008/12/17/a-workspace-idea-for-charlottesville/ [...]

“gogigupta” just suggested (via Twitter) we look at http://cictr.com for something similar in Cambridge (though the website isn’t loading for me): http://twitter.com/gogigupta/status/1065443450

@danpri – Yes, I’d be interested to know what happened and where it was.

On a sidenote: Something like this (shared space) seems like it would have a much more positive effect on the environment: less square feet per person = less energy and less land use. Or was that an obvious benefit?

2:
Sounds like something i’d be up for. cool brain stimulants and smart creative people? give me the specs.
1.

Also, see

HAX.

Yes, this is like is a great idea and you guys should definitely jump on this. And HAX, or what Omar mentions was probably the most life-changing organization I’ve been in… it made me drop out of school. But I don’t regret it!

I love the idea, but being in Crozet makes it tough…any idea a ballpark on cost?

When telling a friend about it last night, he mentioned Ten Flavors studios. I can’t find much online about them except for this.

Seems like a different concept, but it might be worth checking out.

Another telecommuting writer who would definitely be interested in this setup. I’ve rented my own office space in the past, but it was too expensive and ultimately too boring. The social element to shared space is really the key, not just the space. At least, that’s the way it works for an easily bored writer like me.

@Peter – thanks for the link. It seems like there are a lot of little projects similar to this hidden all over the place. Several people have commented that there are discussions to get something like this started in Crozet (not sure if Crozet people want to drive to the DT Mall to be a part of this one)? Talk to http://twitter.com/jimduncan and http://twitter.com/AndreaSarate

@Joe – Agreed. The social / community part is where the appeal is. I love the random meetings and conversations at coffee shops as well the light background noise. My thought was to try and find / foster the community first (starting with this blog post) and then move that community towards some space.

[...] Daniel and the folks at Cloudbrain have proposed what I think is a brilliant idea that is probably being done elsewhere … this would be perfect for Realtors who don’t need the wasteful infrastructure provided by larger facilities, when all many of us need is a coffee shop, occasionally a larger conference room and quiet space to work/write. The idea’s not necessarily new; I’ve heard it a couple of times locally over the past few years – what’s needed is for someone to step to the plate and lead the way. [...]

Chad found an article talking about Ten Flavors Studio – a shared work space that has been around here for a while: Yours, Mine, Ours

Here is another model, this one a for profit venture specifically geared towards female entrepreneurs:
http://www.ingoodcompanyworkplaces.com/

Daniel Nairn over on Jim Duncan’s blog left a link to a cool blog discussing shared spaces like this: CoolTown Studios

I established and ran just such a space on the Downtown Mall for two years, in the late 90s. About two years ago I thought that it might be worth making a go at it again, and sent out a survey that several dozen local tech folks completed, in which I inquired about how much they’d want to use it, what services they’d want, how much they’d be willing to pay, etc.

The long and short of it is this: It’s a failure of a concept unless it’s a) run by one person as a business b) that person is there all of the time to run it c) that person has another 75% time job that they’re running from shared space and d) it’s within a block of the Downtown Mall.

I’d be happy to send you the survey results—just e-mail me if you’re interested.

@Waldo – Thanks. I just emailed you.

Those were my assumptions as well: Cloudbrain fits all those points nicely. I would argue that one block from the Mall is one block too far. To be successful, I think people need to be able to easily see the community at work in the space (like the C-Ville offices).

The idea of working where people can stare through a window and watch me work seems distinctly antithetical to concentrating. I recall the folks at SNL, working at the front of the bottom floor of what’s now Coran Capshaw’s building, going to great lengths to cover up their windows. They had no view outside anymore, but they also didn’t have to contend with people watching them through the windows.

Good point. That is a little creepy. I was mostly picturing good signage. I would imagine that for something like this to work as business, people would need to know about it.

Sounds like a great idea. Please keep me posted.