Coworking

We've all heard about telecommuting: the ability to work from home on your office work, so you gain the time you would have spent commuting and waiting in traffic on more meaningful pursuits, like hanging out with your family. But for some people, telecommuting means loneliness - they miss the social interaction between officemates. And sometimes the home office offers too many distractions, and they long for a professional space free of interruptions.

And it's not just office workers - some freelance writers, artists, and others who don't have traditional office jobs have the same needs.

Well, there's a very interesting solution, started by some people in San Fransisco, and they call it coworking. People who live in the same area get together, get an office space, set up Internet access, put on a pot of coffee, and presto! Instant office. It just happens that all the people in the space don't work for the same company. You get a short commuting time, and don't feel cut off from the world outside. Neat idea, no?

Check out the info you need to get a coworking space started in your neighbourhood at the coworking coworker wiki - or see if one is already set up here.

I found out about all this after watching the Colbert Report, featuring a woman who works for MotherJones.com. I went to the site, browsed around, and found this article: Works Well With Others. Kinda roundabout, but how many interesting discoveries on the Internet happen in just that way! :)