Comments on: Redefining Coworking

By: jace anderson

jace anderson — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 08:07:39 +0000

great work presenting this definition Dusty; ‘Coworking a verb not a noun’. Like this and will share!

By: Sasha Rudie

Sasha Rudie — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 17:27:42 +0000

As someone who has worked in Second Life full-time for almost 2 years, I can tell you that it’s not a great coworking space. I am lucky enough to be able to work on SL stuff outside of SL because I deal with video. However, if you’re popular at all in SL, there’s no way to go private one time and public another for your friends list in SL. You can only edit friends list visibility 20 at a time, so when your list tops 500-600 people, it’s impossible to go without being bothered.

By: Support Your Favorite Blogger(s) | david giesberg dot com

Support Your Favorite Blogger(s) | david giesberg dot com — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:01:13 +0000

[...] My friend Dusty just wrote a post about how “coworking” is a verb and not a noun – something that has been bugging me for a [...]

By: David Giesberg

David Giesberg — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 02:01:11 +0000

@David Good comment – I had to check to make sure that it wasn’t me that left that comment in a half-awake/asleep uncaffeinated daze this morning.

@Dusty I’m glad you wrote this, that noun/verb distinction has always bothered me. You should update the coworking wiki (offer as an alternative definition?) with this.

By: Dusty

Dusty — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 20:10:52 +0000

Thanks for all the feedback everyone! If you agree with this definition I hope that you’ll help me propagate it across the inter-tubes.

@Grumpicus – Yes. I believe people working 9 to 5 at an office, if they’re socially interacting while working, they are coworking. Thus, they are coworkers. Coworking seems novel to independents because we’re accustomed to working alone.

The concept of coworking came about when people who worked from home began to miss the social interaction that is usually available at a traditional office. Thus the term was born. The term coworking does not distinguish traditional workers from progressive workers. It distinguishes working alone versus working in a social group.

By: Grumpicus

Grumpicus — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 19:18:24 +0000

So if place is not a factor then are traditional workers also co-working as long as they occassionally interact socially? Isn’t a large part of the original intent of the word to differentiate it from the standard office environment?

-From a cubicle.

By: David

David — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:28:18 +0000

great post Dusty. I like the new definition! nice analogy with the swimming/pool scenario

By: Alexandre

Alexandre — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:31:25 +0000

Interesting emphasis on social interaction. Especially since social interaction can take many forms. There’s a (very minimal) level of social interaction when people are, say, working in neighbouring cubicles. These interactions are often perceived as disruptive, if they don’t happen around the water fountain. While coworking, interactions are expected, taken into consideration, made explicit.
So it sounds like this definition of coworking is specific enough to distinguish it from other forms of “working at the same place” and broad enough to encompass different environments, including parks, apartments, and cafés.

By: Cesar Torres

Cesar Torres — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:15:12 +0000

As a relatively new concept, the definition of coworking should be variable and open to interpretation. You’re a great person to help push along this new definition and I encourage you to submit it to the coworking community at large to start a conversation, perhaps on the Coworking Google Group. It can serve as the framework for a clearer, more current definition of the meme.

Awesome post, dude!

By: gloriakt

gloriakt — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:55:27 +0000

Great post Dusty! (welcome back from Jamaica by the way).

Interesting how the definition on coworking wiki is off – shouldn’t someone revamp this?