Telecommuting is a great concept, providing flexibility of work-hours, availability when there is a family crisis, etc. But it is difficult to be self-disciplined at home. So many other things vie for attention, including that most excellent invention of all times - the bed.
That is why I spend many hours every day in my 'office' in La Vita Dolce. I love the place - it is quiet most of the time (though I do find myself softly singing along the oldies, including the inevitable "If you're going to San Francisco" and infamous "Only You"), coffee, bagels, cakes and gelato are the best in town, and the atmosphere is friendly.
But I cannot go there late at night (I am an extreme owl after all) or on days like today, a holiday, when the place is closed. So I sit at home and try to be disciplined, or just take a day off. But it would be great if there was a place I could go to on any day at any time.
Brian has been working for a while now on a business plan for just such a venue - a Coworking place:
Carrboro Creative Coworking is a professional shared working space with a cafe-like atmosphere. It is designed to be a welcoming environment for freelance professionals, home-office workers, entrepreneurs, startup business owners, tech workers, graduate students, writers, and others. Subscribers of the Carrboro Creative Coworking space will receive access to a reliable office space inside a unique modern community.
If there is sufficient interest (and there should be in this town), Brian would rent a place - a house, a set of appartments, or an office space, and all of us would pitch in our piece of "rent" that would keep the place running. There would be Internet connection for all of us, those with "full-time" subscriptions would have rooms with doors that can be locked, and there would also be a common space where one could meet and talk with the others - a fridge, a microwave and a GOOD coffee machine are necessities there.
So, if you live in the Chapel Hill/Carrboro area and are interested in this, please fill out a short survey here (pdf) and sign up for the Google group while there (that way you can get more information about the business plan, etc.).
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What a cool idea. I don't think there's anything like that around here where I live, but if there were, I'd consider signing up, just for those days when I still have to do work but I need to get out of the house. (Three days a week, I work on-site at my current client's offices, so it wouldn't be all the time. I could really use more space than I can muster in half of a small turn-of-the-20th-century California-style bungalow, at times. Going to the library isn't much help, either, because they look at you funny if you bring in your own research materials.
On the other hand, I should ask around, because there'd be no reason not to start something like that, if there were enough interest...
Yes, there would be a few levels of subscription, e.g., hourly, daily, full-time, etc. I think this is a great idea for any place.
There is a large list of Coworking sites (open and in planning phase) on the site http://coworking.pbwiki.com/. US, Europe, Australasia, South America, Asia, Africa,... Check em out!