Author: Will Bennis

FREE coworking around the world for Locus members and other independent workers in Prague

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One of the cool things about coworking is that a lot of people who decide to get involved in it really care about the idea and the value it has to offer, and not just about the business as a business. Sam Spurlin‘s several recent posts on this blog attest to this. Another sign of it comes from the grass roots cooperation across thousands of coworking spaces around the world that have contributed to coworking.com. The particular example I want to write about now are four options for free office sharing options across coworking spaces around the world: (1) the Coworking Visa, (2) The Prague Coworking Visa, (3) Loosecubes, and (4) Jelly. 

1. The Coworking Visa.

The coworking visa is one of the greatest largely-unknown sources of added value to participating coworking spaces, and also one of the most impressive examples of value-added cooperation across competing businesses I know of in any industry. If you’re a member of Locus or of another coworking space that participates in the visa program, you may know about it already. This is an informal group of about 500 coworking spaces around the world that have agreed to let members of other “Visa”-participant coworking spaces use their space for free (usually for up to 3 days, but the terms depend on the space; Locus is free for up to a month, but limited by the terms of the other coworking space). Here’s a link for details with the list of participating spaces and their terms, organized geographically. 

The coworking visa was the fortunate brain-child of two of the women leaders of the coworking movement, Julie Duryea of Souk in Portland, Oregon (now run by someone else and maybe under a different name) and Susan Evans of Office Nomads in Seattle, Washington. They proposed it on a google group to a network of people running coworking spaces around the world, and it was almost immediately successful.


2. The Prague Coworking Visa.
A group of coworking spaces in Prague (including Locus) were inspired by this visa program to create a Prague version of the visa that allows members of each space to use the other spaces for up to 25% of their membership time. See details here.

 
3. Loosecubes
Loosecubes is a corporate alternative to the Coworking Visa and it remains to be seen whether their intentions are pure and how well the system will work, but as it stands it looks very promising. It is an invite-only workspace-sharing network of about a thousand coworking spaces and other shared offices around the world. Right now (and from what they’ve told me, this is their permanent business model), their system is absolutely free for members of the network (including Locus Workspace members). This means you can use any of the other spaces on the Loosecubes network for free, though each space has its terms in terms of number of free days. So if you’re traveling abroad and want to cowork in most major cities around the world (though biased towards Western Europe and North America), you’ll have a coworking space to work at for free. Loosecubes also provides a software backend and a user-interface that make it easy to use and (it seems at least) perhaps more reliable than the Coworking Visa. 
 
4. Jelly
 
Jelly is informal coworking that started around the same time as the coworking movement itself with a group of freelancers in New York City who decided they’d rather work alongside other people than alone in their home office or at a cafe. They starting meeting as a group at each other’s homes or cafes, they created a wiki, and Jelly grew into a movement, with groups meeting to work together rather than alone around the world. Here’s a sample list of Jellies around the world on Meetup.com.
 
The group of collaborating coworking spaces in Prague mentioned earlier hosts a rotating series of jellies across their three spaces, which means people who don’t work in a coworking space (and may not want to) can experience some of the benefits of coworking for free every two weeks, and get to know a few of the coworking spaces in the city in the process.
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To me the added value that comes from sharing membership across coworking spaces (and with the public)–not just for independent workers and coworking space members, but also for the coworking spaces themselves–is immense. For the members, of course, it means they can literally work their way around the world (as long as they stick to major cities), for the price of the coworking space membership they already have at their home city. For coworking space owners, it means a wonderful influx of interesting visitors who add spice to the host spaces and use resources that were mostly available and going unused anyway!

Locus’s Community Workspace Reconceived as Stalin’s Communist Workspace?

Will Bennis community, Locus Workspace ,

 

I came back to Locus a couple weeks ago after my second long trip away (10 lovely days in Devon, UK). The return after my first long trip away was entertainingly traumatic after walking into a well-played practical joke (see this blog post for details), so I admit I was alert to potential dangers when I first walked in to the workspace. And I was a little disappointed when there seemed to be nothing. No pig’s blood dumping from the rafters? Don’t my members love me anymore?
Turns out I wasn’t being observant. After a couple days back I noticed something a bit different that had been there all along. I was walking around the 3rd floor space to say hello to members and see how things were going. [A diversion: Locus is divided into two separate floors, a workable solution to the fact that the membership outgrew the space on the original 3rd floor. I usually work on the 4th floor for now.] We have a big bulletin board on each floor where things can be posted of possible interest to members. Here’s a picture of it from Locus’s early days:
When I looked at the now-much-busier board, I saw a photograph of a mustachioed man just above the ‘Locus Rules’?” The Locus Rules are a set of expectations more intended to communicate to new members the culture of the coworking space than anything else. At this point–a couple days back from holiday–I was no longer expecting a practical joke, but I was curious as to just what the picture was about. Not sure how long it took me to recognize the person, but no doubt longer than it should have. Here’s a close up:
That’s me. Sporting someone else’s military uniform and someone else’s mustache, but me all the same (turns out it’s an authentic Stalin mustache and uniform, if you didn’t recognize them).


Nice. “How long has this been up?” I wondered. 


The caption brought my attention to the Locus Rules directly below the picture, which themselves caught my eye because the headings were somehow off (a little more red than normal). Here are the original rules (or here’s the website version for clarity):
This is the “new and improved” version:
You might wonder after comparing the two versions what kind of coworking space this is. I like to think it’s all in good fun. But then I also take pride in Locus being an ideal place for productive work. This inspired work demonstrates Locus can be as good a place as any for creative procrastination. 
 
Thanks Chris and Martin for making sure I don’t go on holidays without a little fear as to what I’ll come back to!
Will
PS: The same update of the rules was also on the bulletin board on the other floor. It took me an extra day to notice it. Clearly Locus Rules have a profound impact on the day-to-day functioning of the workspace.

 

Coworking in Prague | Coworking v Praze

Will Bennis community, coworking, events, jelly, Locus Workspace, Prague ,

Recently Locus Workspace has teamed up with a group of other coworking spaces in Prague to see how we can work together to do things we can’t do as individual spaces.

The project was largely inspired by Coworking Seattle‘s collaboration, so we owe a big thanks to their positive example.

Central to the collaboration is a recognition from all of us that there are many ways in which we all gain by focusing on how we can collaborate as well as on how we can co-promote the idea of coworking, coming together as coworking spaces much as individual space members might come together to facilitate something greater than the collection of individuals. We all believe the potential future size of the coworking community in Prague is much larger than the capacity of our combined spaces, and that at least for now the more options out there the better for the success of coworking more genreally. For now–I think–the biggest barrier to our collective success is not one another, but the extent to which the public and media are unaware of the coworking option, and how valuable it can be.

We do things such as:

  • Co-sponsor a Jelly (free, informal coworking open to the public) that meets every two weeks and rotates across 7 different coworking spaces in Prague.
  • Participate in a “Coworking in Prague visa program” (inspired by the international Coworking Visa) that allows members of any one of 5 coworking spaces in Prague use the other spaces for free for up to 25% of one’s membership time.
  • Share a common website and Facebook page (please join it, we just started up) for promoting the idea of coworking and communicating options for coworking in Prague to the public and to the media.
  • Help organize cross-space events that can bring our members together as well as bring awareness about coworking and what it has to offer to the public.

I’m really excited about the collaboration and the support for it that has come from the other participants in the Coworking in Prague program!

Death at Locus Workspace, or Coworking is Awesome

Will Bennis community, Locus Workspace ,

I recently got back to Prague and Locus Workspace after more than 2 weeks in Santa Monica, California. We didn’t get in until about 22:00 and the time difference is 9 hours. I couldn’t sleep. Finally gave up trying and went to Locus at about 7am, Wednesday morning. There was what appeared to be police tape on the entrance to the space, with the sign, ZÁKAZ VSTUPU (DO NOT ENTER).

I went in anyway, with my heart pounding a little with fear about what I might find. Nothing looked weird until I got to my desk.

 

There was police chalk outlining a body on the floor. My mind started racing.
There was a sheet of paper on my desk from the police.
The last line in big letters says, “This property is closed.”
Huge adrenalin rush as my mind started racing. Can this be real? Wouldn’t someone have called me!? Did it just happen? Should I call the police and ask? Should I call my wife and get a clear headed opinion? Shouldn’t I get the h*ll out of here? Am I going to have to close the business? Was someone killed? Who? (Yes, it’s a little disturbing that concern about who might have been killed didn’t occur to me until all the petty self-interested thoughts had worn themselves out.)
I decided to read the small print on the paper. Each line was a different legal code violation.
The first violation was for keeping farm animals on the premises and the second for food violations. Okay, this cannot be real. Wouldn’t someone being killed top the list. But what if it is real!! A four leaf clover cannot be part of the Czech Police logo, can it (we’re not in Ireland after all)? 
I decided the reasons listed for closing the space were absurd enough (farm animals!?) that I would at least be justified in ignoring it all and getting to work even if someone was murdered there. So I cleaned up the chalk and turned on my computer, adrenalin still rushing and heart still pounding, until about 1/2 hour later when there was a key in the door. It’s too early for members. Are the police here?
A Locus member! And no hesitation going right to a desk. “You just walked right in?”
“Sure, why not.”
“The police tape on the front door!?”
“I don’t know anything about it.” Smile.
Finally, I could relax. Clearly a prank on Will.
A little bit later and another member came in and showed me the “bloody” steak knife I hadn’t discovered under the desk next to the body.
More than two weeks away with the members managing the workspace themselves, no calamities, no calls with complaints, and energy left over to put in some hard work to “welcome” me home!
You have to love coworking!
Thanks, Locus Workspace Members, for the warmest welcome I’ve had in a long time (and I mean that)!
PS: The “police tape” was basic construction tape, the “bloody” knife was covered with dried ketchup, the Czech Police logo really does look like that, and the “police chalk” was your basic sidewalk chalk and cleaned right up.