Jelly My What? – August 6, 2008

A new mini phenomenon might be taking lonely, remote, and isolated employees by storm. It’s called co-working. Just what the hell is co-working anyways? When I first heard the term it made me think of people working in harmony on a project, but alas, I was only somewhat wrong.

Co-working, as stated by the almighty Wikipedia, is the social gathering of a group of people, who are still working independently, but who share values and who are interested in the synergy that can happen from working with talented people in the same space. Some co-working spaces were developed by nomadic internet entrepreneurs seeking an alternative to working in coffee shops and cafes, or to isolation in independent or home offices.
When I was at the PSFK conference I saw Amit Gupta talk about his co-working project called “Jelly.” Amit was tired of working alone, and thought that many people would benefit from being in a room together working independently, but sharing ideas and inspirations with others. He even opens up his apartment in NYC for people to come and work. They sit on chairs, sofas, the floor, or at tables. Jeremy Townsend of Ghetto Gourmet commented to me that he was very interested in co-working, which made me think maybe I should be too.

I suppose if I had an internet venture, and I was consistently holed up in my apartment it would only make sense that I’d want to be around other driven, interesting, and smart people. Additionally, I guess that if I were working for an incredibly stodgy company I'd to want to immerse myself amongst other interesting people.

Overall, I think this is a really unique trend that could be responsible for rolling out new ventures and businesses. I’m certainly going to keep my eye on this.