BarCamp Dublin gives birth to CoWorking Dublin

At first I was just disappointed I had to miss BarCamp Dublin but now I'm annoyed. Not only did I lose out on hearing a number of great talks but also the opportunity to meet up with 16 people who are interested in the coworking movement. That's how many attended Paul Campbell's impromptu discussion on the topic, terrific interest considering it was held at the wearying time of 5pm.

I'm delighted to say that Paul has now joined us on CoWorking.ie kicking off with his recollection of BarCamp Dublin and the inspiration it gave -

"The big question I’m left with is: why should this be limited to BarCamp? Imagine a place where this kind of energy, this kind of collaboration potential is at your fingertips every day. The realist in me says: Imagine a place where no work ever gets done.... We’d like a space, somewhere between an internet cafe and an office. It’s like an internet cafe, because anyone can walk in and use it, but like an office, because once you walk in, you become a resource - by using the facility, you’re saying that anyone can approach you about their project or for advice/eyes/idea exchange etc."

Paul has also started a Google Group for CoWorking Dublin where he goes through a practical example of what he's thinking might work -

"There're a few subscription options, you can pay €20 a day (figures from the top of my head) or maybe €200 a month.  The place holds 30 people comfortably, so we take 20 subscribers and have ten spots for nomads or day workers, or travelling workers etc.  This ratio I'm sure could be worked on and scaled as needed.  I don't know, but I think a space that would hold 30 people in an informal setting would be about €2000 to rent ... the point is that there should be enough net of a margin to generate a reasonably good profit for the distributed benefit of the (lets call them) tenants."

Technorati Tags: coworking, barcamp, barcampdublin, dublin

Comments

[Damien Mulley]

Wouldn't it be great if you could use the FON model for coworking? If you offer coworking spaces in your facility, you can travel anywhere in the world and plug in for free.

[James Corbett]

Woah, terrific idea!!! So, if for example a group of 10 coworkers were renting a place in Cork and they had two free places available for the wider community of coworkers then any one of them could drop into a location worldwide that was part of the same network, free of charge. Deadly... let's get this idea out on the ether.

[elly parker]

Dependant on how the space is rented, it would be worth looking into a receptionist/admin/general dogsbody - someone to water the plants, take deliveries, restock the stationery, make coffee, etc - otherwise that drudgery takes out of everyones creative workday...

[Paul Campbell]

I think that's the only way to go - an open model, but a common culture ... like OpenCoffee ... for example, - I'm in London in three weeks and I'm going to drop into OpenCoffee there, simply because I've been awoken to the idea of it by attending the meetups in Dublin...

... if there was a space in London that I knew I could work in, without having to jump through hoops or do favours, then I'd be there too, then happy to drop back to my base in Dublin... the scalability of it I presume is only limited by imagination and the size of the clusters of people in any given location.

[totierne]

Let us call the venue a restaurant and the event 'Lunch'.

[I am a likely future telecommuter and I am not joking, anyone want to do pub lunch once a week in north inner city Dublin [Beaumont]]