Is Coworking the way we will all work in the future?

When I left Corporate America for the "promised land" of consulting and contracting, I realized quickly that working at home in front of the tube just would not get the job done (ok fine, I already knew that).

I have seen many coworking spaces over the years before they were called coworking. Even a close friend of mine had an entire floor of an office which he rented out pieces of. So this type of working has been around for decades. I think one of the differences with these new styles of coworking is the openness and the social networking environment. I see a lot of these new spaces with long desks or cubbies and a "one-office" feel to them.

As I move my consulting practice (and CenterNetworks) to NYC to hopefully grow and reach more clients and interviewees, I am going to be looking for a coworking space.

Coworking.info has a lot of great information about these new coworking spaces around the country and some outside the U.S. as well.

If there is one thing that I think will kill (or put a major hurt on) the coworking theme, it's greed. There will be some major players coming into this space offering great space but at a great price. And I think some of the other owners will need to raise their prices to be able to maintain the space.

Tara and Chris have an overview of their costs for their coworking space and while I am in no way saying that they are/will be greedy (I know they won't), they admit they are not breaking even. At some point income must at least meet expenses. And I think most of these coworking space owners will want to see some profit as well. I know I would/will.

Another option is to split the total expenses by x people and then its a break-even and everyone is an owner.

One of the things I would like to see is a network form. So if I am in San Fran for a week, I can use a space there. If I am in Berlin for a month, I can use a space there. I think this type of network could easily help coworking take off.

I am excited to see where this coworking theme moves to over the next year. The best part about it is the contacts and social networking that is possible. I also bet we will see some great startups from people coming together at one of these coworking locations.