Cobot, created by Berlin-based Upstream, offers a suite of tools for managers of coworking spaces.  Cobot provides user management, new coworker signup, reporting tools, a lightweight CMS and an issue tracker.  The reporting tools includes reports on user turnover, number of coworkers in the location and which plans they are currently on. Cobot can also track location usage so you know how much of the coworking space is occupied, when and by how many.

Cobot is free to use for locations with up to 5 coworkers. Locations with over 5 coworkers are billed at $1.50/month/coworker.

It would be awesome if Cobot could create a coworking directory, signup coworking locations around the world and provide a pass that could be used at any coworking location. This way if my home base is New Work City, and I travel to Berlin, I can use the Berlin coworking space at no additional charge. Not sure exactly how the accounting would work for this type of plan but I am sure something could be worked out.

Update: Alex Hillman, co-founder of Philly coworking space IndyHall has written about Cobot as well.

Today I’ve learned about a new coworking location opening on April 1st in New Jersey. The space is named Converge NJ and will be located in Union. If you aren’t familiar with Union, it’s a bit west of Newark International Airport. A bus from Times Square to Union takes 45 minutes. For more details on Union, New Jersey — check out this map.

The website is currently accepting reservations and the pricing ranges from $20/month for 2 days a month through a full 24/7 access with lots of additional perks including a board seat for $400/month.

Here’s a list of some of the listed benefits of membership:

• Hi-Speed Internet Access
• Free use of Printer / Scanner / Fax
• Conference Room Access
• Special access to Members-Only Events
• Coffee / Tea / Beverages / Snacks
• Access to Converge’s Sponsorship Specials
• Access to the space during normal operating hours (9-5, Monday thru Friday except holidays) as well as freedom to use the space during off-hours, if available
• Potential access to Kean University students / partnerships

If you are interested in coworking in New Jersey and/or details about Converge NJ, there’s a meetup this Thursday which will discuss more of the specific details.

If you work at a coworking location, leave a comment with a brief review and link to the coworking location’s website.

Today, New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, outlined the city’s plans to boost the media industry in NYC in a variety of ways as part of MediaNYC 2020, which was originally announced in February.

Most notable and relevant to us, of course, is the effort to build a “Hive” space for independent media makers and other independent workers. The overlap with our ongoing efforts with New Work City and the Runway Project is obvious, so seeing the city make an increasing effort in this area is exciting for us. This, in combination with the city’s announced efforts earlier this year at fostering entrepreneurial growth, is beginning to add up to a real, noticeable effort on the part of the Mayor’s Office, the EDC, and others to foster healthy entrepreneurial growth in the city.

Creating an entrepreneur-friendly ecosystem

Effective spaces do two things: they help new businesses get connected and grow, and they provide a fertile ground for new partnerships to be discovered an evolve. We’ve already seen that progress in our community, where members have formed partnerships to start new initiatives such as LaidOffCamp and Zeitheist, among others. Freelancers, too, have found work in meeting and working alongside their colleagues, and through referrals that we pass along.

Our members also started and run the Runway Project, a community-driven education effort aimed toward people starting new businesses in the wake of the recession, and have helped dozens of newly independent New Yorkers get connected, educated, and on their feet in short order. All of this has sprung out of an environment designed to facilitate this sort of healthy activity.

Creating Sustainable Entrepreneurial Growth

The main challenge to establishing city-sponsored workspaces has been the fact that they have been historically temporary– reliant on below-market leases during bad markets which, when the markets rebound and prices go up, end up folding without external support.

At New Work City, we’ve been making lots of progress toward sustainability on our own. Our aim is to strike the balance between keeping membership rates low enough so as to be accessible to early-stage businesses and independent workers, while still maintaining enough cash flow to run a profitable business that gets everything at fair market rate.

For the new efforts the city is making in establishing spaces, my hope is that any new spaces that are established are done so in a way that creates long-term, sustainable economic growth. That means not relying on subsidy but on a sound business model that will survive tidal changes in economics and politics.

With the city increasing its emphasis on new and small businesses, I look forward to helping the city find ways to create this healthy growth in a city that is very much ready to take its place as a friendly place to be an entrepreneur.

Desk Space Genie is a marketplace for companies with extra desk space and people looking to rent a desk. One thing I like about SuiteMatch which the Desk Space Genie team should look at adding is the ability to see what’s near the open desk space. For example, how far is it from transit, are there any good fish ‘n chips nearby, pubs, etc. The map helps to provide an idea of the overall area before inquiring about the space. I really like the interior office photos on Desk Space Genie. It should almost be a requirement to post that the company shows photos of the office, bathroom, etc.

Some other features Desk Space Genie might look at adding include:

• ability for prospective renters to create a profile so that the companies can get an idea of who the renters are (linkedin profile, facebook, job history, criminal backgrounds, etc.)
• I think it’s almost a must that they allow renters to create profiles – will help DSG continue to push out new ads, subscription options for new open space based on my criteria, etc. – don’t let them leave so quickly!

During their beta period, they are allowing companies to post their open desk space for free.

As more companies unfortunately reduce their staff, more office space will be available and I like the idea of offering it up to others to use at reduced prices. It’s a great complement to coworking – which several of my friends are using across the world and have said it’s working well for them.

Hoboken-based SuiteMatch is like Match.com for office space. You can post open space at your office and you can search for space for you and/or your team. Currently they are listing open space in New York, San Francisco and Chicago. While they are in beta postings are free and they note that after that there will be a fee to post.

I love the design of the site – the information is very well presented and the Google Map not only shows you the location of the office space but nearby establishments (coffee, food, etc.). To be honest, they need to take their setup and duplicate it to work for apartments off Craigslist. That would certainly be a step up from the crappy experience Craigslist provides.

Sam at LeveragingIdeas wonders if they will be able to get past just startup listings and into real open space. Frankly this is a perfect time for SuiteMatch to go after large company openings as companies potentially layoff staff and have open spaces. I’ve written before that large corporations should embrace startups in their environment and SuiteMatch could be the tool to help bring both groups together. 

The New Work City team has a post which outlines the space and has a photo with the all important lease signatures. Apparently the building is used by a variety of digital companies which should make for a good bit of networking. They are offering day rates and monthly full-time memberships ($550/mo).

Big congrats to NWC lead members Tony Bacigalupo and Sanford Dickert and the entire coworking community in NYC and beyond who helped to get this ball rolling!

New Work City Space Tour & Membership Meeting

New Work City’s an in-the-works community-driven coworking space. It’s been a long time coming, but it looks like we’re just about on the verge of securing a space! Come check out the space and join us as we work on the final steps to getting up and running!

When: Thursday, September 25th, 6:00pm
Where: 200 Varick St, Room 507B
More details and RSVP: http://nwc.tumblr.com/post/51584138/lets-do-this

Ditmas Workplace Grand Opening

The fine folks at Ditmas Park Blog are opening a coworking space in a house! Their grand opening is on Thursday evening as well, so we’ll head over there after the NWC event.

When: Thursday, September 25th, 8:00pm
Where: 535 E 17th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11226
More details and RSVP: http://ditmaspark.blogspot.com/2008/…workspace.html

Second Anniversary of Williamsburg Coworking at The Change You Want to See

Brooklyn’s own Williamsburg Coworking, one of the first-ever coworking spaces in the world, celebrates its second anniversary this Friday with a Jelly and birthday party! Come out between 9:30 and 5:00 for an open house Jelly coworking session, and then afterwards we’ll be breaking out some beers to celebrate!

When: Friday, September 26th, 9:30am to 5:00pm (for the Jelly) and 5:30pm onwards (for the party).
Where: 84 Havemeyer Street, storefront – Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11211
More details and RSVP: http://wiki.workatjelly.com/JellyBrooklyn2008-09-26

Now there’s a new hybrid space named SparkSpace in Manhattan which is aimed at taking companies from pre-incubator all the way through the big time. Mary Kathleen Flynn, of TheDeal.com’s Tech Confidential, interviewed David Rose and took a toor of the space. I’ve embedded the video below. Looks pretty interesting – everything in one building and you move on up as the company moves on up.

Nate Westhimer, RoseTech Ventures entrepreneur in residence has some additional details on SparkSpace.

Last year I wrote several articles about coworking and, in one of them, I suggested that a VC-sponsored coworking spot would work very nicely. Many of the coworking gurus didn’t like the idea. I guess we will be able to see how it works in action now.

Here are the updates:

• There is an official name for the movement: New Work City – check out the site, it’s very cool
• There appears to be a sponsorship model of sorts. When I proposed corporate sponsorship months ago, some of the U.S. coworking leaders said that it would be a mistake. I still think it makes sense if done right.
• While New Work City will likely be tech-heavy, it’s not strictly a space for tech- it’s for independents. That said, a secondary goal of New Work City and our community efforts in the city is to help strengthen and unite the NY Tech community. I’d love to sit next to someone not in tech.
• Pricing appears to range from $50-500 a month. The $250 plan seems right for me.

If you are interested, please go fill in either the membership or sponsorship interest form. They need to show that there is heavy interest for forward progress to be made. I can’t stress this enough, it’s time for us to get involved, even if it’s just with some mouse clicks for now.

As I consider moving into a tiny shoebox of any apartment, I need this space. I am sure there are hundreds of others that need this space as well. I am excited to see how this progresses and hopefully get more involved in the planning phases.

There’s been talk of a coworking space opening up in NYC at some point. Tony Bacigalupo has been very involved in the discussions and is helping to lead the charge.

Another type of coworking, what I am calling social coworking, is also starting to pick up steam across the country. A group called Jelly, has social coworking in about 20+ cities and has been covered by major newspapers and TV stations. The founders explain Jelly as, "Jelly started in NYC in February of 2006 when roommates Amit and Luke realized that they loved working from home, but they missed the creative brainstorming, sharing, and camaraderie of a traditional office. So they started inviting friends to come work from their home one day a week. They soon found that working in close proximity to new and interesting people every couple weeks resulted in new ideas and interesting conversations."

Another coworking fan Nate Westhimer shared an interview Current completed with Tony. Tony shares where Jelly comes from, how the model works and why it’s so popular. NY-based 10ton produced the video. I have embedded the interview below.

What I would be interested in is learning about the productivity at a social coworking location. Do the individuals get less, more or the same amount of work done if they were in their own location or a coffee shop? Do they walk away from the day with more potential paying gigs?

The conversation began with an oveview of numbers including $40/sqft for "ok" space in Manhattan and a price of $350ish for a desk. Alex noted that at IH perm desks are $275/mo, at CS they are $350/mo and that most people at IH are drop-ins at $25/mo.

There was a bit of chatter about whether coworking works for startups or just indies and could the coworking space be viewed as an incubator. Tara said that coworking competes with "free and lazy" – free being coffeeshops and lazy being working at home.

I have tried to think of an image to represent my thoughts about where coworking sits on a spectrum between working at home and the free coffee shop – or the "free and lazy" – here is my image:

I am not sure if this is the perfect image but the idea is the spectrum moves from left to right on the "social" and "business" aspects of working. First up is "working at home" which provides very little socializing but its free and if effective can provide the best business standpoint.

Next we move to "renting a desk" – this is where you (duh) rent a desk at a typical office rental location. It’s not usually very social but it’s more social than working at home. Usually you get a cubical plus some conference room availability. But this gets you out of the house.

Now we slide further down the social scale to where I believe the sweet spot for coworking is. It’s more social than renting a desk but less social than free. It can give you an office-like atmosphere while still affording some of the benefits of socialization. Coworking can provide ways to meet new people, create and build relationships (social and biz), get out of the house, and foster overall community.

Last is free – this is the bar, the coffeeshop, park, diner, etc. I find that this has the most potential to be completely social but the least amount of raw work. Desks Tables are small, often are dark, must pack a bag daily, can’t hang up the Yankees World Championship Banner or a picture of your sweetie. But this is free and accessible almost anywhere in the city.

Ok, so there are some of my thoughts about what coworking is. Now back to the meeting recap. One of my questions was around profit – in that are "we" in this for profit? Tara/Alex said it’s for-profit with a non-focus on profit. As an accountant that scares me a bit :) I also wonder what the committee will look like, currently Tony and Sanford appear to be in-charge but frankly I have no idea how to get more involved. And not just because CN can spread the message to 250k monthly visitors but because I care about the project and Allen Stern the consultant needs an office (even if I never wrote another word about it). And how do others get involved? Right now someone browsing the site gets a page that basically says "here we are, join us" which from the meeting today is not really the case. 

A large chunk of the discussion was around what comes first – the location or the community. The group seemed to agree that community should come first then after getting buy-in, then find the location. I struggle with this a bit – I believe it’s important to drum up the community but getting a space first does offer some benefits like immediate tenancy vs. what could take a year and the community moves on. I would go for a middle of the road scenario whereby 20-30 very interested tenants get together and find the space and get in there, then open it up. Will it work for everyone, no. But it’s a way to get moving.

Before any of the community enabling happens, we need a name, a logo, materials, etc. Sorry guys but cooBric doesn’t cut it for me. Something direct or sexy or both and something people understand. WTF is a bricolage :) (and I have an MBA lol!) Also, having a generic business card pointing to the to-be-named site will allow us to hand out cards as we discuss the idea.

For me location is the big dealbreaker. First it was CooBric on 8th street and was barely passable for location – now it’s on 14th and Ave A which is basically in Brooklyn. I could be to JFK in the same time it takes me to get to this new temporary location. A suggestion was made to have the community map out where they would be willing to travel to using tools such as Frappr and Plazes. "Home is where your LCD is" seemed to come up a bit.

I think there was decent agreement that the bar/coffeeshop location won’t work as tenants want a more permanent space and being able to work after say 6pm is usually mandatory.

There was some discussion about VC-sponsored coworking and corporate coworking which I discussed before here. Here is my bottom line – to make this work, we will need to be creative about it and shooting down any idea immediately is unacceptable. I still stand by my ideas in the two referenced articles above along with speaking to some of the universities in Manhattan and Bloomberg.

For me it’s boils down to this. I could afford about $300 and would prefer a location between 86th and 23rd and 3rd to 9th avenues.

I look forward to continuing this very needed discussion because I still believe that coworking can work in Manhattan. We just need to be creative about how we make it happen.  We need coworking to work in NYC.

If you are interested in getting involved, email me or contact Tony or Sanford.

Venture capital firms are always looking for the next "big thing" and this location-collaboration could provide beneficial for the VC and for the startups that use the space. The VC would provide space for small, unfunded startups to use for a defined period of time (e.g. six months). The space could either be setup as a standard open coworking space with a common working area or each company could have a defined room(s) to use while all of the startups share common facilities (bathroom, kitchen, conference rooms, network equipment, etc.). This type of coworking could help reduce some of the risk VC’s accept when investing in a company.

What’s in it for the VC? They would get first crack at any funding oppotunities that the startups using the space need. The VC firm would see multiple new startups, company work ethic, community flow, etc., which could help in determing whether or not to fund the startup. Additionally, the startups could view the VC as a sounding-board or advisor when needed. The space could be used for meetups and community events as well providing additional exposure for the VC.

Om Malik authored a column earlier this week describing the need for small startups to work together to achieve results. What better way for this type of collaboration than in a incubator space where they are working together?

cooBric is a different type of coworking — i.e. it’s located in a bar with small bar tables and short hours. My concern (along with Till’s) is that the tables are so small, can you really get work done this way? Sanford believes yes, I think it’s an interesting alternative to the more traditional coworking say at Independents Hall in Philadelphia.

Dan also notes that the signin list only showed a few people a day and that more people are needed to show that coworking can work in NYC. I agree and would only add that cooBric didn’t have enough time to make it work. Personally I wish they would change the name to something less "educational". But with Sanford’s passion around the space, I am sure that he will make it work.

And I can assure you, CenterNetworks is ready to move into a coworking space.

Earlier this week Alex posted about some awesome supplies Belkin donated for Independents Hall. At the same time, I read about a campaign that Starwood Hotels is running in NYC, Boston and Chicago where they "wrap" an entire train car to provide a more relaxing ride (of course in NYC they are only running the campaign on the 1 stop shuttle, blech). Check out the awesome photos. The price tag in NYC is $30k a month for 2 short train sets. So far, Starwood believes it is successful and riders enjoy seeing more comforting imagery than "Learn How to Speak English/Spanish/Slavic in 12 hours" or "Been in a Car Wreck, Get Oodles of Cash Even if it's Your Fault!". 

So this got me thinking – what would a corporate sponsored coworking space look like? Imagine if Google, Apple, Microsoft either offered a floor at their office for independents/freelancers to use either free or at a reduced cost. The space would be wrapped with the brand that sponsored the space. I know this might sound like a horrible/crazy idea, but let me explain a bit further.

Let's use Google for the example. Google provides a coworking space for 50 independents. The space is branded Google, the water is Google water, the pens are Google pens. I move into the space for free and in return I offer Google to listen to 4 hours a week of informative presentations on using Google services for my clients. Or perhaps I offer for 4 hours of work a week for Google. Another option could be that the independent agrees to use Google services for themselves (gmail, google reader, etc.).

I love this idea as it's win-win. It could even lead to job opportunities within the sponsor company and for companies who may have a semi-negative reputation (see Microsoft/Yahoo), it could be a great way to raise product awareness. 

So let's open this for discussion: Do you think this idea has legs?