Natasha D'Souza

The concept of co-working was brought to my attention by Ian Graham. Co-working is a cafe-like community/collaboration space for developers, writers and independents.

Most consultants and independents tend to have their offices at home. This does have a lot of advantages except a sense of community is missing. You know, those coffee breaks, conversations by the water cooler etc… Working in coffee shops is very popular, especially ones that offer wireless. The draw back of this is that they do tend to be noisy at times.
Some people do enjoy being consultants or running their own business but would like to have the “office” atmosphere to go with it. Co-working definitely meets this need.
These co-working spaces are opening up all across Canada.

• Vancouver Workspace
• Montreal Station C
• Toronto Centre for Social Innovation
• Halifax is working on getting one off the ground

What about down south

• Socialtext is opening up their office space
• The Hat Factory

For a complete list worldwide check the co-working wiki. There is always an institute for everything including co-working. And there are blogs for everything including co-working.