Coworking in the Metro Detroit Area

At yesterday’s likemind, we started talking about possibilites of coworking space in the Metro Detroit area.

According to Coworking Community Blog, coworking is defined as “a movement to create a community of cafe-like collaboration spaces for developers, writers and independents.”

I do love my home office and zero-mile commute (especially in winter), but there’s something about not having people around most of the day that’s starting to bother me again. One of the reasons I decided to take a break from freelancing last time was this. Even on the days I just sit & code all day, being in an office with other team members is different than having a solo home office.

Of course there are many advantages in the current situation too, so I’m still looking for a some kind of hybrid solution. Coworking seems promising – the problem is there’s none available yet in the area I live.

It’s still just a rough collection of links, but here’s a list of what I found from looking around.

General coworking information

• Coworking Wiki
• Coworking Google Group (mailing list)
• Jelly (casual coworking; “semi-weekly work-together”)

Coworking spaces around the country

• Coworking Spaces Google Map
• Citizen Space (San Francisco, CA)
• Social Text (Palo Alto, CA)
• Office Nomad (Seattle, WA)
• IndyHall (Philadelphia, MA)
• Conjunctured (Austin, TX)

Detroit area coworking information

• Coworking wiki / Coworking-Detroit-AnnArbor
• Jelly in Detroit
• Rochester Area Coworking Meetup
• Creative x Co-working x Spaces (Russell Industry Center’s blog post about coworking)
• Coworking: Solo But Not Alone (Story on Ingenex Digital Marketing‘s coworking space in Ann Arbor)

Thanks again to Eric Brown at Urbane Apartments for showing us his really cool Royal Oak office and a rental unit on Center Street. I think his kind of open mind is exactly what we need in today’s Michigan.

Maybe having a coworking space can be a good way to nurture that?

Photo credit: ekai