One of the great things about being in Manchester is the great emerging developer community. Over the past 3 years since I moved to Manchester, there have been New Media show-and-tell nights, which evolved into an annual BarCamp, which lead way to a monthly webNOB meet up.  I love working with the developer and artistic community here.

The next emerging community building project is the launch of CoWorking Manchester, which I have been working on organizing over the past year. What is CoWorking? It’s a space where freelancers, small companies and individuals just needing to work away can share an office space and join together to form another community.  I think the real underlying message behind CoWorking is that people want to work for themselves, not necessarily by themselves. Manchester has several freelancers and several people who I know that work for small companies, but on occasion go to the café in order get a break from the office (Yes Joe… that’s you). CoWorking would offer the same change, but may also allow them to network with the other “Coworkers” around them. It will also give way for more developer community events like lunch and learns or cupcake camps.

CoWorking in Manchester will be a single room with multiple desks and couches, set up much like a cafe. The space will be set up with wireless internet, a printer and a coffee machine. Manchester will work on a tiered membership scale. For a small monthly fee, you can have a dedicated desk which is always yours where you can leave stuff that will always be there when you come in to work. For a smaller fee, you can be part of a desk co-op where you can check out a desk for a particular time or lounge on the couch.  There would also be the option to test out the space as a “Drop in”.

On Tuesday of this week, I was actually interviewed on NHPR’s Word of Mouth about this coworking space which you can listen to here. And that’s where the title for this post comes from. In a random fluke, DJ Spooky was on Word of Mouth the following day...the same DJ Spooky that I had seen perform at a private venue at Ars Electronica (Linz Austria) back in 2003...the same who performed at my college shortly after I had graduated. I really think DJ Spooky and I are destined to work on some project together.

Anyway, back on topic...you may be wondering why I would be the one to organize CoWorking Manchester. I mean I’m not a freelancer and I do work here in the office at Amplify. Granted, it will be much easier to focus on scope writing at CoWorking than it is here. The answer is simple: I want to develop even more of a community here in Manchester and I don’t think we can do that without providing more methods for conversations and more opportunities for collaboration.

When CoWorking launches, it will be a place for Amplify to meet other developers and expand our horizons with potential collaboration and learning experience.  It’ll be a place for team to take a break from our basement and get a different perspective if they need it, and meet people who could help them on their own side projects.

CoWorking is an example where by helping the community, you are also helping your company.