How Coworkings have come into service?

The number of freelancers (aka free artists in various fields of action, who work in the Web and need neither superiors, nor permanent office to be successful) grew drastically in the last decade or so. Not all of them can work at home, not all can find a decent place for meetings with clients, and to pay a great deal of money for a proper office somewhere in a city-center – usually is not an option. The idea of a coworking – a reasonable-priced office with desks and internet access, shared by a few people, who can work quietly together, meet their partners, exchange some ideas and learn something new, - has come into view in nineties and was willingly accepted by many. Bernie De Koven , an American game designer, was the first who invented the term “coworking ”in 1999 to describe this new way of working, which he called “a shared work for equals ”. He used the term in his trainings for small companies, which included joint problem-solving by brain storms and various discussions. The predecessor of all modern day coworking-centres - 42 West 24 – opened its doors in the same year. This project was set going by a small software firm. It offered freelancers and small companies to rent one or few tables in a collective premise for a certain amount of time. The idea of a joint use of an office became especially popular after a 2001 crisis, when a great number of computer companies fell apart and many talented specialists lost their work. It gave 42 West 24 coworking an opportunity to enlarge its clientele, and it’s been thriving since then: it has 8 separate offices, 32 tables and there are 50 men working simultaneously in this coworking now.

The idea of a collective office reached Germany in 2002, where “The Public Centre for businessmen” was opened in a disused factory building. In next few years it expanded, acquired many branch offices and became the first Coworking-Net in the World.

A first “proper” coworking-centre was created by initiative of a programmer Brad Newberg in San-Francisco in 2005 . It was an ideal solution for those who couldn’t work productively at home and needed a special environment for project- development and interactions with their associates. That centre was organized as a non-profit institution and offered its members few free desks, free wifi, combined meals; association arranged resting hours with meditation, bicycle strolls and so on for very moderate membership fees. All of these had been done so that freelancers work would be calm and enjoyable which always brings effectiveness . The association closed a year later: Newberg and his partners replaced it with more advanced coworking-model - Hat Factory.

The number of coworkings has grown steadily and rapidly since then. There are nearly 5800 coworking-centres in the World at present day, 2500 of which are in Europe. Spain is firmly rated third among coworking-leaders giving way to USA and Germany only. Spanich freelancers and small companies took this idea of renting a modern comfortable and not expensive premise exceedingly well. A work turns to a pleasure in there; you can widen your contacts and find not only business-partners for your projects but also sponsors in this sort of place. There are about 400 coworkings in Spain nowadays, where are successfully working over 7000 people and their numbers are continuously growing.