Coworking: Working as Partying（PAXi Publishing　2012）

Enjoy working as if you are enjoying a party !

Everyone wishes to work in an enjoyable manner. Having worked for a big company and on my own as freelancer, while making a lot of trying and erring to find the optimum balance between work and life, I have always been thinking about the best way to work to produce results.

The conclusion I have reached thus far is, ingredients are identical to do the good work and to hold a party full of fun. That is, you get need to get surrounded by good buddies, and you are able to communicate with others in a most relaxed atmosphere. When you encounter the sort of people with knowledges and information totally unknown to you, and if you are in a most relaxed atmosphere, you will at ease get yourself in a conversations with them. Your brain will get stimulus with fountain of ideas oozing out.

Coworking, in a nutshell, is a working style to realize the atmosphere of a fun and filling party.

Coworking space is the place where coworking takes place. I set up a coworking space, the first in Tokyo almost two years ago. Hardly no one (including myself) heard of coworking before that. In one year following that opening, I have tried my best to spread the word and concept. In the process, I got to know like-minded coworkers , one by one, in both Japan and overseas.

With the opening of my space, I started to work in the same premises, chatting with coworkers during work, asking for advice on minor work-related problems, and made true some of the projects which started in a half-jesting conversation during the lunch time. I hear from my fellow coworkers there that their family told them “how come you look so happy having come back from the office”. Enjoy working as if you are enjoying a party ! is the phrase I really got under my skin during working at the coworking space.

Day by day, it appears that the good name of coworking is gaining its position. Every week, at least one person visits my place, who would like to “create” the coworking space. I hear in the grapevine that coworking space is opening up at least one every week in Japan since the end of 2011. Your search for coworking in the Twitter will turn out a numerous tweetings, and the subject of coworking is picked up in the newspapers, magazines and TVs as “new working style”.

In this book, we are to tell you about coworking, which is spreading itself explosively and starting to taking its root firmly in Japan. We will tell you how wonderful it is, with events taking place in its so far short history.

In Chapter 1, I will discuss, from the history of coworking style, to the background why this style was born and the advantages of adapting coworking into work. I will make an analysis based on

my experience as to why the concept of coworking is spreading globally, and what I have come to see as a result of running a coworking space.

In Chapter 2, Kenichi NAKAYA, a well-known Nomad worker who accomplishes 90% of his work on the road, will write why he had been addicted to coworking. He will tell you the way to effectively use coworking space and what you need to prepare, including your mental attitude, to start coworking. This will be a practical guide with full of information for coworking beginners.

In Chapter 3, we will pick up several business cases in overseas and Japan brought into life as a result of cowokring. I asked Yutaka FUJUIKI to write this chapter. Yutaka is a independent UI designer who has been outputting from the early days of coworking based on his real experiences, and who has taken up / got engaged in all his work assignments through coworking channels.

In Chapter 4, I will introduce coworking spaces around the world and in Japan. I compiled the article based on my interviews with owners of these spaces to share the reasons of opening up these spaces and their objectives.

Last comes a discussion roundtable among three authors, joined by Akira MATSUDA, an entrepreneur, who started outputting on coworking before anyone in Japan. We discussed frankly and openly based on respective views and experiences about “the future work style which coworking will bring along”.

The history of coworking is only 2 years in Japan and 6 in overseas. It is still very young, and I cannot tell if the coworking will take its root in our society at this juncture.The two ingredients of coworking which are spreading within the world: Importance of staying connected and relaxed attitude to deal with your work, hopefully will bring us a breakthrough tearing down this sense of stagnation which Japan has been burdened with for some time.

April 2012

Kyo SATANI
Owner of PAX Coworking in Kyodo, Tokyo JAPAN

Prologue
CHAPTER 1 What is Coworking by Kyo SATANI

I. HISTORY OF COWORKING
What is Coworking?
The Root of Coworking – Jelly
Birth and Spreading of Coworking Space Progress of Coworking Style in Japan Emergence of Nomad Working

II Advantages of Coworking
WiFi and A/C Outlets
Inexpensive User Fee
Less Concern on Security
Making It As A Place Where You Belong To Getting Many Acquaintance and Buddies Able to Concentrate on the Job

Shifting the Meaning of the Work Sharing Knowledge and Information Finding a Work Partner

III How to Use Coworking Space Membership System
Drop-In
Participation in the Events

IV My Diary of Running Coworking Space
Secrets of Getting Connecting : Staying Together with No Purpose! Encountering with Coworking
Opening up the First Ever Coworking Space in Tokyo
Aiming at Spreading Coworking
To Create Better Community
Essence Representing Coworking Culture – “Coworking Visa” What Coworking Needs is People, Not a Place

CHAPTER 2 Practical Guide to Coworking by Kenichi Nakaya I Let’s go to Jelly !

A Nomad Worker Encounters Coworking
Let’s Pay a Visit to a Coworking Space
Jelly ! Should be Your First Coworking Experience To Make a Jelly Worthwhile Experience

II Q&A relating to Coworking Space
What is the difference between coworking space and share office? Why You Make Use of the Coworking Space ?
You Can Always Make Collaboration at the Coworking Space? Can I Take Part in More Than One Coworking Space?

How Can You Find a Coworking Space?
I Do Not Feel Fit to Coworking Space
I Have to Join Facebook? Everyone Else Does
Should I Become a Member, or Permanently Doing Drop-in? What’s In It for Nomad Worker?
I Work for A Company. Can I Use It ?
What Sort of Preparation I Need to Make?

Chapter 3 Case Studies of Coworking Business by Yutaka FUJIKI I Business Cases Overseas

As A Crib for Startup

Work in Many Ways Within the Coworking Space II Coworking Case Studies in Japan

High Tech Startup Enterprise – nana Music
Agricultural Web Magazine – Zack Zack Corporation
Creating / Finding Out Share Houses – Colish
Regional Enterprise Utilizing As Metropolitan Marketing Office – HORIE Supporting Care-Required Families and Mommies to Return to Work – Eggshel Compatibility with Open Source – Word Camp Tokyo

III Experiments involving Coworking
Financing Session for Entrepreneurs
Coworking Experiments with Big Company
Supporting Recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake and Aid to Refugees

CHAPTER 4 CoWorking Space in Japan and in the World by Kyo SATANI and Yutaka FUJIKI I CoWorking Space in the World

Coworking Space in the USA New Work City (New York) Citizen Space (San Francisco) Coworking Spaces in Europe Utopic_Us (Madrid, Spain) Asian Coworking Space Xindanwei (Shanghai, PRC) Space At 8 (Singapore)

II Coworking Spaces in Japan
Cahoots / Kobe – Hyogo Prefecture
JUSO Coworking – Juso, Osaka
HanaLab – Ueda City, Nagano Prefecture
cafe? IKAGAWADO – Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture Tanemaki, Yokohama City – Kanagawa Prefecture Necoworking – Suidobashi, Tokyo
Shimokitazawa Open Source Cafe – Shimokitazawa, Tokyo “cococi” Coworking Space – Chofu City, Tokyo
Coworking Space Battle Ground – Shibuya

Table Talk Predicting the Future of Coworking and The Way We Should Work in the Future by Kyo Satani, Kenichi Nakaya, Jyo Fujiki, and Akira Matsuda

Is Coworking Settling in Japan?
How Coworking Is Changing the Way We Work
What Coworking Would Bring into Japan? Reference Materials

Authors