I put out a call a week ago to some people who had shown interest in using our coworking space to get some feedback and suggestions on how to make the space a more attractive option as we’ve struggled to get a sustainable number of people in here.

Three people have responded so far with some great ideas and solutions as well as pointing out some of our problems such as high cost and poor location. We can’t do anything about location at the moment and pricing is up to my project partner HRMWEB who have the lease on this place – but I have passed on your feedback including pointing out that we’re competing with cafes who don’t charge you for time and are ok with you camping there as long as you buy a coffee every hour or so.

Some of the things you suggest that we can do something about:

• Run some events to get people familiar with the space.
• Hold bookclub events here.
• Host other groups such as the Canberra Ruby on Rails user group.
• Rearrange the desks to make it more social rather than facing the walls.
• Music.
• Free time in the space for interstate visitors.

Thanks everyone; I’ll try my hardest to make this all happen!

If you have any further ideas, please post them here.

Working from home can be a very attractive option for self-employed freelancers. You can get up when you want, start work when you want, relax on the couch during your lunch break and watch some midday TV and go shopping whenever you want.

However speaking from personal experience working from home is not without its downside. When I was freelancing I found I would spread 6 hours of work over the entire day starting at 8:00 in the morning and finishing around 10:00 at night, like this diagram shows:

What Coworking offers is the opportunity to focus your work day so you can have a definite cut-over from personal life to work for a period of six or so hours and then leave your work at the office when you come home. That way you have the entire evening uninterrupted to yourself, satisfied in the knowledge you’ve done your hours for the day:

Knowing your work is over for the day can help you relax rather than sitting there around 9:00pm thinking you should just jump back on the computer and send a few more emails or write a bit more of that report.

Coworking provides work/life balance and can help you achieve a high level of effectiveness for the time you’re in the Coworking office.

Come and see for yourself!

Yes, I know we already have chairs in the Canberra Coworking studio but they’re on temporary loan thanks to Jordan and need to be returned within a couple of weeks – so I’m happy that I finally won an auction at ALLBIDS for an initial six gas-lift office chairs (I bags the floral one) that will suffice for now.

Anyone free on Saturday morning with a trailer to help me pick them up from Fyshwick?

We know how hard it is to get up in the morning in the cold months of winter in Canberra, especially when you work for yourself and don’t have to leave the house.

But we really believe in the benefit of having an office to go to, being amongst other people and having clear separation between work and personal life.

So as an incentive to take advantage of the not-for-profit facilities provided by Canberra Coworking from June to August we’re offering the first four hours of desk rental FREE.

No strings attached, no contract needed, just come out and try working at Canberra Coworking for an afternoon and see if you like it.

Contact Nathanael now on 0409 288 464 or email nboehm@purecaffeine.com to find out the address of the office in Mitchell and let us know when you’ll be dropping in.

Photo courtesy of Paulo Brandão.

With the help of new sponsorship and pro bono services we’ll be rolling out some roadside sign advertising for Canberra Coworking around the northside of Canberra in 3 weeks.

The advertising will consist of 2-sign sets, printed on corrugated/fluted plastic board, staked in the ground. The first sign of each set will pose a question to drivers to get the attention of those who work from home and then offering a well-known problem for self-employed people, such as “escaping the isolation of working from home”. The second sign will be our branding and URL, just “Canberra Coworking .org” or something.

I’ll be placing these sign sets on Parkes Way, Limestone Avenue, Gungahlin Drive and the GDE once I get them printed and delivered.

I got incredibly frustrated last night trying to win some auctions for some gas-lift office chairs on ALLBIDS that I’d been waiting a week for. I guess the other bidders were using auction-sniping software scripts or something because they managed to steal the auction and in two overtime extensions in the last second. One lot of 13 chairs went for a mere $20! Considering that even from an ex-government furniture place like out in Fyshwick that many chairs would cost around $800 it would have been an awesome deal. Maybe I’ll try again – they seem to pop up on ALLBIDS every couple of weeks.

Know anywhere else I could buy a bunch of office chairs cheap? We’re about to lose our chairs in the Mitchell office as they were on temporary loan. Preferably all the same colour and style if possible.

Canberra Coworking was featured on ABC Triple J’s Hack program with Kate O’Toole on 6 May.

John Barrington came out to our Mitchell office and interviewed project partner Jordan Mullen from Response Driven Marketing, Corinne (one of our Coworkers), a few of the staff of HRMWeb who are our other project partner and myself.

The segment on Canberra Coworking starts at 23 minutes into the podcast:

Listen to the MP3

I’ve donated a couch to the Canberra Coworking Mitchell office where you can take a break from working and sit in the warmth of the sun (it gets pretty warm against that window), maybe read one of the books donated by Keith Lang or have a quick nap.

Would be good if we could have a small coffee table here too – have you got one lying around you’re willing to donate?

Our partner HRMWEB have set up a touchscreen and biometric fingerprint scanning system at the entrance to the Canberra Coworking office where Coworkers can sign in when they use the space to ensure hourly or daily usage is tracked with minimal manual effort.

We are happy to bring you a new, dedicated website for Canberra Coworking thanks to our friends at Domain Registration Australia for the domain name and hosting and sector7g in Adelaide for designing our logo, brand and identity.