They will control the world, or have a few drinks together.

Last night there was a meeting of Seattle’s coworking illuminati, according to my sources. Okay, actually, Jacob and Susan told me that last night the owners of all five of Seattle’s coworking spaces went out for drinks together, but I thought the first lede was way more exciting to write.

Anyway, Jacob and Susan, co-owners of Office Nomads, knocked back a few stiff ones with Brian from Giraffe Labs, Brett from Greenwood Collective, Mike and Zachary from StartPad (where we’ve been before), and Nick from Seattle’s newest entry into coworking, Whitespace. Unfortunately, I wasn’t there so I can’t give you the uber-secret scoop on the sit-down. But I can tell you that the group had a good time and began to hatch some plans to help spread the gospel here in town.

Central to this plan, Jacob tells me, is to put together a group Web site that will act as a central resource for all those nomadic, upstart, collected, spacy or long-necked(?!) potential coworkers in the Emerald City. He’s not sure what will be on it yet, so neither am I, but you can rest assured, when I know, you’ll know.

In the meantime, with the Seattle coworking scene hopping this much, I feel like I am completely out of touch and here I am working in the center of it. Over the next few weeks I hope to make a visit myself to the other spaces I haven’t seen yet, and maybe even a repeat visit to StartPad just to say hi. I’ll make sure you know it’s going on so you can follow my coworking travels!

A side note: I’ve been on vacation which is why I haven’t written lately. But there’s a ton going on in the world of coworking right now so I have a ton of posts saved up that I want to write. More to come soon.

Our friend Alex Hillman of IndyHall in Philadelphia recently posted one heck of an article on Mashable that is worth sharing.

You can read the entire article here.  For a quick taste, here are Alex’s 6 Reasons to Start Coworking:

1. You’re lonely
2. You need motivation
3. You love to learn new things
4. You have no idea what is going on in your region
5. Your work/life balance is out of whack
6. Sharing resources is RAD

Alex continues…

“Hot-desks and flex-offices serve a purpose, but to some degree, are designed for solidarity in similar ways to cafe-working is. Never mind the fact that their price points aren’t designed for cash-conscious independents.

Coworking is different. Operating a shared office space as a clubhouse for a community changes the game, and affords you endless opportunities for improving yourself as a professional, and putting your region on the map.

Check the coworking wiki to see if coworking is going on near you. No coworking space? Get started with a local Jelly chapter. Jelly is like coworking, but casual and nomadic. Think about the fun of crashing a cafe, someone’s living room, or anywhere that’s got wifi and comfy seats, with a bunch of friends and coworking for the day. It’s the ideal precursor to coworking, and a great way to start at the right place: the community.”

Alex, we couldn’t have said it better!

Some coworkers could be figuring out how to make safer Orion crew modules. So Cool!

There’s a wide range of conversations on the coworking Google group. On any given day, we see posts from folks looking for advice as they explore opening a new space, announcements of new spaces actually opening (like the brand new Whitespace in Seattle!), discussions on how best to spread the gospel of coworking and more. One of the most popular kinds of posts is what I call the “We’re holding an informal coworking session and anyone who wants to come is invited” post. I love those because it really brings to the forefront the idea that coworking can and does happen anywhere, anytime, for anyone.

Last week, I saw one such post that really caught my eye. It was for a day of coworking taking place in Newport News, VA. on Nov. 14. I’m obviously nowhere near Newport News but the announcement still caught my eye because I really wanted to go, if only to get to talk to the folks who are likely to be there. It’s the first public coworking session organized by a group of people who have been getting together once a week since August. The kicker is that they all work for NASA! That’s right, some of the people who get humanity into space are coworking!

Apparently, a computer scientist at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) in Hampton, Virginia has a running coworking session where folks working in Public Outreach, Atmospheric and Earth Science, Atmospheric Flight and Entry Systems, and Innovation disucssing what they are working on and working in the same coffee shop each week. And on Nov. 14th, you too can work with folks from NASA and hear about the kinds of things they’re doing! How freaking cool is that?!??!?

Anyway, I am now looking forward to hearing about the first coworking session in space.

I took the image above from the NASA LRC images site. It is credited as: NASA/Sean Smith

Words are mostly failing me today. What else is there to say about last night’s amazing, historic and wonderful result? Just say it: President-elect Barack Obama. Wow.

I guess the only thing I can really tell you is that it was an honor and a privelage to witness and celebrate history in the making with a group of 30 or so wonderful members of the Office Nomads community here in our space. Although I didn’t know everyone personally, the love and cooperation and willingness to work for change that was brought to the space last night was palpable and there is nowhere on Earth I would have rather been.

For me, the night was summed up perfectly by Jacob who told me, teary eyed, that it all made him so happy because it is a kind of change that starts with small groups of people, “and that’s exactly what we have here: a community.” It was beautiful, heartfelt and succinct. We in the world of coworking helped start this change and thankfully we will have each other to lean on to help us see it all the way through.

Now, enough waxing poetic. Here are the pics from a truly awesome party!