Don't you just hate it when you have to go back to the isolation of Drupal work when the latest Meetup, Camp or DrupalCon is over? Are you a freelancer, telecommuter, or remote Drupaler and just want more Drupal people in your life? Sometimes you just want to bounce ideas off of like-minded individuals. We understand, we are the exact same way!
Mediacurrent is starting a pilot program called Drupal Coworking Friday. The program, in a nutshell, is to get Drupal Professionals together in a local space at the same date and time each month for some coworking.
About Drupal Coworking Friday:
- Proposed date: Last Friday of each month
- It takes place in your local city
- Anyone can start/host one
- Focused on Drupal Professionals (freelance, fulltime, part time, in office, home, etc)
- This is not a meetup, code-sprint, BoF or presentation
- Attendees would still do their regular work/calls/etc
- Other Drupal folks would be there to talk to, collaborate, advise (and likewise for the attendee)
- Ideally, an entire section of the space will be dedicated for Drupal professionals
Since some coworking spaces have fees associated, Mediacurrent will be sponsoring the event in multiple cities (so there would be no cost to attendees). At Mediacurrent, about half of our staff is in metro-Atlanta, but others are in Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, and North Carolina.
Orlando, FL is the first confirmed city but there will be additional cities confirmed over the next few weeks. Right now, it looks like the official start date will be January 27th, 2012.
"Coworking is a style of work which involves a shared working environment, sometimes an office, yet independent activity. Unlike in a typical office environment, those coworking are usually not employed by the same organization. Typically it is attractive to work-at-home professionals, independent contractors, or people who travel frequently who end up working in relative isolation. Coworking is the social gathering of a group of people, who are still working independently, but who share values, and who are interested in the synergy that can happen from working with talented people in the same space." Source: Wikipedia
Stay tuned for more information. We look forward to sharing our lessons learned with you next year! Any ideas or thoughts you would like to add?