Nice coverage of the Austin Coworking and Jelly communities in today’s Austin American Statesmen.

Instant coworkers
Austin telecommuters soon will have places to go when camaraderie of the office is missing

By Omar L. Gallaga
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, July 06, 2008

Julie Gomoll has been thinking about where and how she wants to work for a long time.

The tech entrepreneur — who started and sold several successful companies since she moved to Austin in the mid-1980s — has often worked at home, alone. (more)

Congrats to

1. Conjunctured Coworking (heh… they have a "manifesto" link on the nav – awesome)
2. Launchpad Coworking (hey guys, put in a redirect for the www. reference, eh?)
3. Austin Jelly
4. Michelle – general Austin trouble maker who just had a hugely successful blood drive. And is emailing me snarky challenging emails behind the scenes. But I promised not to blog that part b/c I’m not petty like that.
5. Too many other cool Austinites that make Texas proud!

So what is coworking? The definitions abound on the coworking wiki. But for me it is a slightly tech heavy artists collective where you can rent out space and the social aspect matters.

What am I most excited about? The fact that the community is coming together. That is a good thing if it happens in Austin, Houston, San Antonio or Dallas (hello? Dallas? You up there still?)

  Caroline Collective Front Door 
  Originally uploaded by eschipul

I am super proud of @organ_printer and @kned for taking the plunge, and responsibility, of starting the Caroline Collective CoWorking Space. The CC is a coworking space being started in Houston. Right now Matt and Ned in the very early stages of signing the lease and working with the contractors. Currently the space is not inhabitable, yet already leaps to life.

Also a huge thanks to @Cosmopolitician for arranging a tour for @groovehouse, @imelda and me yesterday. And for doing the web site. And for promoting the Caroline Collective! I am pretty sure Monica doesn’t sleep. So anyway, more on the CC:

From the Caroline Collective about page:

Combining the relaxed working environment of the home office with a dynamic
social atmosphere, Caroline Collective strives to positively impact the cultural landscape of Houston by fostering community, collaboration and creativity across all artistic and technological disciplines.

Coworking is both a global and unique to Houston phenomenon. As the global marketplace continues to free the worker from his/her physical location, more and more young professionals work as either “digital nomads” or as home-office based independents. Houston, as the preeminent global city is a the ideal location of the effect of market forces on the smallscale work-force. The coworking model encourages the free flow of projects and ideas and is founded on the belief that working together is working smarter.

This is exciting for the city of Houston!

It should also be mentioned that there is no doubt in my mind that Tara Hunt was instrumental in influencing the coworking movement both here and throughout the US. So thanks for the thought leadership Tara!