The rise of co-working spaces

Businessweek reports on a fascinating trend: the rise of "co-working" facilities for freelance and contract workers who otherwise ply their trades at home or at Internet cafes. Snippet:

Over the past few years, co-working facilities—both grassroots, co-op-like versions and for-profit models—have started popping up across the country and the world, from Seattle to Copenhagen. A co-working wiki hosts pages for dozens of other cities with co-working initiatives in progress. And while the concept of shared office space is nothing new to entrepreneurs, an increasing number of them are signing on and finding that the community-building and networking benefits outweigh even the virtues of a shared fax machine.

For an example of a co-working space, check out San Francisco's Hat Factory. The facility has about a dozen desk spaces, a meeting room, kitchen, wi-fi and ethernet, and lots of extras. Customers can pay by the day ($10) or by the month ($170).

A co-working situation would be interesting for me. I work at home, and while there are many advantages to a home office, it's too easy to get distracted by the dog, the refrigerator, and the Golf Channel. But alas, a radio reporter requires a little more than a seat next to some uber-hip Web 2.0 entrepreneur. I need a quiet space and lots of electronic equipment. I'll have to settle for hauling my iBook down to my neighborhood coffee shop for some early morning blogging.