Open Coworking is the nonprofit that supports the ongoing maintenance and development of the resources that power the global coworking movement. This year, we've published a report outlining what we've done over the past year and where we intend to go from here. Learn more about our organization and how to get involved here: http://opencoworking.org

1. Impact Report 2016

2. d
Dear Open Coworking supporter,
My first year helping to run and grow Open Coworking has been an
educational experience to say the least. I knew that I wanted to focus on
supporting the global movement in the wake of closing my space in NYC,
but I wasn’t sure where to start.
When the opportunity to take the reins emerged, I realized that there
wasn’t anything I wanted more than to work directly for coworking itself.
Open Coworking had established itself as an organization that could
secure and nurture the movement’s future, but it needed a proper
foundation to realize that potential.
Over the past year, I’ve worked with Jeannine and other intrepid
volunteers to establish that foundation. Along the way, we achieved some
critical victories, learned some valuable lessons, and now have a clear
sense of where we would like to go from here to continue making the
progress that I believe the movement needs us to make.
We’ve come a long way, but we have a long way to go. I still deeply
believe that this movement is still only beginning to realize its potential
to shape the world for the better.
Thank you for supporting me and this organization as we work to help
this movement continue to blossom.
Keep being awesome!
Tony Bacigalupo
Director, Open Coworking
9/17/16

3. The mission
Support and advocate for the
healthy growth of the global
coworking movement
As millions of people make the inevitable migration away
from traditional employment and towards increasingly
independent work lives, the need for new support
systems only continues to grow.
Coworking is emerging as a unique and critical piece of
infrastructure to support this new workforce’s needs.
Without active maintenance and guidance, however, this
decentralized movement runs the risk of going adrift.

4. The organization
Founded in 2012 by Jacob Sayles of Office Nomads
in Seattle, Open Coworking was established at a time
when coworking was starting to mature from a nascent
movement to an increasingly established industry.
Concerned that the core values that make coworking the
incredibly special and impactful thing that it is could get lost in
the increasingly business-focused conversations, the newly formed
organization resolved to do whatever it could to preserve the
original spirit of the movement as it continued to grow and evolve.
To date, Open Coworking has worked to achieve this mission by
ensuring that the decentralized online resources powering the
movement remain online and in working condition.
Now, Open Coworking seeks to go much further to not just
maintain but improve these resources and to develop active
campaigns to more fully realize the movement’s potential.

5. What we did
We gave several of our platforms a
much-needed refresh, learned where
our biggest challenges lie, and identified
where the biggest opportunities for
impact await.

6. We redesigned
coworking.com.
A critical entry point for people interested in learning
more about the movement, coworking.com (and
coworking.org) were previously very basic sites with
outdated designs.
• Modern design
• Clear links to the main resources
• Information about the core values
• An introduction to the history of the movement
• Links to new pages outlining core details about the
movement

7. We cleaned up the
Coworking Wiki.
• Collapsed sidebar on mobile
• Ensured site didn’t exceed a maximum width
(it looks a lot better)
• Aligned the branding with our other sites
• Updated the home page content
• Updated sidebar links
• Removed outdated pages
• Approved access for new editors
• Created a template for city pages
• Conducted wiki spruce-up sessions, where local
volunteers updated their city’s pages

8. We redesigned and reengineered
the Coworking Blog.
• Using a more modern, cleaner design, the new
Coworking Blog theme is easier to use, more visually
pleasant, and ready to become a content platform for
the movement.
• Overhauled navigation makes it easier to find the most
important resources
• New introductory pages give people critical background
into the movement’s origins and foundations
• Multi-Language support means pages, posts, and
eventually directory pages can be created in any dialect.
• A new directory plugin paves the way for a data-driven
directory of spaces and communities

9. We built a site for
our organization.
Previously, we had a single page text-only site that
provided little information.
Now, we’ve got a fully functional site that introduces
people to the movement and shows them how to get
involved.

10. We raised some money.
$5,600 in annual pledged contributions from 28 sup-
porters is a big jump from what we’d had previously.
While it’s not enough for us to hire dedicated staff, it
has been a critical lifeline that’s helped make it possible
for us to do all the work you see here and more.
Our hope is to build on this support, so we can grow our
impact moving forward.

11. Where we’re headed
The next generation of coworkers are in comm-
unities of all shapes and sizes, all over the world.
We want to make our movement easy for them
to find, regardless of where they are or what
language they understand.
We also want to make the Coworking Visa, one of
the movement’s greatest assets, more accessible
to hosts and travelers alike.

12. Refresh the
Coworking Visa
program.
The Coworking Visa is being used informally by hundreds of
coworking spaces around the world to facilitate connections
between coworkers everywhere.
It helps to reinforce and perpetuate the collaborative and open
sharing spirit that originally made the movement so special.
Right now, however, joining and administering it is painful
and confusing.
With just the right amount of thought and effort, we can build
on what exists to make a Visa program that will make it even
easier for others to join and participate in.

13. Reach the next
billion coworkers.
All of the resources we’ve developed have been
tremendously valuable in reaching and helping the many
who have been curious to learn more about coworking and
the roots of the movement behind it.
Now, as we look ahead to those who will be discovering
coworking in the years to come, one thing becomes very
obvious: they’re not all English speakers!
To that end, we’ll continue the steps we’ve taken to
connect people to resources in their native language, so the
movement can connect with those already doing good work
in areas where English isn’t the way people communicate. In the past 5 years, the Coworking Wiki has been visited by people whose
browsers identify them as speaking over 200 different languages.
Currently, however, nearly all content is written in English.

14. Reimagine a global
coworking directory.
The Coworking Wiki is home to a directory of thousands of spaces
in hundreds of cities, making it one of the most comprehensive
compendiums of coworking anywhere.
By virtue of being a wiki that’s evolved organically without much
supervision for so many years, however, it’s also also unfortunately
one of the most outdated and messy such directories you can find.
Overhauling it is a daunting task. To abandon it altogether would be
to give up a resource that still reaches thousands of people every
month, so a clever new approach must be forged.
We’ve worked to lay the foundation for this shift, and hope in the
coming year to crack the formula to finally help this directory take
the generational step it must.
A new approach to the directory, using the Coworking Blog’s existing
WordPress platform, could provide easier administration and visual
consistency, as well as multi-language support.
We can also emphasize not just coworking spaces, but Meetup groups,
alliances, events, and other ways of accessing the movement.

15. The coworking movement is here to stay.
If you’re reading this, then chances are good that coworking
has already changed your life in a deeply meaningful way.
As coworking continues to transform industries, the extent to
which the spirit of the original movement lives on to inspire
new leaders will depend on the ability of groups like ours to
make what we and those who have come before us have done
visible to others.
We’re here to ensure the story keeps getting told.
Thank you for your support.
Let’s keep doing good work together!
Where is goes from here is up to us to shape.

16. Thanks to you, our supporters.
Institutional Supporters
Alex Hillman, Indy Hall • Jonathan Markwell, The Skiff • Seats2meet
Supporters
Ali Usman • Angel Kwiatkowski • Anne Zannos • Argentina Flores • Ashley Proctor • Carly Nix • David Brühlmeier •
Etincelle Coworking • Jacob Sayles • Jonathan Wegener • Kali Mincy • Kaylyn Gelata • Matthia Weimann • Melissa
Saubers • Melissa Geissinger • Michael Stingl • Miguel Wong • Mike LaRosa • My Office & more • Paige Calvert •
Paul Gould • Perttu Salovaara • Oren Salomon • Ramon Suarez • Scott Tillitt • Susan Dorsch • Ten Thousand Things
Founding Supporters – 2012 to 2015
All Systems Grow! Corp. • Andrew Cole • Andrew Jones • Anthony Bacigalupo •Ariel Tiger • Aurelio Balestra •
Brilliant Fantastic • Bull City Coworking • The Centre for Social Innovation • Daria Siegel • Doug Marinaro • Envato
Pty Ltd • Geoff Mamlet • Green Spaces, LLC • Hub Seattle LLC • Jennifer Mincar • Jennifer Moon • Jennifer Vincent •
Joel Bennett • Kaan Aksay • Kido Technologies Pte Ltd • Laura Koehn • Loren Tripp • Matthias Wiemann • Neal
Gorenflo • NextSpace • Not Bad Design LLC • Patricio Victorica • Stephen Franks • Steven King • Susan Evans • The
Roosevelt Center for Working Parents • Thilo Utke • Union Square Main Streets • UnitCase LLC • William Jacobson

17. Not a supporter yet? Help us out!
http://patreon.com/coworking
Or contact Tony Bacigalupo at
tony@opencoworking.org