Ignition Alley officially opens their doors as Atlanta’s newest coworking facility here in Atlanta.  Other than the opportunity to get out of the house for a change of scenery to do some work, I very much look forward to meeting some of the people I’ve been talking with on Twitter and other social groups for so long now.  Will I actually get some real work done? That remains to be seen.  Probably not on the first day anyways.

For those of you that already know me, you’ve probably already heard me ramble on about how great joining a local coworking group can be for many reasons.  Here are some of them again, just in case you forgot:

1. You’re bored. Wait, isn’t everyone trying to work from home these days? Shouldn’t you be happy that you are in your pajamas until 5pm? Working from home isn’t the goal, the goal is freedom to work when you want and where you want.
2. Twitter and Facebook isn’t social enough. You’ll be amazed at how much better you feel when you actually meet the acquaintances you’ve made on social networks and how much better you will feel.  Getting out of the house, condo, apartment, or parent’s basement will energize you and tickle your brain to be more productive.
3. You need motivation. Consider a coworking space as your personal trainer, or better yet, the people in your boot camp team that depend on you to be there and motivate you to progress further.
4. Have somewhere to schmooze your client. Most nicer coworking spaces provide a conference room and other amenities to which is much better than meeting at Starbucks.  Ignition Alley will soon provide a nice conference room open to any member and their guest(s).
5. Learn new stuff. Almost like osmosis, if you surround yourself by smart people you too will get smarter or at least feel that way. Most coworking spaces, including Ignition Alley, provide routine training courses and impromptu brainstorming sessions started by the community.  Have a few programming or design books laying around you don’t read anymore? Bring them in to the library at Ignition Alley, others are already doing it.

About Ignition Alley

Ignition Alley, Collaborative Space (in progress)

Ignition Alley, located at 696 Somerset Terrace, Atlanta, GA 30306,  is a 6,000 sq ft facility that has 1500 sq ft of collaboration space, 1500 sq ft desk space, and 1500 sq ft downstairs which will be used for training and other purposes when it is ready.  Their ’soft opening’ is Sept 1st followed by a grand opening in the next two weeks.  Some cool features about the space include a screaming fast 20Mbps internet connection.  That’s right, 20Mbps!  Don’t get too excited, that’s not all for the coworkers.  Tim Dorr’s company, A Small Orange, who is funding this operation will be relocating non-conspicuously to a quiet corner of the new space.

When you walk into the collaboration space (on the right side of the building), to your left you will find a dark wall painted with special blackboard paint and a heaping basket of chalk and erasers for members to use.  There will also be a projector throwing it’s image on a specially painted whiteboard wall that makes it easy to annotate on top of the projected image.  Very cool.  The collaborative space, also dubbed the “noisy room” consists mostly of chairs, couches, coffee tables, and also a library of donated books free for members to use.  The desk space in the adjacent room will be the quiet space with desks.

Ignition Alley, Atlanta Coworking Space (in progress)

How Did It Get Started?

Two Georgia Tech graduates, Tim Dorr and Mike Schinkel, have had a passion for quite sometime to create a truly collaborative environment built by the community that doesn’t try to upsell you once you join.  In a recent interview, Mike said “… I’ve been wanting to do this so long I’m having trouble remembering what headed me in the direction.  It was an outshoot of AWE (Atlanta Web Entrepreneurs) and wanting a community space where we wouldn’t be constrained by need for a space in order to schedule and do community events and training.   Plus I wanted to be able to work around lots of smart people without having to hire them all!”

Tim and Mike believe that building a working community at the epicenter of Atlanta will allow Ignition Alley to be a catalyst and major role for the advancement of it’s members personally and professionally.

How Much Does It Cost?

• $35/month – Occasional access – 5 days per month, there won’t be any bouncers at the door regulating this… Unless there needs to be
• $95/month – Unlimited access – Stop in whenever you want.
• $275/month – Dedicated desk – Dedicated desk. They’ll even throw in a custom decal to label your desk!

Ignition Alley, wide open space with huge windows

Members can bring a guest and use the space for meetups, conferences, seminars, training, and more.  Events for-profit will incur a rental fee.  Ignition Alley will also frequently host open houses, free for anyone to drop in and mingle.

If you are interested in becoming a member, visit Ignition Alley to sign up and get all the details or please comment here!

Attention all you lonely designers, developers, entrepreneurs, and general loners out there hiding behind the iridescent glow of your trendy laptops.  Social networking online will only take you so far, it’s time to get out in the sun and go IRL.

By all means, don’t stop using Twitter and Facebook, but if you are using social media for more than just entertainment and occasional stalking there’s a whole new world out there that only humans, not silicon, can cure.

It’s called Coworking. Here’s the fun part, you have most probably done it a few times already just not in an organized environment.  But what is Coworking really and why should you be interested?

First, lets go back a couple years ago to an article in Wired Magazine, that talks about the emerging trend of coworking spaces.   Here we learn where the term, Jelly, comes about and why this is happening all over the world today.  Simply put, coworking fills a need.  The need for others to collaborate and share ideas.  There is much off-time in between work and when someone is immersed in a more productive and team environment, quality of work and new-found opportunities can be substantial enough to be the catalyst to launch new businesses and real products making real money.

Look at it another way.  Ever find yourself sipping that overpriced latte at the nearby coffee house and rolling the dice with a Free WiFi?  Don’t tell me that it’s for the coffee. This social behavior can we viewed as a natural inclination of people wanting, even needing,  that social interaction in order to be more productive.  We all want to be in business for ourselves, but not by ourselves.

What’s the difference between a Jelly and Coworking?

Jellies tend to take place in quaint environments such as kitchens, living rooms, and sometimes offices where Jellygoers typically meet once or twice per week.  This is a great way to get the feel for this whole thing in case you’ve never stepped foot inside a coffee shop with Free Wifi before.  A dedicated Coworking space, run the correct way, is where things can get to be lots of fun.  Coworking spaces across the world that have their doors open for the majority of the working week and preferrably Monday through Friday are popping up around major cities first and making their way to the suburbs.

Who’s doing Coworking where I live? Where do I learn more?

The first place to check out is WorkatJelly.com and then it’s off to the wiki for locating a city near you.  This site is not my favorite for learning more about coworking however and could definitely use a makeover.  Also be sure to check out a great article on Mashable to get you pumped up called, 6 Reasons to Start Coworking.

If you are in Atlanta area, you will want to check out Ignition Alley.  Ignition Alley is an emerging coworking space soon to be permanently located in the Midtown/Ga Tech area to help enable startups incubate in a very cost effective manner.  With a little help from A Small Orange and direction by Mike Schinkel and Tim Dorr, Ignition Alley is sure to be the coworking space in Atlanta to keep your eye on.

So what are you waiting for? If there isn’t a coworking space near you then maybe you should consider starting your own?