The story of Coworking!
Coworking spaces have been the new trend for work for the past few years! Freelancers and entrepreneurs finally had a place to call "office", and even big firms have been renting spaces for their offshore employees, and some small business have made coworking spaces their permanent address.
So how did this concept catch up in the world? And when did it actually start?
Well history says the term "coworking" was actually first used in 1999 by American game designer "Bernie de Koven". Bernie used this term to describe the collaborative work supported by computers and new technologies, but did not link the term to physical spaces.
It was in 2005 that Coworking took the form we know today. Brad Neuberg (who has the credit of starting the first Coworking spaces" started the Hat Factory in San Francisco, which was a place where independent and mobile workers could work together in a casual environment.
The next few years saw a rise in the number of coworking spaces. Citizen Space in San Francisco; and Jelly in new work were some of the oldest spaces which started back in 2006. By 2007, there was already 75 spaces operating around the world, and figures started to double on a yearly basis. Coworking started to catch media attention, which contributed to the outbreak of new spaces, and in 2008, almost every major city in America and Europe had its own coworking space.
2009 saw the start of the first chains of coworking spaces in California. In 2010, the "international coworking day" was declared on August 9 (later shortened to Coworking Day" on the anniversary of the first usage of coworking as we know it.
Over the next few years, coworking communities continued to grow around the globe, and more cities joined the trend. Many new chains started and perhaps WeWork is one example that people became familiar with, especially after "the rise and fall of WeWork" was headlined in almost every major newspaper concerned with business and economy.
The concept of "coworking" is still relatively new in Syria, and although many people are now heading to freelancing and remote working in their careers, no dedicated spaces are available and people are forced to use coffee shops as alternatives. Aleppo Startup Khan is the first official coworking space to start operating, and we hope to see more new spaces on the rise in the future!