Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Twitter sets up shop in Detroit coworking space

Coworking, we?ve reported, is moving out from its community-focused roots as larger organizations explore ways they can apply the principles of the movement to boost innovation. And apparently, Twitter has gotten the memo on coworking 2.0, because when the company moved in to Detroit to boost their efforts to sell ads to car companies, where did they set up shop? In a coworking space.

The latest Twitter satellite office will make its home in a coworking space in the historic M@dison Building, a redesigned former theater that sells itself as ?industrial chic? and is home to a handful of other startups. The move puts Twitter in interesting company with a small band of forwarding thinking companies applying the coworking concept, Shareable reports, citing examples from across the pond:

Twitter is only the latest in a small but powerful group of corporations that are dabbling in coworking.?Mozilla recently opened its new ?Moz Space? in London, welcoming?both Mozilla staff and visitors who need a place to work. Also in London, Google recently opened the doors of its start-up incubator, called ?Campus,? which?will serve as a ?coworking and events space.?

Here in the U.S. always innovative Zappos is also experimenting with coworking in Las Vegas. But being down with coworking isn?t the only way Twitter is bang on trend with the move. Detroit, long more of a cautionary tale of everything that can go wrong with a city, is now in the midst of a renaissance of sorts, attracting tech start-ups and incubators, as well as urban hipsters looking for cheap housing and a scene on the upswing, according to the New York Times. ?We?re happy to play a role in downtown Detroit?s digital renaissance,? Twitter president of global revenue Adam Bain said.

Will we see many more companies jumping on the coworking bandwagon in the future?

Image courtesy of Flickr user magerleagues.

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