Last month we wrote a post about a number of forward-thinking companies and co-working spaces in the US.  Following a conversation I had with some of the folks at Seedcamp (a fantastic programme founded to help the European entrepreneurial community) I learnt that there are a great number of people with pioneering approaches to co-working in Europe too.  This month I decided to focus on Germany and a selection of companies, collectives and websites which should be of interest.

Betahaus
Starting in Berlin, but now with plans for spaces established in Zurich and Lisbon, Betahaus offer an alternative to so-called ‘classic offices’.  Instead, they understand the added value for professionals who work at different times, in a variety of locations, in fast-evolving teams and under temporary contracts.  A Betahaus space intends to be a coffee house, library, home office and campus all at once where entrepreneurs, start-ups and freelancers are propelled to communicate, innovate and produce great work.  They also offer weekly tours of the offices on Tuesdays and Thursdays to introduce prospective co-workers to the facilities.

Coworking Cologne
Coworking Cologne is a club which is working to establish a network of collaborative work spaces across the city and beyond.  Their first co-working space is located within a converted gas engine factory in the Mülheim district of the city and operates via a unique system which sees clients purchase either daily, weekly or monthly tickets to allow them use of the facilities.  As well as facilities such as refreshments and wireless broadband, the building also houses a number of meeting rooms open to a changing schedule of meet-ups, presentations and seminars geared towards inspiration and learning

Hallenprojekt.de
Hallenprojekt (which translates as The Hall Project) is a site, network and directory which has been established with the aim to connect co-working spaces and prospective co-workers across Germany.  Users who log on to the Hallenprojekt website can not only keep up with new and changing co-working spaces and offices available, but can also sign into a virtual part of the site community (much like a miniature Twitter stream) where they can chat, ask questions and network.

Werkheim
The Werkheim project prides itself on being the first co-working workspace in Hamburg and has been open for just a few months.  Despite its relative newness, the office boasts a comprehensive and ever-growing list of facilities and equipment including small and large projection rooms, lounge areas and printing equipment – as well as a lounge and cafe.  The space also operates on a ticketing basis, and welcomes input and ideas direct and via its integral social media presence to ensure the office is as comfortable and useful as it can be for future users.

Inspired by a thread over at readwriteweb.com and our recently announced partnership with Match Office, I decided to devote this post to exploring a range of companies in the US who are doing similar things to us.  After a post titled Co-working Spaces: Building a Startup Community appeared at readwriteweb.com, a number of comments were posted by individuals (us included) eager to share their experiences with specialized and community-based office spaces – and how they had come to establish their own.

I am sure there are many to be found elsewhere, but here are a few that have caught our eye stateside:

With kick-off for the Group A match between South Africa and Mexico just hours away, I couldn’t help but cast my mind back to four years ago and ask myself how different the World Cup experience will be since the social media explosion of Facebook and Twitter et al.  So how will we engage with the World Cup experience in the online context?

The ‘Watching’ Experience

Although we’ve had live online streaming and a degree of interactivity via digital television for a while now, ITV and the BBC (who are both sharing broadcast of World Cup games) have each promised an online viewing experience set to break new ground.

ITV are launching ITV Live, a new service intended to go beyond just live streaming and video highlights of games.  The service is being billed as an online companion to the finals, with dual screen real time stats and chat, as well as in-game voting.  The website will also be home to blogs from the pundits as well as an ongoing updates from a number of fans soaking up the action direct from South Africa.

In addition to the Radio and TV offerings from the BBC, viewers will be able to stream BBC matches live on the website and will be able to catch up on anything they’ve missed on the iPlayer.  Again, the BBC has a number of bloggers eager to discuss daily issues, including John Motson who will be filing reports to the site every day in his own inimitable style.  Motty can also be followed on Twitter here.

The ‘Sharing’ Experience

Alongside Motty, Twitter is set to be a place for fans and viewers to share their opinions on every on-the-pitch and off-the-pitch aspect of the event (dominant hashtags include: #wc2010, #mundial and #sudafrica2010).  Fifa, themselves are doing well to see the benefit of getting involved with their own twitter stream, while a number of newspapers have launched their own World Cup 2010 streams to make sure we all keep updated (see below).

Curiously, a link to the official Twitter stream is surprisingly difficult to find at FIFA.com – and the same can be said for the official Fifa World Cup Sudafrica 2010 Facebook group.  However, once you do find it, it’s good to see that Fifa are making the most of this channel too, earning themselves more than 60,000 fans who are getting involved with the content even before the event has begun.

YouTube is likely to be a place where fans will post up videos of goals and other moments during the course of World Cup 2010, and you’d expect Fifa to be well ahead of the game by directing viewers to their own official channel.  The closest you get, however, is the Coca Cola channel which features no football content aside from a promo for their latest competition.  On the positive side, the competition does invite fans to submit their own content in order for the chance to win game tickets.

However, in the build-up to the finals, YouTube is arguably best being utilized by a large number of musicians eager to make it big with their World Cup songs this year.  Be sure to check out videos from Harpers Heroes, iKid and Shuttleworth to get into the spirit of things(!)

The ‘Extra Stats’ Experience

Stat-finding during World Cup 2010 is sure to be an even more pleasurable and online-centric experience than it has been in the past.  Infographics such as the Match Planner at Marca.com and the RIA Novosti Jabulani diagram are just the tip of the iceberg.  The former is a calendar and match-planner which makes me wonder how we ever survived with the humble wall-chart of yesteryear, while the latter is a fantastic exploded diagram of the official world cup football – the Jabulani.

Expectedly, newspapers with their fingers on the online pulse such as The Guardian and The Telegraph will be making the most of their content when it comes to online, each with their own dedicated World Cup 2010 sub-areas.  Social media will be a major player for both of the above, but The Guardian’s own unique Fans’ Network and The Telegraph’s special World Cup iPhone app are just some examples of how the two are going even farther to keep the stat-hounds happy.

The ‘Business’ Experience

Businesses are getting in on the online action too.  Aside from Coca Cola’s YouTube orientated competition, their Trophy Tour page shows the amazing journey the trophy has made across South Africa and the World.  The Cup’s other major sponsor, McDonalds, has decided to launch its own online Fantasy Football game, whilst a number of awesome virals have hit the web from other companies such as Nokia (check out their awesome Table Football ad) and Nike.

Let us know of any more awesome World Cup 2010 social media stuff in the comments below!

UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) and Match Office have become the latest high-profile names to become partners with Lemon Studios.

UKT&I is the government organisation which helps British companies operate on an international level and works to attract foreign investment to the UK. Their choice to work with the Lemon Studios community is a logical and exciting one. And our new partnership will no doubt be set to benefit the forward-thinking and fast growing companies on our list of clients currently based in Clerkenwell, London – including Clickback, Taptu and Style Foundry.

Additionally, Match Office is a Danish firm who also specialize in serviced office spaces across Europe. The company is supported by the Danish Embassy, and in keeping with a growing trend which sees London as a viable city for investment from foreign companies, they are adding Lemon Studios as a key recommendation to both start-up and more developed businesses who are eager to expand to the UK capital.

These new partners come at a time when we are seeing continuing high demand for our unique and specialized workspaces. Enquiries have increased by 50% on last year and there is now a two-month waiting list for deskspace. Subsequently, Lemon Studios has doubled capacity with a long-term view to open further offices in Shoreditch, Old Street, Soho and Southbank – offering a total of 1,000 workstations across London.

In short, despite all of the digital marketing and communications channels now available to entrepreneurs, we’ve witnessed a real return to old fashioned networking. We organise regular networking sessions for our tenants but there is also plenty of ad-hoc collaboration in the office, including a tenants’ intranet, and socialising after work over a pint.

Since the establishment of the company in 2005, the need for expansion which has truly come to a head in 2010 has also been partly attributed to our flexibility and transparency – while in the past other such companies have been more keen to lock fledgling clients into long contracts with additional fees. Within our offices we have noticed a real openness and willingness to share ideas and know-how, and half of all tenants are currently undertaking business together.

Being chosen to partner up with UKTI and Match Office is testament to the fact that we are thinking differently about how 21st Century workspaces should be run.

It seems like only yesterday when discussions of tomorrow’s workplace would focus on the fast-learning Y Generation in an age of remote working and a strange world that is always connected.  Yet, over the next few years a new crop of graduates will be becoming our colleagues, and will have a different view of the digital age and the workplace that is set to come afterwards.

These individuals, ideally called Generation Z (in keeping with studies as far back as the 50s and 60s which established post-war youngsters as Generation X), are individuals who have never really known the world without the internet.  According to Australian social researcher Mark McCrindle this means they view the web not as a productivity solution or tool, as the majority of those born before do, but instead as a strata of everyday life and thus: ‘how they express themselves and…how they define themselves.’

This observation is all the more intriguing when noting that the oldest of Generation Z were aged 15 when YouTube was launched and when Rupert Murdoch bought MySpace.  They were barely into double figures when Google really took off.  However, these youngsters – some of which are already two years into their university degrees – may not be as keen to enter the digital/social workplace as we might expect.

This is the opinion of journalism lecturer and blogger Roy Greenslade.  He identifies that while today’s students may be “digital natives” (or “naturals” as McCrindle would describe them), it is tangible and traditional (and secure?) “old media” that they really want to get involved in after university – because, amongst other reasons, this is the path taken by those who have made it before them.

The interest of Generation Z in ‘old media’ highlights some further questions of tomorrow’s workplace and those who will work in what some are calling The “Post-Digital” Age.  At the very least, we are perhaps anticipating more of a marriage between traditional and 21^st Century tools and practices, such as the need for face to face collaboration and a physical community to ensure a productive team, no matter how digital or electronic the final outcome is.  Of course this is something that we at Lemon Studios are very interested in; it’s our reason for being.

Yet, as for those who will staff tomorrow’s workplace, Greenslade’s observation highlights a great degree of foresight on the part of today’s youngsters.  After all, as opposed to simply knowing the next big digital thing, it will no doubt be the skill of adaptability between old and new media, and having a clear knowledge of both which will really benefit those set to make it in the “Post-Digital” workplace.

As major retailers launch their own mobile friendly websites, and with mobile commerce tipped to be more significant than mobile advertising as a market driving force, shopping through our phones was always set to be a major trend.  But just how important is mobile commerce in terms of shaping the mobile touch web?

Recent research from our friends at Taptu who have a base here in Lemon Studios,  goes into great detail into how the mobile touch web is changing.  As of the end of April 2010 the number of mobile touch web sites hit 440,100, up 35 percent from 326,600 at the end of December.  This figure even astounded Taptu themselves, as the annual growth rate of 232 percent signals a total of around 1.1 million mobile touch web sites by the end of 2010 – a far bigger prediction than that of 500,000 made earlier in the year.

As for the number of touch-friendly sites recorded by the end of April, a 22.1 percent majority are commerce sites (categorized as ‘Shopping & Services’ by Taptu), with the second biggest piece of the mobile touch web pie being taken by sites of a Government & Non-Profit nature with seven percent of the share.  Within the Shopping & Services category, Businesses & Brands such as Siemens, Yellow Pages and Ikea dominate with 9.5 percent, while Auto and Web Design are close behind with 6.8 and 6.7 percent share respectively.

The report highlights that whilst commerce sites are driving the growth of the mobile touch web sector, this trend is not entirely surprising.  After all, many businesses and brands are seemingly savvy enough to know that if they spend the same amount of time and money on apps for either iPhone or Android then they are potentially neglecting a significant portion of consumers – and a good number of prospective customers.

Despite this, the number of iPhone and Android apps are continuing to grow too, though at varying rates.  By April 2010 there were 185,000 apps available in the Apple App Store, signalling an annual growth rate of 144 percent.  Yet, the Android Store is seeing a faster growth than both Apple and the mobile touch web with a recorded annual rate of 403 percent – with 35,947 apps available at the end of April.

The Taptu research comes at a time when a number of high profile companies are launching mobile touch web sites as opposed to branded shopping apps.  Marks & Spencer are the latest to make this move, with their new mobile-friendly site boasting a simple quick-loading home page, easy-navigation to categories and a practical store finder.  Subsequently, in terms of UK retailers, Marks & Spencer are something of pioneer in terms of embracing the mobile touch web.  Though, with their high profile move to do so, and the latest research showing just how important commerce sites are to this fast-growing sector, it will certainly be interesting to see who will follow in their footsteps and how the sector will look at the end of the year.

Just like every other tech fanatic out there, we can’t wait to get ourselves an Apple iPad.  So Lemon Studios has done what every self-respecting business would do and gone and pre-ordered ourselves an iPad.  However, we’re going to do something a bit crazy with our iPad, we’re going to give it away to someone next month.

As Lemon Studios has just doubled in size by taking on more space in our building, we’re looking for new companies to join our digital community here in Clerkenwell.  And if anyone helps us to find the right people to join our community, we’re going to return the favour and give away an iPad.

So here’s how it works (it’s pretty simple):

• You recommend Lemon Studios to your friends and colleagues who work in tech, media, creative, digital marketing industries and tell them about the new floor that we have.
• You tell us that you’ve recommended someone and we’ll log it in our little black book of Ipad winners
• Come end of June, we see who as an individual is responsible for the most new signed up tenants at Lemon Studios and we give our iPad to the lucky (but well deserved) individual.

Come on, you know you want an iPad ;) It could be yours by simply firing off a few emails, spreading the word on a social network, or simply slipping Lemon Studios into your conversations down the pub!

Get in touch with Jodie if you want to win an iPad next month!

We have some exciting developments taking place at Lemon Studios. Having maintained consistently high occupency levels and with a growing waiting list we have taken on more office space in Clerkenwell and doubling what we have to offer.

Doors open for the new office on Tuesday 5th May but keep checking back for more information on how the space is developing…..

To kick start the new year we have a new addition to the office, Taptu joined us on the 4th January. 

Leading, independent mobile retailer Phones 4U has chosen Communicator Corp to manage its customer email-marketing communication and to develop segmented, sales-driven, online campaigns that drive traffic to its website. In addition, by integrating its acclaimed Communicator® platform with Phones 4u’s existing CRM system, Communicator Corp will manage the collection and updating of online customer data.

For more info go to Communicator Corp