Hive – Up In The Air edition

You’ve heard me spout on about how joining the Hive as a member links you to a community of like-minded people.  But, the Hive does more than that; it offers you an international network.  Through the Coworking Visa program, members of one coworking space can work at another coworking space for free.  With approximately 100 participating coworking spaces worldwide, this means, when traveling you have an opportunity to check out a new space, meet some new people, and get down to work for free.

The Coworking Visa program really epitomizes what coworking is all about.  The five core values of coworking are collaboration, openness, community, accessibility, and sustainability.  The Coworking Visa program is remarkable because it’s self-governing.  No one oversees it, the site is maintained on the Wiki (http://wiki.coworking.info/CoworkingVisa) where each space can sign itself up and set its own restrictions for usage.  All spaces agree to offer three free days to each individual, and from there, each space can make its own arrangements.  People can look on the Wiki to find a space located in their visiting city and contact info to give the space a heads up about their visit.

Already at the Hive we’ve had several people utilize the Visa program.  In addition to the luxury of being able to travel and utilize other spaces, it’s also great to have out of town visitors come in and work for the day.  They shed light on their industry, city, and home coworking space.  Here at The Hive we’ve already had people come in from New Orleans and from across the pond.

So remember Hive members: traveling for work?  Need a place to get some work done between meetings?  Check out the Coworking Visa wiki page and learn where you can plug in and meet some cool people.