The emergence of collaborative workspaces is a remarkable feature of contemporary cities. These spaces have appeared rapidly, catering for the locational needs of self-employed workers, start-ups and small-size companies. The objective of this paper is to provide an analysis of four categories of collaborative workspaces (accelerators, incubators, coworking spaces and FabLabs). For the case of Amsterdam, we conducted a website content analysis to assess how these spaces position and present themselves towards potential users. The empirical evidence shows that these spaces promise a variety of benefits, ranging from business development to access to social networks. This diversity illustrates the emergence of distinct work settings in an economic environment characterised by the need to work in a social environment that at the same time stimulates networking and collaboration.
The emergence of collaborative workspaces is a remarkable feature of contemporary cities. These spaces have appeared rapidly, catering for the locational needs of self-employed workers, start-ups, and small-size companies. The objective of this paper is to provide an analysis of four categories of collaborative workspaces (Accelerators, Incubators, Coworking spaces, and FabLabs). For the case of Amsterdam, we conducted a website content analysis to assess how these spaces position and present themselves towards potential users. The empirical evidence shows that these spaces promise a variety of benefits, ranging from business development to access to social networks. This diversity illustrates the emergence of distinct work settings in an economic environment characterized by the need to work in a social environment that at the same time stimulates networking and collaboration.
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In the fall of 1999, an international integrated product development pilot project based on collaborative engineering was started with team members in two international teams from the United States, The Netherlands and Germany. Team members interacted using various Internet capabilities, including, but not limited to, ICQ (means: I SEEK YOU, an internet feature which immediately detects when somebody comes "on line"), web phones, file servers, chat rooms and Email along with video conferencing. For this study a control group with all members located in the USA only also worked on the same project.
