Desks Near Me - find great coworking places to work at

http://desksnear.me/

by pufuwozu • 16 years ago

88 76 16 years ago

desksnear.me

ojbyrne• 16 years ago

I don't think the Rails Rumble is actually in Earth, Texas (as the map shows) ;-)

warren_s3• 16 years ago

I blame Google!

alexeckermann8• 16 years ago

I blame it on the boogie.

bjeanes9• 16 years ago

Haha yeah we know. Unfortunately the first bug we've discovered is that editing the address doesn't update the coordinates :)

We can't deploy again until voting closes but the fix is being committed already.

Luckily it's fairly minor!

dqh• 16 years ago

Great! As someone who floats from cafe to bedroom to cafe throughout the week, this is a service i have been looking for. Impressed that you already have a location in Melbourne, Australia in your database, i'll probably go check them out.

warren_s3• 16 years ago

It's because we're from Australia :)

robryan• 16 years ago

Definitely worth checking out inspire9.

niallsmart• 16 years ago

Also see loosecubes.com.

DamonOehlman2• 16 years ago

Looks good too, but I think the guys have captured some of the social elements better with @desksnearme - additionally the availability rollover in desks is awesome.

danac• 16 years ago

Nice to see more than one team rolling with the idea. May be best one emerge victorious.

DamonOehlman2• 16 years ago

Nice work guys - this is excellent. Site feels awesome, and I will definitely be using it rather than having to put a shoutout on Twitter to find coworking spaces.

Great idea. Excellent execution.

aaronbrethorst• 16 years ago

Nice site, and I'd like to add the coworking space I work at, but...I don't own it. It looks like adding it presupposes ownership of the space.

warren_s3• 16 years ago

Currently, it does, but we are discussing/planning the ability to add locations you don't own in a later release.

dannyr3• 16 years ago

I like it. Actually, I'm looking for a desk to work at in Buenos Aires for the next 3 weeks. The cafes here are very busy and noisy.

I wonder if AirBnB will enter this category since they are a "marketplace for space".

liamk• 16 years ago

You beat me to it! I was just going to comment that this was the office version of AirBnB! Hopefully there will be some Toronto additions.

prawn• 16 years ago

A few weeks ago I was wondering about AirBnB for offices. Wasn't sure if it would be massively successful, but thought it might make a quality side project. Good to see someone's built it and their execution is decent.

andreshb• 16 years ago

RE: Workspaces in Buenos Aires. Have not used them, but went to an event hosted there, and it was a very nice place. http://areatresworkplace.com/en/services/areadesk/

Also just found this online: http://coworking.pbworks.com/CoworkingBuenosAires

RE: Airbnb, I think they have a lot of work left in just living space to keep them focused for a long time in that.

rubyrescue• 16 years ago

I have an office with some space but mostly i'd just like to meet other HN'ers while you're here - email me (email is in my profile)

gridspy• 16 years ago

I've added Gridspy (be fun to have a companion) http://desksnear.me/workplaces/87-gridspy-office

_delirium• 16 years ago

Price would be useful to have. It looks like the front page asks non-free spaces to mention that clearly in the description, but browsing through, the descriptions are pretty vague on that. Clicking through to the sites, it looks like they range from a person or small company with some spare desks they're willing to let you use free, to dedicated commercial spaces charging $20-30/day to rent. Those are pretty different categories, and I doubt I'd normally be looking for both simultaneously.

bjeanes9• 16 years ago

We completely agree. We are currently discussing the best way to do this

newman314• 16 years ago

Also, please show number of desks available at the "at a glance" page. http://desksnear.me/workplaces

Right side can be reformatted to present more information.

So something like "20 @ $30" would be useful.

bugsy3• 16 years ago

OK, this web site has a terrible terrible interface. It uses these nonstandard recessed ovaloids and SOME of them are text fields and others are buttons that take you to other pages. It also tries to establish a HTML5 database without letting me know why.

bjeanes9• 16 years ago

what buttons/links are you talking about exactly?

Nothing sets up an HTML5 database, but it does ask use geolocation if your browser supports it

bugsy3• 16 years ago

"The website “http://desksnear.me” is requesting 1 MB of disk space to store “html5 test db” as a database on your disk."

WORKPLACES, SIGN IN and Search By city or address all use novel UI elements of thinly recessed semi-transparent ovaloids, or let's call them extreme rounded rectangles. One is a text field and others are buttons.

jasonkester5• 16 years ago

Why is this getting downvoted? It's honest criticism, with actionable things the site owners can do to make their thing better. Just because it's negative doesn't mean it's uncalled for.

jessriedel2• 16 years ago

I agree with you, but he could have been more polite than "terrible terrible", especially considering that site is 48 hours old.

joshuacc• 16 years ago

Phrasing your feedback in a more friendly way will probably result in a better experience for you. For instance:

"I found it a bit confusing that the nav buttons and search box look really similar. Perhaps you could consider restyling them? Also, I keep getting a message from my browser that the site is trying to establish an HTML5 database. Could you explain why? The site doesn't appear to need the database for any of the functionality I've seen."

taelor_rb2• 16 years ago

great idea for a site. good luck in the rumble!

taelor_rb2• 16 years ago

one thing, it did take me a second to figure out where i could upload a picture.

i kept naturally thinking it would be someone in the workplace edit page. Maybe a link from that page would be nice.

keithpitt5• 16 years ago

Good idea! It's on the list.

riffic2• 16 years ago

Little known secret: libraries and hotel lobbies are great coworking locations for little to no cost.

bjeanes9• 16 years ago

that's true but a lot of the time you don't care about the location as much as about being around other people.

riffic2• 16 years ago

and sometimes you just want peace and quiet to get work done. it's all about appropriate context really.

doug11235• 16 years ago

The search function does not work for me. I typed in 'Baltimore' and received zero results. But when I browsed the listings I came upon Beehive Baltimore ( http://desksnear.me/workplaces/32-beehive-baltimore).

alexeckermann8• 16 years ago

Hey. We are onto this right now. Just having some issues with using a Google API service and request limits. Team Skype call is underway :)

mickeyben2• 16 years ago

Is it an issue with the geocoding limit ? if so why don't you geocode client-side ?

alexeckermann8• 16 years ago

Just a note to anyone visiting the site. We are currently having issues with the mass demand of visits and going over our Google API request limit.

Currently in a team Skype call trying to resolve the issue. You can still see all the workplaces available via the "Workplaces" link. Search and creating workplaces are the pages that are affected.

Thanks to everyone for checking us out. We will keep @desksnearme updated with the progress.

Cheers.

alexeckermann8• 16 years ago

We are back online and ready to take your search queries. But dont all geocode at once ;)

kuldeep_kap• 16 years ago

Great initiative! AirBnB for desks is really needed. Would be great to choose one day where I'd like to work :)

I think a lot of works needs to be done on UI. You don't need location from browser, you can just show desks within my city (get that from ip). And no facebook connect?

Watch how AirBnB did it. Start slow and from few cities then generalize it to other.

Good Luck!

jasonkester5• 16 years ago

Please please please, let me create an account without having to jump through silly hoops like OpenID or Twitter. Your little website just isn't compelling enough for me to do that.

I want to try it though, just to give you some feedback. Please let me create a simple login so that I can do so.

alexeckermann8• 16 years ago

Yup we will be expanding the site soon. We built the site in 48 hours for the Rails Rumble competition. We kept it light as we could. After the judging and voting we will be adding in more features and options for login :)

Although we think using Twitter or OAuth is the easiest way. 1 Auth and your email address, thats it.

Thanks for your feedback.

jasonkester5• 16 years ago

How could implementing OpenID and OAuth for Twitter be faster to implement than a User table? Certainly you've built web apps before, and therefore have a login workflow that you can rip out and drop into a new site in the first 5 minutes of development?

One other thing you're missing is that as a new user of your thing, I don't trust you enough to hand across my twitter username or openID. I'm more than happy to create a throwaway account with you, but you're certainly not going to get any information that links my profile with you with my profiles elsewhere.

In short, you're losing a significant fraction of your potential userbase. Right now, since this is the moment when you've got more exposure than you'll ever have again. Spend 20 minutes getting a user/pass thing implemented right now, before the sun comes up in the US, and you'll quadruple your first-day signups.

tomjen3• 16 years ago

OpenID is easier than having to register for each site.

And you have Gmail right? Then you have an openid account.

jasonkester5• 16 years ago

In what respect? Because you have to type your password twice the first time you use a particular site with your standard throwaway user/pass combo?

In exchange for that single extra input box, OpenID forces a longer login process every time you use a site. The breakeven point where user/pass starts beating OpenID in terms of convenience happens at visit number two.

mechanical_fish• 16 years ago

I have something like six Google accounts and a couple of Yahoo accounts and a LiveJournal account and three Twitter accounts and a Facebook account and a bunch of other things that come with OpenIDs.

What I don't have is any idea what OpenID I'm supposed to be using for any given service.

I've tried to just pick one, but the other thing I don't have is a desire to share my login history with any of the above sites, or to link my identity on any of those sites with my identity on New Fly-By-Night Site X without at least trying out Site X, and possibly checking its references too.

Something I do have is an automated workflow for handling usernames and passwords.

steveklabnik• 16 years ago

Let me provide an equally anecdotal, opposite preference:

Please please please, don't make me create an account on Yet Another Website. Your little website isn't compelling enough for me to do that. I'd much rather just use my Facebook or Twitter account.

(note, this is actually exactly how I feel, I'm not playing devil's advocate.)

jessriedel2• 16 years ago

I was confused by the button "workplaces". Maybe something more explicit like "completely workplace listing" or "all workplaces"?

bjeanes9• 16 years ago

good idea. I've added it to the list

DannyCooper• 16 years ago

Great idea and nice execution! I can't wait til there is some desks in my area.

bryne3• 16 years ago

There's one location listed in Hollywood, CA, with an address listing of 'hollywood': http://desksnear.me/workplaces/7-fortress-of-solitude

The idea is cute, but I assume there's some kind of QC available for verifying links? Otherwise you're literally begging to be overwhelmed by griefers at this stage.

alexeckermann8• 16 years ago

Yup, Keith created that. Its a test record. Because we created this for a coding competition we need people to be able to judge the site and make bookings without actually making a real life booking.

bryne3• 16 years ago

Oops, I probably could have guessed that from reading your footer :]

Makes sense if it's a submission like that. I really like the idea and would 100% use a service like this were it populated well. Best of luck!

SudarshanP• 16 years ago

Free Co Working Space for Bangalore Hackers

http://www.getr.co/free-co-working-space-for-bangalore-hacke...

kaerast• 16 years ago

Would it be beyond the scope of this to list temporary coworking spaces? For example there's a couple of places in my area that run an open office either weekly or monthly and it might be good to have a listing of those sorts of spaces.

It'd also be good to link in with the coworking visa that a number of coworking spaces are members of. And in fact it'd be good to work more closely with coworking spaces in general via the coworking wiki.

jamesbritt2• 16 years ago

It's almost unusable on my G1, I think because of this:

    <meta name="viewport" 
       content="width=device-width; 
       initial-scale=1.0; maximum-scale=1.0;">

I can't zoom out to properly see the page.

bjeanes9• 16 years ago

Yeah sorry about that. It's a known bug. We've got it on our list and hopefully within a week or so (once voting closes on railsrumble.com) we will be fixing that up

alexeckermann8• 16 years ago

Dude Im sorry about that, my bad. Used the HTML5 Boilerplate and didn't remove it before going live. I feel your pain. Iw anted to do a full mobile skin but time ran out.

jamesbritt2• 16 years ago

NP. It seems something like this would be especially handy on phone if you're out and about and looking for a place to work.

Now I just need coworking places in north Scottsdale :).

Entlin• 16 years ago

There's already a pretty good directory here: http://wiki.coworking.info/Directory

It has none of the comfort features that desknear.me is attempting, though.

bjeanes9• 16 years ago

We've been getting a lot of really great feedback from this site and twitter and we've been taking it all under consideration. Feel free to check out http://blog.desksnear.me for some updates.

And guys, if you love the idea and want to see the site around, please vote for us at http://railsrumble.com/teams/the-rad-warlike-annex when public voting opens on Oct 21! The prizes will keep us alive for a long type!

keithpitt5• 16 years ago

Like the application? Head on over to http://railsrumble.com/entries and vote for us!

Desks Near Me - find great coworking places to work at

Related Stories