Adding new sites should be easier. I get that this is a tradeoff between rapid engagement and trust, but since the project is so new it's vastly more likely that a visitor will want to add something as opposed to successfully looking it up.
Maybe the focus on cities, while great for the lookup scenario, should not play such a big role when adding data points. My suggestion: just open it up, have a form where any member can add a coffee shop, at any location (Google Maps-powered). As site admins you could review the submissions later and sort it out.
For example, I was initially motivated to add some places near me. That's in Germany, so no cities there yet. This means I've got to jump through the hoop of adding a city, at which point any user who was previously excited about adding stuff to the database becomes stranded and loses interest. I would like to add sites in different cities, so technically I would have to open up requests for 3 cities - in a sparsely populated area like Germany that's not feasible. I'm more interested in how far away a location is than what city it is in.
could you just your favorites here ? i was in germany in 2007 and 2010 for a total of 5 weeks and didn't find a single coffee shop that was conducive to working. thinking it's time to go visit friends again ...
This looks really useful! This isn't meant to be a criticism, but I was wondering how your website will overcome the issue of people not wanting to publicize their favorite work spot to prevent overcrowding? Also, from your experiences so far, are cafes happy to have people sit in their shop for extended periods? My impressions are that while some places (cough, nice people in Portland) encourage such behavior, others may not take to campers so nicely.
I would think that places who have wait staff would not appreciate people taking up tables without ordering since it would directly affect their pay. But a coffee shop that does mostly take-out business may not mind so much having the appearance of a busy, popular cafe.
I do think it's good to be mindful that you are utilizing a business's space and facilities, and they are able to provide these to you by selling food and drinks. So you should try to be a courteous customer and support their business.
I've tried to work out of a coffee shops in my hood from time to time and find that, at least on weekends, you have to wake up really early to score a spot in any of the several within reasonable distance. If I ever find my "secret spot" it wouldn't make sense to tell everyone about it, but then again maybe this kind of system could help dissipate that kind of congestion?
Thanks! We've found that people are very willing to share their favorite places in an effort to promote the business. Business owners have welcomed our showcase of their businesses. Most coffee shops and cafes have long periods of slow traffic. Having people come to stay for awhile helps to keep a place busy. We've been told over and over that a "busy shop" is a "good shop".
Hello HN! Workfrom was developed to help people find the best places to get work done. We look at WiFi, access to power, background noise, food options and more. We're expanding to new cities (US and international) and we rely on our community to help hunt down and source places we list. Anyone can add a location via our site. We'd love help finding places and please provide feedback about how we can make this better!
Nice job guys. I appreciate the optionality of having a password. I was also able to successfully use your site with only my phone, which some sites have issues with.
One suggestion, although it's helpful to have Wi-Fi passwords listed, I think your team should confirm with the business before posting it. They might want to be picky about who they give it to. I feel like me asking a coffee shop person for the password is an implicit question of whether it's OK for me to hang out with the laptop for a couple hours, and also gives them the chance to tell me if it's down right now.
Seconded. I was confused by the no password thing at first until I found the link on this page https://workfrom.co/worker that described it. Now I like it.
My thoughts on the matter is that so long as I always have drink/food in front of me (and I'm not purposely taking my time) then I'm probably earning my keep.
I've never been at a cafe that's run out of seats, either.
I would suggest you don't force people to sign up to add a location. I just didn't add Coffee Bar in the mission district because I simply can't be bothered to sign up.
Likewise. Wanted to add hackerspace Metrix:Create Space in Capitol Hill (WA) but even if I used a throwaway it wants me to validate my address. I can't possibly see the reason for this.
Alone, I get distracted easily. Around people, I'm less likely to browse away from work because I don't want to be seen as a slacker.
At home or the office, I get no sense of urgency. At a coffee shop, there's all sorts of time limits: from the draining battery to the feeling that after a few hours my welcome will be overstayed. So stuff needs to get done... rapidly.
When I'm near familiar people, my mind focuses a lot on their voices. When around strangers, it doesn't care; their voices and other sounds blur together into background noise.
I guess you could say that working from coffee shops is one way I "hack" myself into being productive. So I'm not surprised to see others enjoy working there too. But probably not for the exact same reasons. People's motives and preferences vary greatly.
Depends on the work I'm doing. It helps for creative work, but it's more challenging to do basic admin.
Also, the distractions in an office are difficult to block because they all seem relevant to me, which puts me in a constant state of being alert to them. In a coffee shop, I know that the noise is completely irrelevant to me, so it just moves into the background.
I find it better because while it is louder, I can just tune it out, whereas I can't tune out people I know.
If they stand behind me I get the nagging feeling that they might want something even if they don't, and that's way more distracting than a cafe. Even if they're quiet.
I do indeed, its (in part) the ambient noise that makes it so productive. I've even resorted an "ambient noise" mp3 file that I occasionally play in the background when I'm not at a cafe ;)
Price: For example at some places I might recommend there's a "per hour" charge. Examples: The Workshop Cafe in SF is $2 a hour. The Epicenter Cafe in SF gives you passwords that are only valid for 1-2 hours depending on what you buy. The Terminal in Tokyo is $3 per half/hour or $22 max for the whole day but if you buy a $20 yearly membership it's $12 max for the day. They include unlimited soft drinks (soda, coffee, tea).
I didn't see how I would list that stuff on your site.
Another is I'd like to be able to vote or rate, comment. Maybe like Yelp? I just got to LA, one place that was recommended was "Paper or Plastik Cafe" but I didn't find it very friendly to working. At least half the cafe is marked as "No notebooks allowed" and the area where they are allowed is very dark and uninviting. Maybe it used to be more friendly to workers which is why it was recommended a couple of years ago but I wouldn't recommend it now.
It's a great idea. Only suggestion would be to make it easier to add cities and places and let the community report bad places, instead of what seems to be a review-first approach. I'd rather more content (and the ability to add content for my locals right away) than have to go through a "beta" phase to get the city up and running.
My first thought would be if he allows easy delisting or if it would require some form of legal arm twisting. I'm sure that busier places will not be happy with being on the list.
Am I the only one who prefers to work in public libraries? The San Mateo library has plenty of seating/power outlets, a respectable cafe, and free underground parking.
I did this for some time while unemployed but the public libraries here (Seattle) have absolutely awful Internet access. Probably due to the large number of transient people watching... videos.
I'm not sure how useful this would be. Do people willfully drive from work to a coffee shop in order to get work done, and not simply walk to their favorite coffee shop within walking distance? It seems like distance is more the contributing feature than anything else.
It doesn't have to be about professional day-job work alone; for example, I often bike to a coffee shop on weekends to work on my side projects, because it gets me out of my apartment and away from all the distractions therein.
It's down right now, but is this like the hotel wifi rating (http://www.hotelwifitest.com/) that was posted recently? I hope so, I've wasted quite a lot of time in coffee shops with terrible wifi.
That's great! However, I would like to be able to add places without the need to be on site at the time of writing (e.g using a geocoding service like Google Maps API)
Bookmarked for the next time I'm traveling and looking for a place to spend a few hours with my laptop. I might add a few places in Seattle, though my regular place is already there.
[+] [-] Udo|11 years ago|reply
Maybe the focus on cities, while great for the lookup scenario, should not play such a big role when adding data points. My suggestion: just open it up, have a form where any member can add a coffee shop, at any location (Google Maps-powered). As site admins you could review the submissions later and sort it out.
For example, I was initially motivated to add some places near me. That's in Germany, so no cities there yet. This means I've got to jump through the hoop of adding a city, at which point any user who was previously excited about adding stuff to the database becomes stranded and loses interest. I would like to add sites in different cities, so technically I would have to open up requests for 3 cities - in a sparsely populated area like Germany that's not feasible. I'm more interested in how far away a location is than what city it is in.
Also, you should make use of the browser Geo API.
[+] [-] nqzero|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rsync|11 years ago|reply
But I am not creating yet another web login and set of credentials and blah blah blah ... and no, I am not "part of the tribe" (whatever that means).
You shouldn't charge people (in the form of time, energy and mindshare) to give you free content.
[+] [-] noahtkoch|11 years ago|reply
I have a few spots in mind from when I was in Montreal but am currently in Nebraska.
[+] [-] groundhog|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jakejake|11 years ago|reply
I do think it's good to be mindful that you are utilizing a business's space and facilities, and they are able to provide these to you by selling food and drinks. So you should try to be a courteous customer and support their business.
[+] [-] qzxvwt|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] darrenbuckner|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] darrenbuckner|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tedchs|11 years ago|reply
One suggestion, although it's helpful to have Wi-Fi passwords listed, I think your team should confirm with the business before posting it. They might want to be picky about who they give it to. I feel like me asking a coffee shop person for the password is an implicit question of whether it's OK for me to hang out with the laptop for a couple hours, and also gives them the chance to tell me if it's down right now.
[+] [-] ratsbane|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] drivingmenuts|11 years ago|reply
I really have to wonder how the owners feel about all the other people doing exactly the same thing.
[+] [-] robzyb|11 years ago|reply
My thoughts on the matter is that so long as I always have drink/food in front of me (and I'm not purposely taking my time) then I'm probably earning my keep.
I've never been at a cafe that's run out of seats, either.
[+] [-] dhimes|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] canterburry|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] icelancer|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] collyw|11 years ago|reply
Do people actually find it productive to work in a coffee shop? There will be even more distractions and noise than my office.
[+] [-] PedroCandeias|11 years ago|reply
Alone, I get distracted easily. Around people, I'm less likely to browse away from work because I don't want to be seen as a slacker.
At home or the office, I get no sense of urgency. At a coffee shop, there's all sorts of time limits: from the draining battery to the feeling that after a few hours my welcome will be overstayed. So stuff needs to get done... rapidly.
When I'm near familiar people, my mind focuses a lot on their voices. When around strangers, it doesn't care; their voices and other sounds blur together into background noise.
I guess you could say that working from coffee shops is one way I "hack" myself into being productive. So I'm not surprised to see others enjoy working there too. But probably not for the exact same reasons. People's motives and preferences vary greatly.
[+] [-] blowski|11 years ago|reply
Also, the distractions in an office are difficult to block because they all seem relevant to me, which puts me in a constant state of being alert to them. In a coffee shop, I know that the noise is completely irrelevant to me, so it just moves into the background.
[+] [-] crdoconnor|11 years ago|reply
If they stand behind me I get the nagging feeling that they might want something even if they don't, and that's way more distracting than a cafe. Even if they're quiet.
Also, the lack of wifi helps aid concentration.
[+] [-] unknown|11 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] daniel_iversen|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] greggman|11 years ago|reply
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/04/working-...
[+] [-] greggman|11 years ago|reply
Price: For example at some places I might recommend there's a "per hour" charge. Examples: The Workshop Cafe in SF is $2 a hour. The Epicenter Cafe in SF gives you passwords that are only valid for 1-2 hours depending on what you buy. The Terminal in Tokyo is $3 per half/hour or $22 max for the whole day but if you buy a $20 yearly membership it's $12 max for the day. They include unlimited soft drinks (soda, coffee, tea).
I didn't see how I would list that stuff on your site.
Another is I'd like to be able to vote or rate, comment. Maybe like Yelp? I just got to LA, one place that was recommended was "Paper or Plastik Cafe" but I didn't find it very friendly to working. At least half the cafe is marked as "No notebooks allowed" and the area where they are allowed is very dark and uninviting. Maybe it used to be more friendly to workers which is why it was recommended a couple of years ago but I wouldn't recommend it now.
[+] [-] maknz|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _pmf_|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eps|11 years ago|reply
My first thought would be if he allows easy delisting or if it would require some form of legal arm twisting. I'm sure that busier places will not be happy with being on the list.
[+] [-] icedog|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] icelancer|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] k__|11 years ago|reply
The "Landesbibliothek" in Stuttgart has real office desks with outlets and wifi. And since I'm a student, I get it all for free.
It's also a nicer atmosphere than in coffee shops. Way less foot traffic and most of the people are silent. Also, noone expects me to buy anything...
[+] [-] hadoukenio|11 years ago|reply
This was always an idea in the back of mind to do. I'm glad someone else did it for me :)
Best of luck.
[+] [-] darrenbuckner|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dustintran|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aaronem|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mayneack|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] darrenbuckner|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Phogo|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|11 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] srom|11 years ago|reply
I suppose it is a way to avoid spam though.
[+] [-] egypturnash|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] peteretep|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] matthewwiese|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] darrenbuckner|11 years ago|reply