coworking
n.— «Then an acquaintance told Winard about “coworking.” The idea was simple: A bunch of people—telecommuters, freelancers and anyone else who doesn’t report to work every day—share an office space instead of working alone.» —“Arising Number Of “Coworking” Spaces Bring Freelancers And Other Solo Workers Togethear” by Kiera Butler New York Post May 21, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
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I’m the one who coined this term and created it. It is indeed being used all around the world by a large community of people to refer to shared workspaces that promote a communal aspect. There are coworking spaces in San Francisco, New York City, Paris, and more. See the coworking wiki at http://coworking.pbwiki.com.
Here are some other citations in the mainstream media and blogosphere:
http://coworking.pbwiki.com/MediaCoverage
The word has been slowly growing beyond its traditional community and being used to connote any kind of shared workspace community that consists of independent people doing their own work in a shared context.