Try a Coffee Shop

Jessica Clark reports on a bizarre new trend sweeping the ranks of those lacking traditional office arrangements:

For $25 a day (or $175 a month for a 3 day/week commitment), you can drop into the space, use the wireless, meet with clients in the small glassed-in conference room, and, often, find folks to grab a drink with afterward. The feel is part dorm lounge, part ad agency and part cybercafe, and it's a hit.

Kay Steiger from whom I got the link seems to think this is a good idea. But why not just do what everyone I know in DC does when they need a neither-office-nor-home place to work and . . . go to a coffee shop (or "cybercafe")? If there isn't a good free wifi hotspot in your neighborhood, you could always just sign up for a T-Mobile account for $40 a month (or, even better, $360 a year) and go to your local Starbucks or Borders. Or get AT&T for $20 a month and use it at McDonalds or Barnes & Noble. Indeed, you could easily get both for less than $125 a month.

Photo by Flickr user dnorton used under a Creative Commons license