Photo: Swansea Photographer
5 March 2012
Hi. I’m Carlo. I’m a writer and Managing Editor at Matador, an online publication that publishes writing on travel culture: people, place, culture, history, politics, social critique, and spirituality. We have over 1.6 million unique visitors per month. We also run an online school that teaches travel writing, photography, and filmmaking. It’s called MatadorU.
I moved to Nelson in October, 2010 and work mostly from my home. More specifically, from a small desk in the corner of my bedroom. Having a bed two feet away from one’s workspace is not ideal (nor is spending the entire day in sweatpants). I get out of the house a few days per week for a few hours; I work in a cafe (Grounded or John Ward) to have the feeling of being around people, even if I don’t talk with them.
I worked in a corporate office for over 10 years. While I vow to never do that again, I do miss the camaraderie of a team: playing pool during lunch hour, turning in my seat to crack a joke to a colleague, going for coffee with my friend on the fifth floor.
This independent working lifestyle seems to get harder to take as time goes on. I have regular Skype meetings with my virtual team members, I use Twitter and Facebook for social media promo and to interact with other people, but, I’m sure you know, this is no substitute for real life, face-to-face interaction.
Do you feel the same way?
I have a feeling that there are others like me in Nelson, BC. I don’t really know what I’m proposing, but I’d like to find you and open up a discussion about what we can do about it. Maybe it’s as simple as sharing a table in a cafe. Maybe, if the group is big enough, it could be renting a space part time. I don’t know. But if you’re out there and you get what I’m putting down, please drop me a line at carlo (at) vagabonderz (dot) com.
I’ve also set up a Facebook group (of course). It’s called the Nelson Independent Workers Collective. Join the group; hopefully we can meet up! 
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Love this idea, Carlo! Good luck.
(Here in Whitehorse, I find it helps me to schedule coffee/tea breaks with my office-worker friends – gets them out of the office, gets me out of the house.)
Thanks Eva! Stage 2 of my plan involves posting flyers around town with little tear-off tabs that has a link to this post
Good idea! What about working out of coffee shops as well? They naturally attract freelancers and the sort anyway..
Yep…we already use a cafe as an unofficial meeting place. It’s what works for now! Until a big enough group wants to commit to opening a dedicated space. FYI, the group is now up to 15 members…after we got some press coverage in the local papers and radio station.