Outsourcing marketplaces have been a boon for business, especially in tricky economic times. I’ve talked about it in the past, and Naumi has discussed collaboration as a must-have. But the focus with telecommuting and freelance marketplaces has been on the potential for cost savings and the benefit of external expertise, rather than on the freelancers themselves. So what’s it like to be a freelancer or telecommuter without a permanent place to hang your hat?

Some articles I’ve read suggest that these people feel isolated—cut off from the human aspect of a normal office. Recently, Starbucks has marketed itself as a “Third Space“—a location where people congregate as an extension of their broader social activities (home and office are the other two spaces). For people without a conventional office, it seems like these “Third Space” settings move up a notch in their importance, replacing what was normally occupied by their workspace. That explains why there’s a guy in the corner summing columns on a spreadsheet, or a designer laying out the next Amazon hit as you order your skinny latte.

Yes, I’ll bet a you a Coke that there’s a good cross-section of current cubicle farm workers who think yearning for an office space is horse hockey. But having had to do a significant project with some colleagues who moved out-of-town, it was a little lonely using only a wiki and IM. I discovered that, for me, the office back-and-forth was a collaboration tool.

San Francisco, rife with early adopters, understood the phenomenon and created Citizen Space: an work environment where people can cowork. Coworking aims to capture that energy people feel when they’re surrounded by people immersed in their work. Instead of being a demoralizing, library-quiet space, the environment is collegial and café-like. After seeing the photos, collegial reads more like “college study room”. Brainstorming requests from neighbours are met with willingness, which one writer felt created windows of “spontaneous collaboration”.

At Citizen Space, a reserved desk goes for $425 per month, but drop-ins can use their larger tables for free. The requirements? Be a “groovy cat” and “give back to the universe what you receive today”. Not a bad deal.

So instead of staid remote offices, maybe workers without a fixed work address have an outlet for the home office blues. The steps to regaining that “second space”? Be extroverted, be willing to collaborate, and most importantly: don’t bogart the coffee, man.