What a difference a hyphen makes: Coworking vs. Co-working
What a difference a hyphen makes.The coworking community is formed by
very mindful folks, and the hyphen debate has been an ongoing one since
the beginning of the movement. My position in this is that the use of
coworking, without the hyphen, benefits us all.
- Why use one word?
The use of a unified brand
helps put the word out about the movement, and it’d be great for us all
to use the same word, but hey, it’s a free world and each of us is free
to call our businesses however we want, right!? Yups. In fact, coworking
relates to many other community types that are called differently:
Hackerspaces, fab labs, usinas, incubators, accelerators, business
centers, and even shared flats could be considered, to certain extent,
coworking communities. We need to be able to embrace diversity, and at
the same time be able to speak with one voice when it really matters
(i.e. when talking with the media or the institutions). - But, is there any real difference?
Co-workers
has been used over the time to define anyone who works with another; a
fellow worker. Skipping the hyphen helps differentiate the two words, as
they don’t mean the same to us. Dictionaries and press manuals, as well
as most auto-correctors, still only recognize the hyphenated version of
the word. But if ‘güisqui’ made it to the dictionary as a Spanish
version of ‘whisky’ I don’t see a problem in trying to catch the
attention of the pros. - Enough philosophy – can we get practical?
Internet,
baby! Have you noticed what happens when you try to use the #co-working
hashtag on Twitter? Meh. It doesn’t work. Do we want to use a word that
needs to be modified to be used in a big social media platform – and my
favorite one? And I also have some figures for you: Coworking, has been
used in twitter over 14k times in the last 30 days – compare it to the
5.7k times ‘co-working’ has been used in the same time and pick your
team – union makes strength!
What do you think? What word are you using in your web and materials?
What are your very own personal reasons to use one or another word?
This is a copy of an entry from: http://cristinasantamarina.com/2013/10/30/what-a-difference-a-hyphen-makes-coworking-vs-co-working/ by Cristina Santamarina
Do you agree? for me the hashtags are enough to convince :) Other related links: http://dangerouslyawesome.com/2008/11/does-coworking-have-a-hyphen/ - by Alex Hillman http://www.deskmag.com/en/coworking-or-co-working-with-hyphen-252 - by deskamg.org
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