With encouragement from the oft-mentioned Truman Leung, I’ve gone ahead and created a dedicated Coworking Group on TechHui. The Ning platform is working out very well for interaction and conversation, and given how coworking events and discussions about tech incubators have sprouted up over the past few weeks, it seems like another great way to stoke the flames of coworking in Hawaii.

Truman Leung (of Ascribe Data Systems) has scheduled the next couple of Jelly/Coworking Groups on TechHui. Next week, on Aug. 13, the venue will be Tropical Smoothie Cafe on Piikoi St. near Ala Moana. The cafe has successfully hosted the Jelly/Coworking Group before. On Aug. 20, they’ll meet up at Jupiter Cyber Cafe, located on Kapiolani Blvd. (across from Shokudo).

The tech community in Hawaii — specifically of the startup, entrepreneurial, boostrapping variety — seems to have really come alive in the last year, and suddenly coworking doesn’t seem like such a far off, we’re-no-San-Francisco fantasy anymore.

At TechHui, Truman Leung has successfully organized a couple of “Jelly” sessions. A “Jelly” is traditionally coworking at one participant’s home, but it’s been working well at local cafes. There’s a Jelly Coworking Group to discuss and organize more such meetups. Meanwhile, on the Big Island, Brent Norris is starting a coworking group in Hilo, taking advantage of the Hawaii Innovation Center.

Of course, a conventional coworking space would be a permanent, dedicated, privately operated location where there’d almost always be like-minded folks for conversation and collaboration. But these are a great start!

Perhaps most intriguingly, a friend mentioned to me that the Hawaii Arts Alliance may be developing an initiative that could create a “digital arts space” that could conceivably also work with and for technology groups and companies.  With government support, no less. I’m definitely hoping to learn more about it.

With the Manoa Innovation Center facing possible homelessness, it seems like the perfect time to create a different kind of tech space, a grassroots incubator, a real-world business lab… something more flexible, agile, and fun. Stay tuned!

Lumihana is the so-far fictional name of a so-far fantasy coworking space in Honolulu. The coworking movement aims to create a “cafe-like community/collaboration space for developers, writers and independents.” And these spaces have sprouted up all over the world. Hawaii has a vibrant and growing community of developers, writers, and independents… but so far no place to call home.

This site will document the on-again, off-again, and on-again dream of creating our own HatFactory or Citizen Space. Separately, “Lumi” means room or space, “hana” means work. Together, the word sounds much more elegant and meaningful than this dream probably deserves.

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