In March 2009, a group of us met at the offices of UnLtd (the foundation for social entrepreneurs) to talk about "alternative third spaces". This was followed by a meeting at The Hub Islington, one of London's best known co-working spaces. Besides continuing to meet face-to-face, we agreed to create an online network for people interested in this area.

In his invitation to the first meeting, Vinay Gupta defined alternative third spaces as "facilities which are neither office nor cafe nor workshop, but have elements of all three and more". This includes co-working spaces, hack labs, arts spaces, social centres, community cafes and similar uses of space. There has been growing interest in these in recent years - while national and local government is increasingly recognising the role they can play in responding to the current recession.

So this network is for anyone interested in starting such projects, or already involved with them. Hopefully it will give us a space to discuss ideas, funding models and legal structures, and to learn from the success of existing projects.