Does coworking have a hyphen?
Some would say, “Tomato, Tomato, Potato, Potato, Let’s call the whole thing off”. But the coworking “brand” is undeniably powerful at this point in time. International press, global community growth, and an extremely devoted collection of leaders helping continue to drive things forward.
UPDATE: Stef Lewandowski found a Wordie entry from coworking’s coiner, Brad Neuberg. So there you have it.
So from that “brand recognition” perspective, I don’t think I’m out of line for desiring consistency. The problem? “Coworking” is not in the dictionary, nor is it in most spell check. So when reporters - who tend to be the guiltiest of adding the hyphen - go through their editorial process I’m not surprised when “coworking” gets corrected to “co-working”.
That still doesn’t excuse it. Think of it as a proper name - just because my name isn’t in the dictionary doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be upset if you misspelled it!
I’ve ranted and raved about this on twitter, the coworking google group, and mostly in person (those rants are the most animated, I assure you). This weekend I decided to do something.
Step one: launch a website addressing the issue.
Enter http://doescoworkinghaveahyphen.com/
Sure, it’s a tounge in cheek and shameless ripoff of the now infamous IsTwitterDown.com made by Ryan King. Thanks for the inspiration (and XHTML/CSS), Ryan.
Step two: make it easy to add coworking to dictionaries
I’m admittedly a technologist, and see the hurdle of “contact Merriam Webster” as a pain in the ass. Instead, I’m proposing (based on a suggestion from Jesse) that we make available a “dictionary patch” to popular dictionary files: Microsoft Word, OSX’s native dictionary, and Firefox seem like good places to start. Major blogging platforms that have spellcheck (ahemWORDPRESSahem) I’d like to make these as close to “one click” patches, if possible.
Better yet, I’d love for someone to write a non-malicious virus that adds the word “coworking” to any native system dictionaries. Just kidding. Maybe.
Step three: spread the word
If you spot “coworking” with that dreadful hyphen anywhere, drop a link to the website [http://doescoworkinghaveahyphen.com/] in the comments. Maybe a badge campaign? Who knows.
Ultimately, I hope that this activity catches the eye of Merriam Webster and they take it as a cue to make the change on their own…I consider that the ultimate metric of success.
Care to join in on the fun? Help contribute to any of the goals I’ve set above.
02/15/09 04:54pm Knite20: Does coworking have a hyphen? http://tinyurl.com/69oh6l 
11/10/08 05:45pm alexknowshtml: death to the hyphen: http://tinyurl.com/69oh6l
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15 Responses to “Does coworking have a hyphen?”
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About
I'm Alex Hillman, the co-founder of IndyHall and a social technology and community developer living in Philadelphia.
I like technology, how people interact with it, and how it helps them interact with each other.
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Alex–
It’s maddening. I love it that I’m getting the ink, but the hyphen thing just sets my teeth on edge.
I’m having discipline issues internally over my own brand. The correct presentation in text is “Uptime”, one word, no intercase. My own people are spelling it Up Time and UpTime. Gah! I guess you get the same thing when someone spells your place Independence Hall….
One possible solution; let’s capitalize Coworking. It still comes up with the misspelling complaint, but if its capped, maybe the press will treat it like a proper noun.
Keep on, bro…
–Ax
Or, of course, you could just accept that ‘co-working’ makes a ton more sense. ‘Coworking’ as a proper noun would require capitalisation. This is not commonly done. It’s used a an ordinary noun (and verb) and people have an awful lot of trouble pronouncing it and grokking it because it doesn’t obey the typical rules (such as they are) of English.
So, I’d agree with all your points if only I agreed with your premise. Whatever happened to paving the cowpaths? Stop ‘cow orking’ and ‘co-work’!
@Lachlan Hardy: that’s way less fun. ;)
Are we really going to talk about “nonsensical names in the construct of the english language” when we’ve got funded companies naming themselves with a web two point oh naming convention ridiculousness?
Point taken, though. And I always like when you stop by to say hi.
Ah, true. Much less fun.
If it’s a proper noun, that’s one thing. If it is the actual name we’re talking about, then ‘Coworking’ works. Of course, if the verb is ‘co-working’, then ‘Coworking’ as the proper noun seems a little silly.
Google won’t care either way, so it’s really just a social thing and I’m thinking the fact this post even exists suggests that you’re fighting an uphill battle you won’t win. Seems a waste to stress over it. Adopt the hyphen and roll on! :p
(I’ve not had much time lately so my visits have been less frequent, but this is one of the few blogs I’m still subscribed to and I can’t sleep so…)
This is awfully reminiscent of another situation: http://www.adrants.com/images/lego_sorry.gif
Just remember to keep your cool :). It seems like a dictionary check would fix it.
death to the hyphen: http://tinyurl.com/69oh6l
Laughing over here in Seattle - nice on Alex. Thanks for spreading the good word.
I was editing something Dana wrote to me, and she used “coworking” and I put a hyphen in it. Then I decided that since Dana is the “coworking” professional, I should leave her text as-is (asis?). Interesting conversation. I like the hyphen, but I love grammar and punctuation. The more symbols, the merrier. Interesting thing to check out: some folks spell “cooperation”/”co-operation” with a trema (umlaut-y diacritic). Funny stuff.
It’s easy to blame the reporters for “getting it wrong”, but I think you will find that the extra hyphen is creeping in during the editing process, which the reporters do not directly control. Every publication has a standard style guide so that words such as database are spelled the same way in all articles (or is it data base?)
I agree with the suggestion to capitalize Coworking. I think that will flag the word well enough that it will force copy editors to stop and think before they just apply the standard “cow-orking has a hyphen” rule from the style guide.
Coworking indeed has no hyphen :)
When you talk to the reporter make sure to tell them that the editors should not add the hyphen. I like to tell them:
“co-working is when you are working with your fellow employees, while Coworking is the venacular word for a new kind of grassroots movement focused on community and work”
Oops, that should have been ‘vernacular’ not venacular :)
[...] Although my initial instincts were for the hyphen, I now like it without. Independents Hall’s Alex Hillman is firm in his stance that coworking does not have a hyphen while most media outlets (especially the older, mainstream ones) are in the it-has-a-hyphen camp [...]
What a seemingly silly issue that is not silly at all. It’s so important to be identified as you want to be (ie: brand identity) and all that much more so in the world as it is today.
Unfortunately, I think we’re getting into a very difficult battle with old and MSM media to get them to change it to co-working for now. Check out http://www.officenomads.com/2008/12/15/does-coworking-have-a-hyphen/
for why I think so.
But sign me up for the fight. I am ready, willing and able!
charlie
Thank you for your invaluable advice and congratulations on the website. It helped me properly edit this story:
http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1566863