But if independent workers live in New York, New Jersey or Oregon, they will soon have a new option when it comes to obtaining coverage thanks to the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare to its detractors) and the Freelancers Union. The organization, which currently has 170,000 members, was recently awarded $340 in low or no-interest federal loans through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to launch “consumer operated and oriented plans,” or Co-Ops that are open to everyone, including independent workers who typically struggle to find affordable coverage. The new plans will be non-profit and will be run by a local CEO and board of directors in each state.

The Co-Ops are set to begin enrolling members in the fall of next year and to begin offering benefits in January 2014. The Freelancers Union already covers around 23,000 workers and their family members in New York States through its existing insurance offerings, but anticipates covering an additional 200,000 workers across the three states within five years.

By cutting out the for-profit health insurance industry out of the equation, Co-Ops are intended to return insurance to its roots, in which workers pooled risk and supported each other. And by competing with private plans, the Co-Ops should also drive down costs for patients. “Co-Ops will promote competition in the insurance market and respond well to the health care needs of Americans,” according to Marilyn Tavenner, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

“It’s like venture capital for healthcare,” said Sara Horowitz, executive director of the Freelancers Union. “By empowering nonprofit social entrepreneurs to compete with private insurers, Co-Ops provide a powerful new tool to bring more affordable options to the most people.”

Do you think the Obama administration’s healthcare reforms are the solution to independent workers’ health insurance woes?

Image courtesy of Flickr user Images_of_Money.

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Jeff Pulver, the conference organizer, credits Twitter with everything that made the event happen, from the positive feedback that led him to set a date for the event, to obtaining the majority of commitments from speakers and panelists, to publicizing it almost entirely via tweets and retweets.

In my post “How Twitter is a Communications Game Changer,” I talked about the random but significant changes Twitter was causing in terms of the way we communicate and the tools we use. The 140conf — as it was called on Twitter — was the embodiment of a Twitterstream; it was Twitter in the flesh. Here are some of my observations from the conference:

1. We were all forced to speak in “tweets”

The format of the conference was 20 minutes for panels and between 10 and 20 minutes for presentations. There are now many conferences that enforce an abbreviated presentation time such as TED and Ignite, but this format still proves a tremendous challenge for many people. Pulver recommended that nobody rely on presentation slides, for example, and without fail, every speaker who decided to stick with slides dragged the pace of the day down, particularly when the technology inevitably did not work. Concise soundbites ruled the event. Pontification was revealed as the snooze-inducer that it is.

2. Half of the event took place on Twitter

Whether intentional or not, with the advent of Live Tweeting came the inevitable sea of open laptops and glowing digital mobile devices as everyone listened and simultaneously tweeted the interesting nuggets they were hearing. The “#140conf” hashtag appeared and disappeared on Twitter’s trending topics list, clearly demonstrating which sessions were more tweetable than others. While there were some complaints about the event taking place in an “underground bunker,” most people were connected at most times as evidenced by the continuous stream of in-the-moment tweets.

3. The topics were diverse like a public Twitterstream

While others complained about the seeming randomness — and in a few cases repetitiveness — of the content offerings at the conference, and others pointed out that it was in bad need of “curating,” a lot of us felt that it was more like a Tweetstream and possibly even the enactment of @JeffPulver‘s personal stream. He curated with a light touch, which added to the charm and spontaneity of the event.

4. Learning moments came in bursts

I commented to @beckymccray, who had flown in from Oklahoma for the event, that I felt like this conference offered a different kind of learning. Thankfully it wasn’t a “Twitter 101,”  but it also wasn’t a constant echo chamber where everyone did nothing but sing Twitter’s praises. What I got out of the conference was learning about the different ways people are using Twitter around the world and the real-life impact of Twitter and tweeting tools. More importantly, I was exposed to very different views and opinions of Twitter that forced me to stretch my thinking about how I use Twitter and how I could be using it differently or even better for my work.

5. Twitter will not save the world, but…

We all agreed that it wasn’t Twitter that was as important as it was the new and “now” way of communicating. The immediacy, the intimacy, the pervasiveness, the mobility — these are all aspects that Twitter embodies and features that it provides, but it is not all about Twitter. Twitter is our current touchstone, but it is a signal of massive and significant change in our world and in our lives. It is not a fad; it is a revolution of connectivity. And the 140 Character Conference was just a small glimpse of this Brave Now World.

Were you at 140conf, and if so, what did you get out of it? If not, what are you getting out of Twitter?

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Founded in November 2008 by Tony Bacigalupo (co-author of “I’m Outta Here: How Coworking Is Making The Office Obsolete”) and Sanford Dickert, NWC has two central objectives: 1. To provide community workspace for location-independent workers, and 2. To facilitate entrepreneurial activity in NYC.

To further objective number 2, they launched The Runway Project, a project to help people turn this crisis into an opportunity to become entrepreneurs. They also recently helped to form the Coalition of Office Space Providers, which joins together available work spaces in NYC. The Coalition will be working with the NYC Economic Development Corp. to provide discounted workspace for first-time entrepreneurs, as well as events and other benefits.

These guys are clearly coworking heroes to be admired and emulated.

At the NWC center, members share their expertise through workshops and use the space for anything tech-related, from presentations to labs to social get-togethers.

If you’re in the Manhattan area, don’t wait to check them out. If you’re not, head over to their site and steal some ideas for making coworking a reality in your area!

(And for those of you in Paris, France, be sure to stop by La Cantine, the exceptional coworking center I wrote about last year. La Cantine, a nonprofit organization run by Silicon Sentier, is a hopping hub that offers all manner of tech-related activities and is a great place to pop in and work, for free. Thanks to Nathanaël of La Cantine for the tip on NWC)

Please leave a comment to tell us and your fellow readers about coworking initiatives in your area.

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