Umberto Crenca, founder and artistic director of AS220, far left, talks about creating working environments for Rhode Island’s info-tech and digital-media community. Other panelists are, from left, Greg Gibson of BetaHouse, moderator Jack Templin, and J. Hogue, a business owner and developer.

The Providence Journal / Bob Thayer

New kinds of jobs need new kinds of work spaces, a place that bridges the gap between your garage or extra bedroom and the familiar “cubical farms” where so many employees toil each day.

Just how those new spaces could work for members of the state’s “info-tech and digital media community” was the subject of a lively panel discussion early this month at American Locomotive Works in Providence, sponsored by the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation.

Jack Templin, co-founder of an organization for information technology and digital media entrepreneurs called the Providence Geeks, and project leader for RI Nexus, an Economic Development Corporation initiative to promote the information technology and digital media economic sector, moderated the panel. (Its Web site is www.rinexus.com)

“People are reenvisioning their working spaces. ‘Meat space’ — the physical space where people get together — is still important, which might seem counterintuitive for people who are so adept at working in virtual space,” he said. Templin said the new kinds of working spaces are mostly geared for individuals or small teams who share office space and equipment on an as-needed basis, which is known as coworking.

Successful coworking spaces, he said, foster innovation by putting people with complementary skills and knowledge into close proximity.

Templin said Rhode Island already has a history of unconventional, mixed-use spaces in the arts community, such as AS220, the Steel Yard and Firehouse No. 13. Among those on the panel at the American Locomotive Works was Umberto Crenca, artistic director of AS220. Crenca said AS220 has always been interested in the intersection of art and technology, and compared a good working space to a “compost heap” — and he meant that as a compliment.

“Make the space affordable, throw interesting people in there, and don’t even try to predict what will happen,” he said.

A Web site called coworking.pbwiki.com has a list of coworking locations around the world. Panelist Sally Struever, a RISD graduate now living in Portland, Maine, is working with The Hub, which calls itself “an incubator for social innovation.” According to its Web site, The Hub has locations in London, Johannesburg, Rotterdam, Bristol (England) and Sao Paulo.

Brian Jepson, co-founder of the Providence Geeks and executive book editor for Make Magazine’s Make: Books series, do-it-yourself guides to technology projects, said even the large companies, such as Cisco, Google and eBay, are considering new approaches to office space. “They’re trying to change their real-estate model, trying to redefine the amount of real estate they occupy. The trend is going towards shared spaces, where you can bring your laptop and plug in.”

Greg Gibson, another panelist, is co-founder of BetaHouse, a coworking space in Cambridge, Mass., designed for new technology startups. At BetaHouse, you can rent a permanent space for $400 a month or a part-time spot for $200.

Panelist J. Hogue is co-founder of The Grant, a former department store in Pawtucket that he bought last year with Michael Lozano, which is now home to everything from Web and print designers to a dog training business. Hogue, who is also a partner in a design company called Highchair designhaus (HCd), said unconventional workspaces help provide the personal interaction that people need.

“I could go days without seeing anyone, and it was tremendously depressing,” he said. “It’s also a way for people to be able to afford, say, a color copier that they couldn’t necessarily get on their own.”

Templin said the coworking spaces often combine social and work life in a single place. Struever said coworking spaces that build a sense of community seem to have a supply of “magical people,” the ones who throw the good parties and start the best conversations. “You don’t have to worry about it,” Crenca said. “If you bring people together, they will find ways to have fun.”

Taking a somewhat more traditional approach to real estate is panelist Gary Brandeis, managing director of FB Capital Partners, based in Philadelphia.

The company recently bought the Union Trust building at 171 Westminster St. in downtown Providence, and plans to turn it into an “iBuilding” with free Wi-Fi Internet access and an internal Web portal that would allow tenants to instantly communicate with building management about maintenance issues such as leaks or burned-out light bulbs.

But Brandeis said that doesn’t mean he’s looking for only high-tech companies, not with a 12-story building to fill. He pointed out that almost all companies use technology in some form or another these days. Besides, he said, eventually an Internet start-up company will probably find use for, say, accountants and lawyers, and it would be convenient to have them in the same building.

Someone from the audience asked the panel if the old real-estate mantra — location, location, location — still held true when dealing with next-generation workplaces.

Panelists said that urban centers, where there is a critical mass of people and amenities, seem to work best. Gibson said that Cambridge, with its concentration of universities, restaurants, bars and public transportation, is a logical place for something like BetaHouse.

“Historically, downtown has been a place of exchange, not just for people, but ideas,” said Crenca, whose AS220 has become an increasingly notable player in downtown Providence. “The need for that has existed in human beings throughout time, and we got away from that. Now we’re getting back to it.”

There were some notes of caution raised during the discussion, especially for those contemplating creating a coworking space of their own. Brandeis said that if you’re going to become involved in real estate, you need to know the realities of building and fire codes, taxes, utilities and mortgages.

Mike Lozano, co-founder of The Grant with J. Hogue, said the climate for building and development in Rhode Island is not particularly easy, with a considerable amount of bureaucracy to negotiate in order to satisfy building and fire codes.

“We want to work on ways to put better tools and incentives in place,” said Saul Kaplan, executive director of the state Economic Development Corporation, when asked about Lozano’s comment.

asmith@projo.com