The Hub Bay Area launches

This week marks the launch of the Hub Bay Area, a co-working space that’s part of a global networks of Hubs.

If you’re not familiar with the Hub, you should be. In places like Toronto, London, Sao Paulo, Johannesburg, Cairo, Madrid, Stockholm, Bombay and elsewhere, social entrepreneurs, nonprofits and innovators have come together in 18 cities on five continents to collaborate and share resources. (Kevin Jones, who ran this week’s SoCap09 conference and is on the Hub Bay Area’s executive board, invited me to hold the Traveling Geeks’ tweetup at the Hub in London, but it was a bit too small for the gathering.)

The Bay Area has long had the venerable Citizen Space in San Francisco’s SOMA as well as Berkeley Coworking. Now the Hub brings coworking to another level. It’s located at the David Brower Center at 2150 Allston Way near the Downtown Berkeley BART station and across the street from UC Berkeley. The brand new building is one the Bay Area’s most advanced green building, exceeding LEED Platinum certification standards. The building also houses many local social and environmental change organizations.

Here’s a more detailed description of the space, designed “to support innovation, optimize productivity, and supply an abundance of tools for working, meeting, learning, and connecting.” Here’s a short list of upcoming events. And here’s a wiki with more information about coworking.

Here’s how to join — today is the deadline for the Hub Berkeley accepting founding and charter members. There are plans afoot for a second Bay Area Hub location in San Francisco.

Congrats to Kevin, Alex Michel, Amy Benziger, Tim Freundlich, Rosa Lee Harden and others for making it happen. JD Lasica, founder and former editor of Socialbrite, is co-founder of Cruiseable. Contact JD or follow him on Twitter or Google Plus.