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Sebastien Provencher takes the bus into San Francisco for another day at the office. At the third-floor loft of Citizen Space, he sits at a desk, fires up his laptop and gets to work.

But this isn't his regular workplace: The tech entrepreneur's home is 4,700 kilometres away in Montreal and his hotel is outside San Francisco's pricey city centre. He has set up shop for a week at Citizen Space, here in the hip SoMa district, as other business people work on their own projects at nearby desks.

This type of service, known as co-working, lets travellers like Provencher rent a desk in a communal setting. Once mainly the province of tech-oriented freelancers, co-working centres are attracting a broader spectrum of consultants and small-business people in search of space to work - and network - on the road.

For Provencher, who travels regularly to San Francisco for his business, Citizen Space provides a comfortable place to work, check e-mail and meet clients. "When you're an entrepreneur, you often can't afford the expensive downtown hotels, but you have meetings downtown - and this is a good option," he says.

"But really the benefit of a co-working space is networking," he adds. A typical co-working environment has a social area to chat with the people from across the room and maybe strike up a collaboration. "You're really meeting people from your own tribe," Provencher says. "People who understand what you're working on and won't be bothering you with, 'You should have another coffee, sir.' "

Vancouver's WorkSpace, one of the pioneers of co-working in North America, has a similar ethic. General manager Dane Brown says he sees a steady stream of "digital nomads," freelancers who travel the world while staying tethered to their business via laptop. WorkSpace - with its high ceilings, exposed brick walls and giant windows that look out onto the North Shore mountains - has the loose feel of a tech-sector office. And many of its visitors have been in tech-related businesses.

However, Brown now sees a broader set of clients coming in. "We have lawyers, accountants, people who do special effects for films," he says. "There's a very wide range of people starting to work like this because the need for an office is going down if you're an independent businessperson.

"If you have a laptop and a cellphone, you can work off of that. All you need is a place that's quiet and where you can meet clients."

For the business person on the road, co-working spaces are much more comfortable than a coffee shop or hotel meeting room, says Tara Hunt, a California information-technology consultant and the owner of Citizen Space in San Francisco.

But she also says the most valuable aspect of co-working is the chance to network. "By going to these spaces, you meet people who are local," says Hunt, an Alberta native who worked in Toronto before relocating to the Bay area.

"You make connections and have the opportunity to learn about the local marketplace," she adds.

"In a smaller market like Vancouver... if you go to WorkSpace and you're working there, you'll hear about all the start-ups that are emerging and the people who are doing good work in that area you can potentially collaborate with."

Co-working's history and culture are planted in the tech sector, where the open-source ethic encourages people to share resources and information freely, often without regard to profit. At Vancouver's WorkSpace, Brown has seen clients trade expertise and work: from building an online store to getting a product produced in China, thanks to the expertise of one regular. "If anybody needs someone with manufacturing experience, they talk to him," Brown says.

Like many open-source projects, co-working doesn't have a clear history, but many of the first sites were opened in Canada.

Brown and WorkSpace co-founder Bill MacEwen were inspired by Queen Street Commons, a site founded in Charlottetown in 2004 by artists and community activists. Using it as a template, they decided to create a for-profit co-working space in Vancouver to serve the tech community and other freelancers.

Today, there are co-working sites across the country that welcome out-of-town visitors, including others in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Thunder Bay; others in Calgary, Guelph, Ont., and Halifax are in various stages of development.

And not surprisingly, given their appeal to jet setters, co-working sites are establishing global connections. The Hub, which is scheduled to open this fall in Halifax, will be linked to 13 sites worldwide including space in London, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv and Sao Paulo. Members of one site will get privileges at the other spaces.

The West Coast's Citizen Space and WorkSpace are trying to establish a similar network; Brown is in touch with owners of co-working sites such as Fernando Maclen, who started a site in Buenos Aires that was partly inspired by WorkSpace's model.

For some business travellers, all this community spirit can be confusing. Brown says he occasionally sees visiting business people who are reluctant to chat or collaborate with strangers. Everyone is free to converse with others at WorkSpace's cafe and lunchroom. On the other hand, if visitors choose to buckle down and ignore their neighbours, they're still welcome, and Brown says some do that.

But being social is part of the point. Hunt, who refers to her Citizen Space as "a community offering" rather than a business, believes that participating in a co-working community can have a major impact on the bottom line.

"The amount of connections and information that I've gotten from the site has more than paid for itself," she says.

"I've had clients come out of it. There are all sorts of intangible, indirect benefits that help my business. You get these fresh new ideas and

interesting discoveries coming to you that make you look smarter."

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Pack your bags

Co-working sites come in all shapes and sizes. Some are full-fledged businesses like WorkSpace, while others are informal rentals of extra desks. Rates can also vary wildly, so call ahead, and consider a membership if you'll be back in town.CITIZEN SPACE, SAN FRANCISCO

425 2nd Street, #300, San Francisco; 415-992-5839; citizenspace.us. Drop-ins free; desks $250 to $350 a month.

WORKSPACE, VANCOUVER

21 Water St., #400; 604-637-2252; http://www.abetterplacetowork.com. Drop-ins $25 a day; monthly memberships from $95 to $595 a month, with weekly rates available.

CENTRE FOR SOCIAL

INNOVATION, TORONTO

215 Spadina Ave., #120; 416-979-3939; http://www.socialinnovation.ca. "Hotdesks" $25 a day.THE CODE FACTORY, OTTAWA

246 Queen St., 2nd Floor; 613-321-3831; thecodefactory.ca. Workspaces $5 an hour.STATION C, MONTREAL

5369 Saint-Laurent #430; station-c.com. Hourly rate: $3.

COWORK CENTRAL,

BUENOS AIRES

Av. Corrientes 2560-4ºH; 54-11-5272-0550; http://www.coworkcentral.com. Memberships $60 to $200 a month.

THE HUB, HALIFAX

Not yet open; visit thehubhalifax.ca for information.