Coworking facilities are popping up all over the country (coworking.pbwiki.com; sandboxsuites.com). They all differ, and some even offer free drop-in privileges.

The nation's traditional executive suites, with closed, corporate-modeled offices and virtually no community activity, are like your father's Oldsmobile, compared with the wide-open spaces where you work on your own, side by side. The price spread between the two forms of real estate is substantial and could be the difference in whether you can afford to do your own thing, or not.

OLDER WORKERS. Nowhere is it written that only young entrepreneurs can afford to become independently employed by opening an office in a frugal shared workspace. Put the idea on your check-it-out list of career moves when a layoff knocks you flat.

RESUME BUILDER. Suppose you only want to get out of the rain until the economy suns up and you can decide whether you want to aim for inclusion on a company's payroll. (The young computer programmer who is credited with creating the coworking movement, is no longer coworking -- Google grabbed him.)

Operation of a documentable business will be a big help in explaining that you didn't sit around and grow intellectually flabby during your time on the bricks. Unexplained gaps remain tough to explain to prospective employers.