  Coworking is characterized by different people sharing a workspace to benefit
from the inspiring working atmosphere. Even before Covid-19, many positive
effects and dynamics were not fully exploited by their users. One reason is a
lack of trust among the users that leads to social isolation, although a
coworking space should increase knowledge and idea exchange. As most people in
coworking spaces use information and communication technologies (ICT) for their
collaboration with their clients or employers, we examined if and how ICT can
be used to support the positive effects and dynamics of coworking spaces. For
this, we conducted eight interviews with freelancers and entrepreneurs who have
already worked in coworking spaces in order to identify requirements for a
complementary virtual coworking platform. We found that social proximity,
motivation and knowledge sharing could be increased by such a platform. Based
on the process virtualization theory, we derived six design principles.
