Chris, Thanks for sharing your post.
I think you hit on some good points. Coworking communities do need to become somehow "networked" in order for them to reach their full potential. At the same time, I like how you recognized that the independent spirit of each center (and its members) is at core of the movement. That is why I believe any federated efforts need to be in response to specific community needs vs. creation of a traditional, top-down "chamber of commerce" type of bureaucratic entity. For example: 1. A Coworking Credit Union - the creation of a cooperatively owned bank that focuses specifically on lending to freelancers, independents, startups, coworking members and coworking center owners would be a valuable instititution for the community ... http://coworking.pbworks.com/Coworking-Credit-Union 2. Coworking Healthcare - a group rate health insurance plan for coworking members. Freelancers Union has a program up and running, but I believe only New York residents are eligible - http://www.freelancersunion.org/insurance/index.html 3. Coworking Visa - a more structure way to allow traveling coworkers to use cooperating locations. http://coworking.pbworks.com/CoworkingVisa 4. Coworking Passport - an idea I floated a couple of weeks back where a network of coworkers could offer urban accomodations to fellow, traveling coworking members. http://www.airbnb.com/groups/coworking So, my general thought is that a coworking "federation" could simply draw attention and bring resources to the growing number of collaborative efforts among coworking members that are already starting to blossom. But those are just my initial thoughts and would love to further brainstorm on them. Cheers, Andy twitter: @OnCoworking web: http://www.OnCoworking.com On Jul 14, 10:13 pm, Chris Stewart <socialtop...@gmail.com> wrote: > Good Evening All, > > My name is Chris Stewart, and I'm currently a software developer > for an insurance company based near Dallas, Texas. I've been > passionate about coworking for over a year now, and decided to write a > 2010 SXSW Interactive panel proposal on Federated Coworking. I was a > panel liaison this year and loved the experience so much that I > decided to put together a panel of my own. The term "federated > coworking" doesn't seem to be used at the moment, but my thought > behind it is the need for greater collaboration and resource pooling > between existing spaces to raise awareness of coworking to the general > population. It appears from reading posts on this forum and elsewhere > about the Starfish/Spider argument that coworking spaces are against > strong top-down organizational hierarchy, and are happy to work > independently from each other apart from knowledge sharing and > occasional meetups. My contention is that we need to respect the > desire for coworking spaces to maintain independent, unique > atmospheres, while at the same time embracing new levels of > connectivity. > > From my perspective, federated coworking is an umbrella term used > to represent a centralized authority elected by the spaces to 1) > represent their interests amongst government, business leadership, and > the general public; 2) serve as a collection point for knowledge, > money (to fund awareness and development), and best practices; 3) > provide training to people who want to start a coworking space but > have no idea how to begin; and 4) actively develop new coworking > spaces in partnership with area business and government to house > creative collectives of individuals who will have the benefit of a > comfortable, warm office environment in community with other creatives > without the office politics of a traditional office. > > Whether or not the SXSW panel is approved, I believe it's important > that we begin asking tough questions about the future of coworking, as > this movement will not grow to its fullest potential housed in loosely- > connected silos. I'd like to present several plans during the panel on > what federated coworking could look like, and allow the panelists to > debate the pros and cons of each strategy. Instead of making a lot of > noise during the event and then returning to the status quo, we can > make this panel a jumping off point to real-world change in the way we > approach coworking. > > I'll add more thoughts on this subject as I listen to your > feedback. Respond to this post directly or contact me via twitter > @socialtopher. > > Thanks, > > Chris Stewart > Endaris (my iPhone stealth company) > http://www.twitter.com/socialtopher --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
