I'd echo Alex on this one - in fact we've had several executive suites near us in Seattle use the term coworking to help describe aspects of their space and we have never had any difficulty with it. In fact we've lent a hand and tried to help these spaces out so that they could add an element of coworking to their offerings. All in the interest of spreading the idea to more people - really I can't see that as being a threat, no matter how hard I try.
That said (and I'd like to see this stem into a new thread), it's worth asking the question: does anyone have any experience with another entity trying to "hijack" the word coworking to describe something that doesn't sound anything like coworking to you? I haven't heard any concrete examples of something truly "threatening," and until I do I'm not going to consider it an actual threat to what we're doing. Back to the subject at hand, though. I have often described the coworking visa as (thus far) our best international coworking cohesion. It says "hey, I'm a coworking space. You're a member at another coworking space? Cool! Come on over." Simple. Easy. And for the most part, used pretty darned lightly. It is more a statement than a program. I see a coworking badge as being the next step to that, and a way for spaces to show an adherence to coworking values (as we have already set them out). I don't think we need a lengthy description of each value, just the words as they are. Count that as my vote, and I'd also say it's the best idea I've heard thus far. And heck, it'd be really fun to watch some designs for badges come through - I have a feeling that our collective creativity could lead to some pretty awesome looking badges. S __ Office Nomads officenomads.com 206-484-5859 On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 1:57 PM, Alex Hillman <dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com>wrote: > I don't know of *any* healthy coworking space that has closed, or even > struggled, specifically because a nearby executive suite started using the > word "coworking". > > I could see it make some sense in theory, but I think falls more into > traditional business paranoia than any scope of reality. > > Again, the point is much less to stop others from misusing than it is to > increase the number of people who are properly using. > > Nuanced, but definitively different. > > -Alex > > > /ah > indyhall.org > coworking in philadelphia > > > On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 4:44 PM, Mike Schinkel <mikeschin...@newclarity.net > > wrote: > >> On Mar 2, 2010, at 1:54 PM, Patrick wrote: >> >> The "erroneous" use of the word is pretty >> much completely an annoyance, nothing more, there isn't really >> anything bad coming out of it. >> >> >> I disagree. If someone with big $$$ starts promoting their executive >> suites as "coworking" in an area is will cause people in the area to >> associate coworking with executive suites and it could smother real >> coworking spaces in the area. That to me is "bad." >> >> >> -Mike Schinkel >> Ignition Alley Atlanta Coworking >> http://ignitionalley.com >> >> >> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Coworking" group. >> To post to this group, send email to cowork...@googlegroups.com. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<coworking%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> >> . >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. >> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Coworking" group. > To post to this group, send email to cowork...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<coworking%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To post to this group, send email to cowork...@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.
