I think you hit the nail on the head with this point:
1. I think it is important to understand WHY a group of people connects to a coworking space idea. Coworking is a beautifully vague canvas of intent and purpose. I think that the most successful spaces are the ones that are working hard, before during and after opening, to define that intent and purpose based on the elements of community they find. That requires things like Jelly and other community-catalyzing events before opening a space, or some other form of immersive observation to figure out who you're catering to. The challenge I see most often is the fighting of an uphill battle: a single person or small group of people has a particular vision for a community that simply doesn't exist in that place, and therefore gets discouraged when people don't "get it". Indy Hall, for instance, morphed into what we opened it as with a combination of my own and Geoff's vision for what we already saw in Philadelphia, but we wanted to improve upon and strengthen. Our first location became the proving grounds for the scale of the potential community, and as we've continued to grow, it's largely been because we've been open minded to what our community looks like. Our membership defines our community, not us. This takes a pretty great deal of observation, as I said, and the ability to serve it up with a healthy portion of business savvy. I'm not 100% convinced that a coworking space alone is capable of making something from nothing. What I am convinced it can do is provide a clubhouse for any of the early, nascent elements of a community, but more importantly, for existing communities to coexist. To step away from the "feel good" warm fuzzies of community being the core of coworking (which I still believe they are), you also need to consider that with the business understanding of market. If the community you wish to serve doesn't exist, you have two options: 1) look harder 2) change who you're looking for, or where you're looking "Startups" have all kinds of silly names for this, I think the most common being called a "pivot". Earlier in the year I taught a class about indie software product development, and one of the most challenging lessons to teach was what we dubbed the "customer safari". The one where you, the business owner (product developer) actually have to go OUT INTO THE JUNGLE (or desert) and find animals. There are tricks that seasoned safari leaders know, like which watering holes have animals at them the most often. But even with the tricks, you still have to put on your safari hat, get in the jeep, and ride for a while. Don't be afraid to change a bit. I think Mike's move to offer some desks is a smart one, since the existing offering wasn't working out. Know your convictions and maintain your vision, but success comes form agility and being comfortable enough in your own skin to change things up when you need to. -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Mon, Nov 8, 2010 at 8:54 AM, t...@c4workspace <[email protected]>wrote: > I would love to hear suggestions on making a coworking space > sustainable. But before that discussion starts I would like to > understand more about the economics, politics, technical literacy and > social culture of the general population (including gender, age, > education, etc. demographics) as it is represented in the surrounding > community, neighborhood, municipality, region, etc. > > "Community" seems to be the accepted secret sauce for coworking space > success. But having a group of people coalesce around the concept of > coworking is more than having regular Jellys or an already established > core group of people. I think it is important to understand WHY a > group of people connects to a coworking space idea. And that would > seem to stem from who those people are, as part of the surrounding > community as well as the influence of the surrounding community on > them. > > For example, is the surrounding community already about "community" in > other forms like sports clubs, pub regulars, etc. Is the community > progressive in thought, technology or business? Does a critical mass > of younger, socially interested (if not socially active) exist who are > looking for a professional community to belong to? Is the community > very homogenous or very diverse? Does a particular ethnic culture > exist that is open to coworking or that is not interested in > coworking? Is it all about a charismatic person or a great business > plan or both? Does the spaces physical size, arrangement, feng shui or > whatever matter? > > For all you graduate students out there how about a study on coworking > space profiles that teases out the demographics, econographics, > socialgraphics, etc. of spaces? > > I have lots of biases. I've written this here before. San Antonio is > the largest Hispanic minority majority (a white foisted oxymoron) city > in Texas (65% Hispanic). We have few other "minorities"; we're about > 3% African American for example. There are a core group of Democrats > that run the city which is arguably majority Republican. We have many > more than one church that hold more than 5,000 people at a service. We > have a 17% poverty rate. We have the second highest teen pregnancy > rate in the state. We have about a 50% literacy rate. We have probably > the largest military presence of any urban area. There are about 2 > million people in this 9th largest city in the United States. Business > success until recently was bringing a new call center jobs to town > <bias />. Personal success is measured in a regular paycheck, a house, > a new car and your kids haven't been arrested<bias />. It would safe > to say we have a manana (mon-yana) culture. We are a shorter travel > distance to Mexico (2 hours) than we are to the rest of the United > States (1 day). > > C4 Workspace is known in the business community. Once people work here > they come back. We have a very small core group of in-the-space > coworkers and a large group of community pushers. We are hanging on by > the skin of our teeth. > > So is it culture, community, business acumen or what that explains our > situation? I don't think it's a pat answer of "it's all of those > things" or "it's all about community" or "did you have a strong > community to start with?". > > It would be great if we could get some information about how, why, > what and where that enable spaces to succeed and sustain or thrive or > not. I think it would help the current and next generation of space > catalysts. > > Hang in there Jody and Mike! > > Cheers! > > Regards > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Coworking" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]<coworking%[email protected]> > . > 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 [email protected]. 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