To echo Angel, Internally we use IRC for member-member and uncubed-member chatting. So far it's proven really great, and since our members are all techies to one degree or another, they get IRC.
We're still working on the back end systems, but likely it'll be google docs for tracking, etc and fresh books for invoicing, bookkeeping. Square and paypal are how we're handling payments. We're also using Facebook a lot for events, and things like that. John Wilker Founder, 360|Conferences twitter: jwilker <http://twitter.com/jwilker> johnwilker.com | Ignite Denver <http://ignitedenver.org>| Denwhere<http://denwhere.com>| 360|Flex <http://360flex.com> | 360|iDev <http://360idev.com> “A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.” ~ Bruce Lee On Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 8:18 AM, Angel Kwiatkowski <fccowork...@gmail.com>wrote: > Here is the reply I sent to Zoe. Thought maybe people could benefit > from reading it...Also, Cohere is probably one of the "lower-tech" > spaces in terms of how we run ourselves. I'm a big fan of simplicity > first. I hope that you'll find what you need for your article below. > > Community Manager to Members & Member to Member Communication > When we want to make sure that everyone gets the same message, we'll > email it to all members. For daily/casual member to member > communication we use 2 different digital tools. The first is Internet > Relay Chat (IRC). This "technology" is a relic from the past but it > works like a charm and since so many of the developers are already on > there chatting with their tech groups, it was an easy solution to make > a #CohereLLC channel on Freenode. Often, IRC gets used to blow off > steam and circulate the latest "lol website/video." The second is > Facebook Groups. Any Cohere member or alumni who has a Facebook > account is included in the group. Members primarily use this group to > seek advice on client questions or issues. For example, the writers > often get pricing advice from other writers in the group. > > How Community Managers run their spaces (as a business) > There are some great digital tools coming out to help space owners > manage the daily details like reservations, billing, payment and wifi > access. One notable one to watch is Cobot. It was developed by space > managers and it's sleek and easy to use. There are other open source > management solutions like Nadine, used by Office Nomads, and Seltzer > which just hit the scene recently. Cohere doesn't use any of these yet > but instead uses a combination of Google documents and calendar with > Quickbooks online payment solutions like recurring credit card > processing, cell phone credit card swiper and online payments via a > checking account. These easy payment methods allow members to focus on > just being a member instead of figuring out how to pay. It also > minimizes the time that space owners spend tracking down money. Also > notable is that Cohere doesn't use any type of reservation system for > desks like many spaces do. We leave it to chance and we've never run > out of room yet! We do use a shared Google calendar to manage our > conference room reservations. > > How Community Managers collaborate with other Community Managers > The primary tool that coworking community managers use is our > Coworking Google Group. This is where new coworking enthusiasts and > coworking veterans converge to share best practices and lend a helping > hand. To date, there are nearly 3,500 members who have posted 13,697 > messages! > > Area where the global coworking community needs help... > As a giant worldwide community of ~1,000 coworking spaces with an > estimated 50,000 members (likely many more) we need help finding or > developing a tool that allows for members of different coworking > communities in far away states and countries to find one another and > collaborate. I'm hoping that in the next year, we'll have a great > digital tool at our disposal that would allow a member of Cohere in > Colorado to easily search out another coworker in say Pakistan who > might be able to help with a problem or share ideas on a project. I > think overcoming this logistical challenge will take the coworking > movement to the next level. > > On Aug 16, 1:56 pm, Zoe Fox <zoe...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Hi everyone, > > > > I am working on a story for Mashable.com about digital tools for > > coworking spaces and I'd love to hear people's favorites. Feel free to > > either reply to this post or if you'd like to speak with me in person, > > just let me know. > > > > Much appreciation, > > Zoe > > -- > 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. > > -- 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.
