Sounds like a plan Tony, count us in! Citizen Space Direct: 415-501-9155 Skype: citizenspace http://www.citizenspace.us <blocked::http://www.citizenspace.us/> Twitter: http://twitter.com/citizenspace <blocked::http://twitter.com/citizenspace> Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/citizenspace <blocked::http://www.facebook.com/citizenspace> "A Nicer Place to Work"
_____ From: coworking@googlegroups.com [mailto:coworking@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Tony Bacigalupo Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 11:58 AM To: coworking Subject: [Coworking] Let's fix the stupid job crisis ourselves Howdy coworking people! One day, I was talking to a very good friend of mine, who was regaling with me with tales of her struggles to find good work. This friend of mine is brilliant. She's a fantastic person. And, like so many people, she's being utterly chewed up by our nation's job crisis and this feeling like she has no control over her own destiny. It got me angry. I spend every day working alongside people who are highly empowered and living life on their terms, and many of them aren't doing anything so complicated or specialized that my friend or lots of other people couldn't be doing something similar. Yet, here I was, talking to this good friend of mine, who wanted me to help her figure out how to get someone to hire her for a job that she didn't even want. She's too good for that. So many of us are. This is stupid. Long story short, while talking to her, I had a few beers and created this: http://nwc.co/letsfixthestupidjobcrisis Here's why I'm telling you all about this: In just a few years, our coworking communities have risen from obscurity to constitute what is today a global network of local centers where people gather to help each other work for themselves. We're only just starting to realize the sheer potential of that. I believe that we collectively constitute the foundation for the solution to our planet's economic challenges. Our spaces can be not just places for people who have already figured out how to work for themselves, but also crucial entry points for people who seek to join our ranks. We give them a unique opportunity to be exposed to a world they might never otherwise have seen, and to find people to help them figure out how to join our ranks. We've been supporting the needs of the growing independent workforce implicitly in everything we do, but I'm curious to see what kind of damage we could do if we made this an explicit part of our agenda. Not just to do what we do, but to do what we do with a shared ambition help more people work for themselves. I care so much about coworking because it represents our best shot at fundamentally rethinking and repairing our badly broken relationship with our work. Have any of you out there been thinking something similar? I'm serious about this. I want to talk about real ways we can do things to put a serious dent in the global job crisis and get a lot of people back to work. Who's with me? Cheers, Tony Bacigalupo New Work City PS - I realize the presentation I made is largely US-centric, but the general trends are largely global. If you've got a perspective to share from a different socioeconomic situation, I'd love to hear it! -- Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com -- Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com
