Re: [Coworking] Citizen Space: End of one era, beginning of the next
Hear hear... we at Beehive Baltimore thank each of you for your leadership and generous support. As we begin our third year here we all owe you a debt of gratitude for the path that you (and Alex and Geoff) and so many others have made available to transform communities – including your own! Best, Dave On Feb 11, 2011, at 3:48 PM, Matthew Wettergreen wrote: Tara, Chris, Hilary, everyone at Citizen Space, Thanks for all of your help, support, guidance and vision over the past several years. None of us would be doing as well or be half as inspired without your presence. Matthew Caroline Collective On Fri, Feb 11, 2011 at 2:34 PM, Tara Hunt horsepig...@gmail.com wrote: Mark your calendars for late March as we are going to have the biggest closing party you've ever witnessed. http://www.horsepigcow.com/2011/02/citizen-space-end-of-one-era-beginning-of-the-next/ -- tara 'missrogue' hunt Company: Shwowp (http://www.shwowp.com) Book: The Whuffie Factor (http://www.horsepigcow.com/book-the-whuffie-factor/) Blog: HorsePigCow: Marketing Uncommon (http://horsepigcow.com) Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/missrogue phone: 514-679-2951 -- 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. -- Matthew Wettergreen, Ph.D e: mwettergr...@gmail.com w: http://matthewwettergreen.com c: 713.825.4613 t: @organprinter -- 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.
Re: [Coworking] Re: Fwd: how do we cope with our clones?
Liu Yan, Just throwing this out there but maybe one way to do it is to encourage copying and request some conditions from those who do copy. One example is TED: they have given away their brand but ask that folks follow the rules for TEDx events in exchange. Maybe you could do something similar? Offer some design guidelines and branding but ask that folks follow a few simple rules. I don't know how Chinese culture would respond to something like this, but given that you're working in a pretty new design domain likely to be explored by other forward-thinking individuals like yourself, it seems to me that has the best shot at success. Certainly it seems to me the best thing would be to reach out in a spirit of cooperation as early as possible, and if you've got any reason to go to Beijing, meet them face to face to discuss. Best, Dave On Feb 1, 2011, at 10:56 AM, Liu Yan wrote: Alex, thank you for your suggestion. We are aware of the core competency of the business we are in and we are confident that is something that cannot be copied easily. I think my message isn't clearly understood. We are not worried about the copycats, nor feel any threat, actually the clone has copied the content we had last year, our strategy is pretty much altered right now. Instead, I am happy someone is taking the initiative to start the second coworking in China and become our first follower. I am sure there will be more followers like him in the coming year, who will appreciate the concept of coworking and join/support the coworking community. The question really is, how do we regulate the level of copying and turn it into an open learning to make everyone benefit from making the coworking pie bigger, together? 在 2011年2月1日 下午11:37，Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com 写道： Whatever makes you comfortable. It's my understanding that cloning is a fairly common element of Asian culture (Dave Troy can speak to this much better than I can) so the best thing you can do is draw boundaries for what elements of the clone are acceptable to your level of comfort. That's really all you can or should worry about defending. Outside of your brand and your language being lifted, consider that copycats are almost always less effective than their original. Take this as an opportunity to introspect and figure out what makes your community special - and focus on lifting that above. At that point, you can rebrand or re-design all you want. Focus on what they can't copy, if you find that you can't stop them from copying. -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia 2011/2/1 Liu Yan liuyan.dat...@gmail.com Coworking isn't a big money-making business. I believe the person who started the coworking in Beijing has no intention to make quick money and huge profit. So it really doesn't make any sense to consult a lawyer to sue him. To be honest, we can't even afford it. I believe there is a dialogue needed between us and the clone. We want to let him know that we don't hate our competition and we want to find a way to collaborate if we share values in common. However, it is necessary to have a few guidelines in mind for people like him who sees the value in our model and content and want to use it. So my questions really are: what should be those guidelines? Thank you in advance! 在 2011年2月1日 下午9:05，Michael con@gmail.com 写道： If you have made your model and content on the website is at this moment pretty much open sourced and licensed under Creative Commons then i am pretty sure they can't legally copyright it right? This may be the wrong place to be asking though because copyright in China is definitely different to the rest of the world! Why not consult a lawyer, otherwise just don't worry about it. On Feb 1, 7:08 pm, Liu Yan liuyan.dat...@gmail.com wrote: Hi there, Recently we found out that someone in Beijing has used the text of our website both in Chinese and English, design and slogan literally word for word in his website. We are happy that there is another(second) coworking space being established in China and they like our model. But at the same time, we think it should be a way to regulate this kind of sharing. For example, Our model and content on the website is at this moment pretty much open sourced and licensed under Creative Commons, but the people who copied and pasted our content put everything under their own copyright. Meanwhile, we are worried that this kind of clone or look-alike effect might put our branding and reputation under risk. Any idea how to cope with this? Liu Yan 刘妍 CEO/Co-founder Xindanwei 新单位 (+86) 021 3428 0783 (+86) 135 2429 5509 50 Yongjia Rd, Shanghai,CHINA 中国上海徐汇区永嘉路50号 http://xindanwei.com https://gist.com/theliuyan -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Coworking group. To post to this group, send email to
Re: [Coworking] Re: Coworking Community Expertise
Yeah. +1 for real money. Alternative currencies always end in disaster. The US Dollar is virtual enough as it is. :) Every time I hear an online barter network between coworking folks I cringe. D On Jan 28, 2011, at 5:06 PM, Angel Kwiatkowski wrote: h, maybe we just need a platform like superfluid but uses real money! On Jan 28, 3:00 pm, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com wrote: The guys from SuperFluid are here in Philly - I've talked with Nathan about his system and his vision. It's interesting and exciting, but it's a little bit off from how I've seen actual work get done at Indy Hall. The virtual currency is essentially a points system for favors, which I'm decidedly against. I don't like the idea of doing favors purely for the sake of receiving favors. I believe that the elements of trust are what allow for real quality work to be exchanged, and thick value to be built, not the desire for points or favors to be returned. ALSO: virtual currencies are taxable when they're applied to commercial services. Superfluid knows this and that's why they have 2 separate systems, one p2p and one business. -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 4:45 PM, Angel Kwiatkowski fccowork...@gmail.comwrote: 1. Maybe this has been thought of before and I missed it, but, is there a Coworking Project Opportunity board somewhere? I recently set up an online community for Cohere at http://thesuperfluid.com and someone from the company contacted me and wants to know how superfluid can support the broader coworking community. Check it out...you basically trade for services using virtual currency. It might be something but a bit more experimentation with using it is probably in order. Has anyone used it? -Angel On Jan 28, 11:35 am, Mike Pihlman m...@telbitconsulting.com wrote: It just occurred to me that asking this group for specific help might be way better than trying to find someone to help with a problem / project / issue than trying to find some random expertise in the yellow pages, on line, etc. For example, You all referred the insurance company I now have over two years agothe relationship has been perfect. My local insurance folks would not touch coworking. But taking it one step further.. 1. Maybe this has been thought of before and I missed it, but, is there a Coworking Project Opportunity board somewhere? For example, I would much rather get help from a fellow coworker, pay that coworker, and thus support other coworking locations when / if I need, for example, iPhone or Android app development expertise. Yes, this may be a possibility in the near future depending on how things go... 2. But I have a REAL need now: I know some of you are non-profit. If you have done that in California and are willing to give me pointers / advice (not for AltamontCowork, but, for ForCarol.com) on how to proceed (ie do I need to do the 501c federal too?)that would be greatly appreciated. I have some $$ if it takes more time... Anywaywe as a coworking community are growing rapidly...it seems to me we will soon (if not already) have the expertise to tap within our own community. Thought? -- Visithttp://ForCarol.comhttp://forcarol.com/ and help us help a Tracy High IB or Ag Sci student go to college. Carol Phan Scholarship Fund Mike Pihlman AltamontCowork / ForCarol.com 95 W. 11th Street, Suite 205 Tracy, CA 95376 Phone: 209-757-8862 Web:http://AltamontCowork.comhttp://altamontcowork.com/ Twitter: @AltamontCowork Facebook:http://Facebook.com/AltamontCowork http://facebook.com/AltamontCowork Drive Safe! http://ForCarol.comhttp://forcarol.com/ -- 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.comcoworking%2Bunsubscribe@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. -- 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.
Re: [Coworking] Re: Want to start a coworking space? How to know when your community is ready.
I love this discussion of temporary space; I really think it's true that when you start around community and not around a particular space, the culture gets pushed in that direction, and I think that's very healthy. We started meeting in a coffee shop (3 months) and then spent about 14 months in a small-ish temporary space, which in some ways was a little too permanent; the space we really wanted was not available until June 2010. By the time we moved into the new space, we had already established some culture that carried over from the prior space. If I had to do it over again, I would have pushed to get our current space sooner; not because it wasn't helpful to spend some time in the desert, bonding in small quarters, but because our new space provides much more room for interaction and generally reflects the culture we're trying to build better than the previous space did. So we're just now getting to some things (true self governance, cleaning, etc) after nearly 2 years that would have happened within the first 6-8 months if we hadn't had to wait to get setup here. Others have said it and I'll repeat it: it's all about the people. But being in the right space at the right time for your group is helpful, and what works in the beginning may not work later. The trick is to figure out how to best connect your community to the space so that it produces the culture you're aiming for, and the only way to do that is to stay attuned to the community's needs and desires as it evolves. So based on our experience, I'd say spending 3-6 months in a temporary space can be a lot of fun and a way to build and test culture; beyond that I think you risk institutionalizing behaviors and conceptions that are later hard to break out of. We've done that. But the line between temporary and permanent is a fine one. Dave -- Beehive Baltimore Community Coworking in Baltimore On Dec 15, 2010, at 7:43 PM, Angel K wrote: We started in a temporary space. The business incubator loaned us this sort of awkward overly large reception area. We'd drag tables and chairs from the back and huddle around outlets (sometimes sharing an outlet and toggling back and forth!). There were also no amenities like a coffee pot so we would go out as a group to find our coffee and snacks which provided us an organic way to get to know one another. Anyway, being in that weird/donated space really helped us bond as a group. You just don't have a choice when you're sitting shoulder to shoulder with people. When we ran out of chairs and broke the wifi connection, we knew it was time to find a more permanent home. Angel On Dec 15, 9:28 am, Beth Buczynski bethbo...@gmail.com wrote: Andrew, I agree. There are some types of work that will never be suited to the ever-changing (and crowded) environment of the coffee shop. I was inspired by Alice K's (quoted in the article) mid-way solution to needing more than a coffee shop, but lacking the substance for a full fledged space. I wonder if a more substantial but temporary space would be a solution for your situation, i.e. finding a business with an extra back room, so that you could give the community time to grow without being cramped in a space that's not really intended for intense work. Anyone else run into the need for an in-between space before they opened? Where did you look? Beth On Dec 14, 4:26 am, Andrew Badera and...@badera.us wrote: Interesting article, thanks for sharing. However, I'm not sure the temporary space thing applies per se ... I think maybe it needs to be more granular? You might be able to do, say, highly creative, initial startup prototyping and maybe even beta testing out of a coffee shop, but it's rare that you'll find someone who works in more conventional and/or heavier duty software spending a lot of time in coffee shops -- even with headphones, it's just not the right environment to focus on highly complex tasks, individually or as a team. You're also limited in the amount of shared space you can use for a team -- it's not easy to whiteboard in a coffee shop, and no, the virtual options are just not the same. We've had some interest in the Albany, NY area, but we have pull in 3 or 4 different directions, with 3 or 4 people committing to any given area, but having a hard time getting critical mass who can agree on a given area that works for them. Coffee shops may serve some of our potential coworkers, but a lot of us need something more, even if Starbuck and Panera still have plenty of open seating. --ab On Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 5:13 AM, Dave Ruzius dave.ruz...@gmail.com wrote: Love (!) the article and exactly the question we at TheWorks.cz are currently faced with. Jellies are great but not really sustainable. Will investigate who is willing to pitch-in to create our own 'club-house' as that's how it should feel.. created and supported by the peeps themselves...
Re: [Coworking] Are Hacker Spaces Coworking Facilities?
The hackerspace in Singapore (hackerspace.sg) is an awesome blend of coworking and hackerspace. Cool people with a self-directed community funding model — does it matter what we call it? Here in Baltimore, Beehive Baltimore is 'coworking' and Baltimore Node does 'hackerspace' but they both have a similar ethos and lots of overlap in membership. Whatever works, as long as the community ethos is right! D On Jul 19, 2010, at 12:56 PM, Tony Bacigalupo wrote: Coworking is a concept that represents a set of shared needs and values, and lots and lots of different organizations, businesses, groups, and other things are going to increasingly merge that concept into whatever they do within their own respective worlds. Some places will call themselves coworking spaces, some will use the word coworking as a part of what they do, and some won't ever use the word. The word is simply a shortcut. The reality is far more complex. For what it's worth, I think the hacker spaces are awesome, and almost universally embody the same shared values and spirit that self-titled Coworking spaces represent. I'm a big fan of NYC Resistor and Alpha One Labs, and regardless of whether they use the word coworking, they're right there along with the rest of us fostering awesome communities. Tony New Work City - People who can work anywhere work here. Web: http://nwcny.com Blog: http://nwc2.tumblr.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/nwc Meetup: http://meetup.com/coworking-nyc Phone:(347) 559-1437 Address: 394 Broadway, Fifth Floor New space opens September 1st! http://bit.ly/nwc2home On Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 12:22 PM, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com wrote: I agree with Jerome. A number of our members are also members of our local hacker space(s), and vice-versa. I think the primary differentiation would be professional. Not in terms of attitude, but commitment. The people who work at Indy Hall do it to support their primary source of income. The people who work at Hive76, for instance, tend to do it as shared hobby/maker space, mostly after hours/weekends. Obviously, there are professional makers/hackers, so they could say the same thing about some of our members :) -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 12:19 PM, Jerome Chang jer...@blankspaces.com wrote: Since they foster community and if they're open to multiple companies/independents, then yes. Hacker spaces are much like the writer spaces - just more niche than general coworking. Jerome __ BLANKSPACES work wide open www.blankspaces.com 5405 Wilshire Blvd (2 blocks west of La Brea) Los Angeles, CA 90036 323.330.9505 (office) On Jul 19, 2010, at 9:15 AM, sk...@emergentresearch.com wrote: A quick question for the group. Would you consider hacker spaces coworking facilities? Hacker spaces are physical locations that are a shared workshop for people interested in making things. Most are non- profit and community owned, but private ownership is becoming more common. Hacker spaces share many attributes with coworking. They provide shared access to space and equipment. They provide and encourage a social environoment and community. They provide training classes and support services. Their membership plans are similar. Many self- describe as coworking for hackers or makers. Hacker spaces have traditionally been targeted at amateurs, but are increasingly being used by professional freelance artisans and other small business people. The professional users of hacker spaces use them for pretty much the same reasons people use traditional coworking spaces. Hacker spaces are linked to the broader Maker/DIY movement, which is chronicled by Make Magazine (www.makezine.com). Examples include Alpha One in Brooklyn (http://www.alphaonelabs.com/), Hack DC in DC (http://hacdc.org) and Noisebridge in SF (https:// www.noisebridge.net). We're not sure how many hacker spaces exist, but it is likely in the 30-50 range in the U.S. and their numbers appear to be growing pretty rapidly. We've included a few hacker spaces in our coworking facility count so far (Tech Shop being a good example - www.techshop.ws). But after spending some time researching these spaces we are considering adding more. What do you think? Thanks, Steve -- 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. -- You received this message because you are subscribed
Re: [Coworking] Re: SXSW Coworking Takeaways
I've come to think of coworking as an environment that promotes self-actualization. If you think about Maslow's hierarchy (food/shelter/sex/money at the base, then a lot of higher things on top), coworking is an environment designed to allow people to move as far up that hierarchy as they desire; and to demonstrate that such upward mobility is possible. Coworking also has some startling parallels to un-schooling. Words tend to get co-opted by people with political agendas. I do not subscribe to many/most of the political agendas associated with un-schooling (my politics are generally post-partisan), but the concept has some validity and taken just as a technical term is very similar to what coworking tries to promote. Whereas traditional school forces people into an outmoded model of industrial production and rigid hierarchy, traditional work mostly tries to do the same thing. Coworking and un-schooling both invert that paradigm and put the emphasis onto the individual, allow room for self-actualization and discovery, and promote serendipitous formation of bonds and exploration of ideas. Devin, I think your term thrive is good, but maybe could be expanded upon. You're talking about self-actualization. How might we describe that more completely, without necessarily resorting to that term? Dave On Sat, Apr 3, 2010 at 8:14 PM, Devin devinbalk...@gmail.com wrote: The movement must go beyond the word 'coworking.' Words will always be coopted by people who'll use them to benefit themselves. Below is a quote I received on a metrocard. The purpose of a fish trap is to catch fish, and when the fish are caught, the trap is forgotten. The purpose of words is to convey ideas. When the ideas are grasped, the words are forgotten. Where can I find a man who has forgotten the words, so that I can talk to him? We should defend the term 'coworking' but we also need to strengthen the language we use to describe this movement and develop a shared mission statement and strong set of core principles. I propose something like following for a mission statement: The mission of a coworking space is to create an environment in which autonomous individuals (prefer: independent workers?) thrive. On Apr 1, 8:11 am, Tony Bacigalupo tonybacigal...@gmail.com wrote: Apologies to Jay for swaying off topic. Thanks for weighing in, Clay. I respect what you were trying to accomplish and find it regrettable that I feel compelled to use such harsh language in this forum. I rather enjoyed your and Drew's presentations, and if the panel were simply about the future of work, I might have very much enjoyed the panel as a whole. Gary's abuse of the word coworking, however, was offensive to me and should be to anyone who understands and espouses the values the word is supposed to represent. He openly admitted to having hijacked the word for his purposes, only after I pressed him on the subject myself. The notion that coworking is not colocation is completely absurd; it's like saying a bicycle doesn't need wheels to be a bicycle. It was apparent to me that he had no problem abusing the word to help promote his brand, and I found it most unfortunate that he was given such a public forum to do so. In terms of the future of work, I took away one very important and valuable lesson: we as coworking space owners may not be able to rely upon the word coworking to communicate what we do and what we represent in the future, because more people like Gary may likely come along and attempt to pump the word dry of all of its meaning for their own personal benefit. An outside observer may be able to simply find this phenomenon interesting, but I find it rather unfortunate and certainly something I would not be complicit in perpetuating. My hope is that such folk will come and go, and their words will be largely ignored in the face of the larger movement. On Mar 31, 2010 8:40 PM, Clay Spinuzzi clay.spinu...@gmail.com wrote: Sorry to hear that you felt that way about the panel, Tony. I do want to emphasize, though, that the panel was *not* on the future of coworking. It was on What coworking tells us about the future of work. So I wanted to get a wide set of perspectives on that topic. After all, we've seen a wide set of perspectives on coworking here on the Google Group, with not-for-profits, loss leaders, and for-profit coworking spaces talking to each other. And in talking to Austin-area proprietors and coworkers, I've seen similar differences in perspective. Some people are in it for the community, some are in it for the networking and subcontracting opportunities, and some are just relieved that they don't have to manage an office and buy the toilet paper. Maybe some of these aren't kosher motivations for coworking from the movement's perspective, but that's what people are telling me. And from what I've seen on the
Re: [Coworking] If you dream it, you can have it
That's awesome Alex. It just goes to show you that success is when preparation meets opportunity. Always keep your eyes open. I'm compelled to share two anecdotes to accompany this victory. 1. When I helped co-found a CLEC (competitive local exchange carrier) back in the late 90's, we managed to score the glass doors to a facility in Easton, MD which had previously been the offices of CP Telephone — on the doors: CP Telephone Engineering Office and we had them installed behind a 15' wooden bar installed in the (otherwise rather humble) offices of the CLEC. Rockin' decor. 2. I was showing my 10 year old daughter some of the old Dr. Who intros on YouTube. She was looking at the strange rotating box and said, He does time travel in a portable toilet? Technology keeps moving along. :) Can't wait to see the booth. Dave On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 10:14 PM, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com wrote: Some of you may have seen this on Twitter, but I thought it'd be fun to share here too. We've long had a very practical problem of the fact that Indy Hall just isn't designed for people who spend all day on the phone. Which is fine, people can work around that...but ultimately you need to take or make a call once in a while! We've got a few conference rooms, social spaces, and even our balcony where people step out to take a call that's more than a few minutes. In our current space, we've even set up a couple of makeshift phone booths in closets and bathrooms that people reserve for conference calls. But...me being me...I've always wanted a real phone booth. Now, I did a fair amount of calling around to see if we could score one of the old 90's Verizon booths, since they scrapped all of them in the early 2000's, I figured they' end up in a junk yard somewhere in New Jersey. But nobody at Verizon could locate that junk yard for me. Luckily, there's Craigslist. Having mentioned on more than one occasion my obsession with a phone booth, one of our members spotted a vintage Bell Telephone booth on Craigslist and sent it to our internal e-mail list. WAY better than those janky metal and plastic Verizon ones, this one was WOOD and GLASS, pressed tin interior, and even the vintage ad still in its sign holder. The price was right, and despite the need to carefully birth the 500+ pound beast from a very narrow basement stairwell it's been sitting in for what was presumably most of its life, she was was worth the wait. Check her out in all her glory: http://twitpic.com/1bcoml With original Bell Telephone decals http://twitpic.com/1bcomm Folding door open, from the side http://twitpic.com/1bcoqh That awesome vintage sign (OMG long distance!? Dial by Number!?) http://twitpic.com/1bcvui And of course, her new home at Indy Hall The moral of the story is: it's always worth the wait. -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia -- 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.comcoworking%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com . For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. -- Dave Troy meet with me: http://bit.ly/davemtg blog: www.davetroy.com (@davetroy) community: www.beehivebaltimore.org (@bhivebmore) investing: www.baltimoreangels.org (@baltimoreangels) events: @TEDxMidAtlantic, @barcampbmore, @socialdevcamp projects: www.twittervision.com, www.flickrvision.com Partner, Roundhouse Technologies -- 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.
Re: [Coworking] A question...
Yeah, +1. There's a place for insurance and paranoia and lawyers, but if that becomes the primary motivation we simply cannot act in a clearheaded fashion. Clear motives and action first, protection second. Agreed, the Phil Howard TED talk is awesome. Dave -- 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.
Re: [Coworking] Re: Coworking.com, not an org, instead a license
Not to get too far off afield, but has anyone looked into also acquiring coworking.org? Seems like if we are not wanting people to co-opt things we should cover all of those bases. Might be available free/cheap if we ask. Looks to be held by someone in the Netherlands. Dave -- 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.
Re: [Coworking] Re: A question...
Devin -- Your approach is spot on and a step forward. Something will emerge structurally as we go forward and rushing into something that doesn't serve a concrete need now is just not helpful or necessary. As much as I support coworking, taking the time to be involved in a non-profit takes time and from my point of view it's a tax on anyone who wants to advance coworking, which is counterintuitive but in fact true. Why? Because I can't ignore it. If we were to go forward with an organization or a conference now, I'd *have* to be involved in it. There may be return later, but please don't tax me now; I just don't have time. We were able to do tax deductible donations for TEDxMidAtlantic through the Baltimore Community Foundation. If we had been required to form a NP org for TEDx donations, we probably wouldn't have done it. Working with an existing nonprofit is a great way to save CPU cycles and accomplish more. Dave On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 2:59 PM, Devin devinbalk...@gmail.com wrote: We need to own coworking so no one can own it. That's my interpretation of this thread so far. I agree with this sentiment but I don't think we should be organizing structures around it. Organizations will naturally emerge around our community's needs and one of them might grow into something that should ultimately 'own' coworking.com. I can't think of anyone better to control the site until then than Alex. A conference should take place soon: definitely before any long-term legal entities are formed. At this conference, we should solidify coworking principles and figure out how we can best serve the coworking community and world. I like the idea of organizing a conference under a coop but I don't know how that works. We can receive tax-deductible donations without forming a legal entity by becoming fiscally sponsored by a nonprofit organization whose mission aligns with the coworking movement. Fiscal sponsorship of a project will not give the nonprofit any legal right to or control of the project. It can be a clean process and I know interested nonprofits. There's a ton of great information about fiscal sponsorship here: http://www.fiscalsponsordirectory.org/resources.php On Feb 27, 9:19 pm, TCS c...@thecreativespace.ca wrote: I haven't had time to keep up with the whole discussion since the domain purchase. I hope to engage a bit more ongoing. This is a good list Mike. Let's continue to positively move ahead. Peace! Chad On 2010-02-26, at 2:31 PM, Mike Schinkel wrote: I'll come back to the issues that Alex threw out a while back, paraphrased. There are several issues/topics. 1.) Recapitalizing the domain purchase. 2.) Protecting the domain (likely in a trust.) 3.) Long term management of domain (maybe a co-op, non-profit, simple LLC w/bylaws, or we can risk doing nothing.) 4.) Branding of Coworking so that we can promote it, help others market the concept, and help the average joe(sephine) to understand what it is and is not. 5.) Creating (some form of) an association that can provide services to member orgs, like negotiate for collective partnerships and discounts, etc. 6.) Running a conference (and I'd like this to be in the form of a co-op, even if the co-op lasts only for the length of each conference.) There may be more, but there are at least these. Point of note, not everyone agrees with all these goals, some don't agree with any. But each issue can be addressed separately or some can be merged. Hopefully this list can help us identify what we are discussing in any given response on this list? -Mike Schinkel Ignition Alley Atlanta Coworking http://ignitionalley.com On Feb 26, 2010, at 12:26 PM, Derek Young wrote: I have been lurking on this conversation so far, but here are a few thoughts: The greater the complexity of this organization, pseudo-organization, or bank account, the less likely it is that the organization will represent the greatest number of coworking spaces. 1. Keep it simple. Fine, we decide to organize in some way. This group is extraordinarily diverse. Let's keep the organization as flat as possible, be inclusive as possible, and only raise what we think we need for 1) the objective or 2) a series of objectives + a small percentage contingency. This prevents a hierarchy of spaces and people. This also means that there isn't some big surplus of cashing sitting around in a bank account for us to worry about. Should the group suddenly disappear, our greatest loss would be trust and not money. One of Suite133's partners is president of our local downtown business association. While very old school in membership, the issues we're talking about are amazingly similar. 2. The right answer may be some form of non-profit / membership based organization. Something that I don't think has been mentioned would be for us to find a fiscal agent willing to handle
Re: [Coworking] Coworking Economic Development
Check out the work of prof. Saras Sarasvathy on Effectuation. It's the first academic description I've seen of what really happens in coworking; replaces colloquialisms like 'accelerated serendipity' with a full blown theory for incremental risk taking and exposure to like-minded stakeholders. See my blog post on this – includes links to the original references: http://davetroy.com/?p=866 I am working with the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development on fleshing out these ideas and ways to make effectuation viral. Would be happy to discuss coworking + economic development with anyone off-list (or on). Dave -- Dave Troy meet with me: http://bit.ly/davemtg blog: www.davetroy.com (@davetroy) community: www.beehivebaltimore.org (@bhivebmore) investing: www.baltimoreangels.org (@baltimoreangels) events: @TEDxMidAtlantic, @barcampbmore, @socialdevcamp projects: www.twittervision.com, www.flickrvision.com Partner, Roundhouse Technologies On Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 12:26 PM, Jeremy Neuner jeremyneu...@gmail.comwrote: Thanks Alex, I agree that some case studies would be important in validating the potential. Mike Schinckel from Ignition Alley/Startup Atlanta contacted me off-list and mentioned that he's had some conversations with some ED folks who get it. He posed a really interesting question: have you identified yourself as a new breed of economic development director by an identifiable name or perspective (I'm thinking of branding here?) I haven't (I no longer work for the city) nor do I know anyone who has. But it's a really good idea. We've had enough informal conversations to know that a range of people (elected officials, ED professionals, commercial realtors, incubator managers, service providers,and even a few stodgy VC's) are beginning to see a teensy bit of the light. Like Alex, I'd like to hear more from those of you who have tried (both successfully and not) to engage, broadly speaking, in the economic development conversation. I've found that people are generally receptive to the idea. But when the rubber meets the road, the programs and policy infrastructure simply do not accommodate our needs as a coworking space, nor the needs of the members that we serve. Alex's example of Comcast is a really good case in point. Okay, hope to hear more from the list on this topic. And I'm looking forward to meeting many of you at SXSW. Cheers, Jeremy http://nextspace.us/ On Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 8:32 AM, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com wrote: Jeremy, Sounds like we've been having a lot of the same conversations! We've always talked about IndyHall as a vehicle towards a bigger purpose, a slice of the pie, the pie being Making Philadelphia a better place to make a living doing what you love. We've communicated with the city, as well as interacted with a number of ED entities. Many of them had agendas similar to yours: giant business/job attraction, minimal focus on retention, zero focus on small business/individuals. We have laws in PA that actually prohibit the city from creating gradated tax laws; everyone needs to be taxed the same. That is, of course, unless a giant company like Comcast comes in bringing a few thousand jobs, and then they get massive tax breaks from the city and the state. I've asked the Dept of Commerce what kind of scale do we need to get an exception like that? and they don't have concrete answers. I agree completely with Jeremy in the fact that there'd be a more stable tax base for them if they focused on the same number in smaller, individuals that have growth potential than a single company that could split town when their tax abatement is over. It's hard to state the potential until we have some cases studied, so if anyone else is doing work with their regions along these lines, I know I'd love to hear more!! Thanks for bringing this up, and great article Jeremy! -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 12:47 AM, Jeremy Neuner jeremyneu...@gmail.comwrote: Hi All, Greetings from rainy Santa Cruz, California. There's been a lot of good discussion lately about coworking as an economic development tool, including at the state of coworking meeting a couple of weeks ago in San Francisco. This is a subject that's been at the heart of NextSpace. Before starting NextSpace, I was the city's economic development manager and my co-founder, Ryan Coonerty, was the mayor of Santa Cruz (he's still a sitting city council member and will begin his second term as mayor in November). So we've always thought of coworking as economic development by other means. I'm eager to hear more stories (both successes and failures) about how others in the coworking community have engaged their local/regional governments, particularly economic development officials. I think it would be really interesting to hear from those of you outside the U.S. as well.
Re: [Coworking] Tuttle2Texas: Look out! Crazy British People Are Coming.
Lloyd, I'd suggest you allocate one of your two days in DC to doing a meetup in Baltimore. We have an active tech community here and a real coworking space (Beehive Baltimore). We could help you get a Tweetup underway and I think you would find it a refreshing complement to DC. Feel free to contact me off-list. Dave On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 4:33 AM, Lloyd Davis lloyd.da...@gmail.com wrote: Hi there Well we still don't have a proper co-working space in London yet, but things are coming along with the Tuttle Club - http://tuttleclub.wordpress.com I met some folk here at last year's SXSW and I'm looking forward to seeing you again in a couple of weeks. This year we're doing something stupid. From March 2nd to 12th we're travelling across the States from Boston to Austin for SXSW and we're taking the train. Yes, we know that your trains aren't the same as our trains, but we're doing it anyway. You can read our blog here: http://tuttle2texas.posterous.com search for #tuttle2texas on twitter. Along the way we're hoping to meet up with new people and strengthen our relationship with others whom we may only have met before on the web. We'll be holding tweetups in each of the cities we visit and also holding conversation spaces for people to meet each other. We'll be inviting people from our various networks so I expect that we'll be able to facilitate some local relationship building too. We have somewhere to do our conversation spaces in Boston (Tech Superpowers Digilounge 3/3) and Atlanta (Ignition Alley 3/8) but need somewhere to hang out in NYC (3/4, 3/5), DC (3/6, 3/7) and New Orleans (3/9, 3/10) - there are going to be four of us and we basically need somewhere where we can sit and talk with others as well as work on and upload the various bits of content we're creating as we go. Oh and probably plug in batteries and power packs too. We would also be excited to meet anyone in any of these cities who is a member of this list or anyone you think might be interesting or interested. We'll have signup pages on eventbrite for all these events in the next day or so. Please do let me know If any of you can help at all with providing us with a place to rest our weary laptops for a while. Cheers Lloyd -- Lloyd Davis Social Artist Master Community Builder Perfect Path Consulting Ltd http://www.perfectpath.co.uk/ http://tinyurl.com/2zejjs to subscribe to my blog by e-mail http://feeds.feedburner.com/PerfectPath to subscribe to my blog by RSS Call me: +44 (0)79191 82825 Skype me: perfectpath Follow me on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/LloydDavis -- 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. -- Dave Troy meet with me: http://bit.ly/davemtg blog: www.davetroy.com (@davetroy) community: www.beehivebaltimore.org (@bhivebmore) investing: www.baltimoreangels.org (@baltimoreangels) events: @TEDxMidAtlantic, @barcampbmore, @socialdevcamp projects: www.twittervision.com, www.flickrvision.com Partner, Roundhouse Technologies -- 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.
Re: [Coworking] Re: Open space or offices ?
Yes, I need to put in a big vote for open here as well. Walls are barriers to culture. To the extent that you want coworking to engender common culture, you want it to be able to flow freely. We have two large rooms, and two small offices that hang off the one largest room. Invariably people want to be in the large main room because that's where the energy is. The folks in the two offices are constantly poking their heads out to be a part of what's happening in the main area. The secondary room is more of an overflow room at this point and it only gets used occasionally or for meetings. If it was used every day all the time, it would invariably have a different cultural feel to it than the main room. IndyHall, in its version 1.0, had two floors and Alex has remarked that the main floor and the mezzanine folks had two different cultures; not vastly different but enough to notice. That all said, Beehive Baltimore's space is something we took over as-is. If we get the chance to design our own space, it'll be primarily open space with perhaps a couple of meeting areas and possibly some tiny spaces appropriate for phone calls. If you're doing nothing but private offices I think it devolves into being executive suites pretty quickly, and that's a different thang. Dave -- Dave Troy Organizer Beehive Baltimore On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 3:41 AM, jesse je...@citizenspace.us wrote: Open. We've got 20 dedicated desks in a large open plan space. Probably self-selecting, but the folks here seem happy with it. Easier to start or join a conversation with neighbors, and lots of energy seeing other people excited and working on their projects. Occasionally we have bizarro moments where it seems like everyone is on a phone call with a client, but usually it paces out fine. The fact you would also have dedicated private space for meetings and private calls is valuable. Jesse - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Jesse Taggert Citizen Space San Francisco, CA http://citizenspace.us @citizenspace On Feb 2, 1:43 pm, Mike Pihlman m...@telbitconsulting.com wrote: OK, we have a chance (as our 1 year anniversary approaches) to move to the office space next to ours. Ours has a nice open area maybe 12 x 12 (The Patio). The rest of the space has a hallway with offices 5 of them on either side, and storage. I took the doors down on the left side to encourage openness, but, use the right side offices (with doors) for cell phone use, private meetings, etc. See floorplan here: http://www.tracyvirtualoffice.com/cool-links/floorplan/ The next door space has three offices (the same as the old space on the right) that can be used for meetings, cell phone etc, but the rest of the space is wide open. The space looks and feels huge even though it is only 200 sq ft larger. Our (mostly gut) feeling is that the open space would be better. But, I was wondering if you had advice or thoughts? Thanks, Mike -- Mike Pihlman TracyVirtualOffice A Coworking Community 95 W. 11th Street, Suite 203 Tracy, CA 95376 Mobile: 209-608-4340 Web: TracyVirtualOffice.com Twitter: @TracyVirtOffice Skype: tracyvirtualoffice1 -- 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.comcoworking%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com . For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. -- Dave Troy meet with me: http://bit.ly/davemtg blog: www.davetroy.com (@davetroy) community: www.beehivebaltimore.org (@bhivebmore) investing: www.baltimoreangels.org (@baltimoreangels) events: @TEDxMidAtlantic, @barcampbmore, @socialdevcamp projects: www.twittervision.com, www.flickrvision.com Partner, Roundhouse Technologies -- 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.
Re: [Coworking] New artist and TEDxSoMa
Julian, As Alex mentioned, we just did TEDxMidAtlantic last week and it was a great experience for me and everybody involved (so I have heard). If I can be of any assistance, please feel free to email me. For what it's worth, SoMa has been a perennial influence me and actually contributed to my work on TEDx, in a roundabout way. I wrote about that here: http://davetroy.com/?p=809 You can check out the videos on the http://tedxmidatlantic.com site. Warm regards, Dave On Tue, Nov 10, 2009 at 2:46 PM, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.comwrote: Reach out to Dave Troy from Beehive Baltimore, he just organized TEDxMidAtlantic and did an AMAZING job. Take a look: http://tedxmidatlantic.com -Alex -- - -- - Alex Hillman im always developing something digital: a...@weknowhtml.com helpful: www.unstick.me visual: www.dangerouslyawesome.com local: www.indyhall.org On Tue, Nov 10, 2009 at 1:00 PM, Julian Nachtigal jrnachti...@gmail.comwrote: Hey everyone, Just wanted to let all coworkers in the SF Bay Area this week that we have our next art opening this Thursday, Nov 12th at PariSoMa. The name of the show is Zeitgeist of Narcissism, photography from Seema Hamid. The event starts at 7:30pm and we hope to see you there. In another matter, PariSoMa is now a TEDx licensee! We will be hosting our first TEDxSoMa event on Friday, January 22nd at PariSoMa. Our website has just gone live (still finishing some customization), www.tedxsoma.com and we are now looking for speakers, sponsors, and people to register. Our theme is Interactivity in Different Realms and we are trying to build a TEDxSoMa community with ongoing events every quarter. If anyone has good recommendations on people in the Bay Area who would be enlightening and inspiring speakers, and be able to deliver a strong message in 5 - 10 mins, please submit them through our speaker page (www.tedxsoma.com/speakers-for-tedxsoma). We are open to any and all recommendations and feel the coworking community of the SF Bay Area can truly help make this a great event! You can follow us at www.twitter.com/tedxsoma and www.facebook.com/tedxsoma. Has anyone hosted a TEDx event before? What has been your experience? Please register for the event too if you are interested in attending. We have 50 spots, and expect many more applicants for membership. Registration will be open for about a couple months and we will then send out formal invites. Please let me know if you have any questions via jul...@tedxsoma.com. Thanks everyone! Julian -- 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. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=. -- 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. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=. -- Dave Troy blog: www.davetroy.com (@davetroy) community: www.beehivebaltimore.org (@bhivebmore) investing: www.baltimoreangels.org (@baltimoreangels) events: @TEDxMidAtlantic, @barcampbmore, @socialdevcamp projects: www.twittervision.com, www.flickrvision.com Partner, Roundhouse Technologies -- 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. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=.
[Coworking] Re: Coworking Tour (via JetBlue?)
Feel free to throw Baltimore into the mix and join us at Beehive Baltimore! I am reasonably confident we could find a place for you to spend the night also. Dave -- Dave Troy blog: www.davetroy.com (@davetroy) community: www.beehivebaltimore.org (@bhivebmore) investing: www.baltimoreangels.org (@baltimoreangels) events: @TEDxMidAtlantic, @barcampbmore, @socialdevcamp projects: www.twittervision.com, www.flickrvision.com Partner, Roundhouse Technologies On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 2:34 PM, s...@onedesigncompany.coms...@onedesigncompany.com wrote: I bought the pass and plan on checking out spaces in all the locations I go! Let me know your itinerary once you figure it out. As of now: SF, LA, Vegas, NYC, Vermont, Boston?, St Maartin, New Orleans. I am going to figure out the coworking logistics later, anyone have any suggestions? What a good deal! Sam On Aug 19, 2:28 am, Kyle Mulka repalvigla...@yahoo.com wrote: Dear coworking peoples, I've been thinking about doing a tour of coworking places in different cities. Because JetBlue is offering an all-you-can fly deal for $599, this might be a good opportunity to actually do it.http://www.jetblue.com/deals/all-you-can-jet/ So, if you are open to me dropping in (I could pay the regular daily rate) and are located in a city served by JetBlue, could you drop me a note and maybe why I should stop by? Here's a list of JetBlue cities:http://www.jetblue.com/wherewejet/ I've got friends in the following cities, so I'm fairly certain that I'll visit them if I do this. But, I'd love to hear of other coworking places in different cities too! Seattle San Francisco and San Jose Denver (Boulder specifically) New Orleans -- Kyle Mulka Software Developer, Entrepreneurhttp://www.kylemulka.comhttp://twilk.com --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ 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 -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
