Chris, Sounds like a cool idea that I'd love to talk more about. From what I understand, there have been steps which are being taken along those lines of promoting further connectivity between spaces. Being on here is one of those steps, as quite a number of space owners/administrators post pretty regularly about all sorts of topics. There's also alot of collaboration going on between some of the more truly established spaces. I don't know if you've heard of the coworking visa, but I'd definitely consider it part of the growth and evolution of coworking.
Unfortunately though, it's hard to have much of a thought on the subject without more information. Most of the things you list are things that I'm sure have been bandied about at one point or another in different forms, but without some specific thoughts it's hard to have feedback. I'd love to hear some more specifics though. Also, We've got a space up here in Richardson called Company|Dallas, and if you'd like to talk about this in person, please feel free to give me a shout. Matthew [email protected] http://www.companydallas.com http://www.twitter.com/companydallas On Tue, Jul 14, 2009 at 9:13 PM, Chris Stewart<[email protected]> wrote: > > Good Evening All, > > My name is Chris Stewart, and I'm currently a software developer > for an insurance company based near Dallas, Texas. I've been > passionate about coworking for over a year now, and decided to write a > 2010 SXSW Interactive panel proposal on Federated Coworking. I was a > panel liaison this year and loved the experience so much that I > decided to put together a panel of my own. The term "federated > coworking" doesn't seem to be used at the moment, but my thought > behind it is the need for greater collaboration and resource pooling > between existing spaces to raise awareness of coworking to the general > population. It appears from reading posts on this forum and elsewhere > about the Starfish/Spider argument that coworking spaces are against > strong top-down organizational hierarchy, and are happy to work > independently from each other apart from knowledge sharing and > occasional meetups. My contention is that we need to respect the > desire for coworking spaces to maintain independent, unique > atmospheres, while at the same time embracing new levels of > connectivity. > > From my perspective, federated coworking is an umbrella term used > to represent a centralized authority elected by the spaces to 1) > represent their interests amongst government, business leadership, and > the general public; 2) serve as a collection point for knowledge, > money (to fund awareness and development), and best practices; 3) > provide training to people who want to start a coworking space but > have no idea how to begin; and 4) actively develop new coworking > spaces in partnership with area business and government to house > creative collectives of individuals who will have the benefit of a > comfortable, warm office environment in community with other creatives > without the office politics of a traditional office. > > Whether or not the SXSW panel is approved, I believe it's important > that we begin asking tough questions about the future of coworking, as > this movement will not grow to its fullest potential housed in loosely- > connected silos. I'd like to present several plans during the panel on > what federated coworking could look like, and allow the panelists to > debate the pros and cons of each strategy. Instead of making a lot of > noise during the event and then returning to the status quo, we can > make this panel a jumping off point to real-world change in the way we > approach coworking. > > I'll add more thoughts on this subject as I listen to your > feedback. Respond to this post directly or contact me via twitter > @socialtopher. > > Thanks, > > Chris Stewart > Endaris (my iPhone stealth company) > http://www.twitter.com/socialtopher > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
