I've been sharing a bunch of thoughts regarding the growth of this community, and the fact that online and off, there are a number of major issues. What I struggle with is the appropriate forum for this discussion, as this thread is already demonstrating. The wiki isn't it, because it's a cesspool of unorganized information. Emails/mailing lists are difficult, especially with the scale and diversity of THIS list.
SXSW is a good start, because there's an existing critical mass, but it also comes with baggage. I'm not 100% certain where to start, but I do agree that if we don't discuss something to maintain the unity of this group, there's significant risk for all of us as space owners, catalysts, and coworkers as things continue to evolve. Does anyone have experience moderating large group phone calls? One idea that I've had (and I've heard from others as well) would be some sort of scheduled call between coworking space owners is in order as a starting point. The same thing could be replicated across the other factions/roles (catalysts, coworkers, etc), and then we can start to cross pollenate. I think that right now this group is too large with too many independent agendas to be a productive, focused working environment, and it makes sense to fragment a bit in order to gain some order. My response, like Christopher's original post, clearly isn't fully baked. I did want to express that I'd read and agree with some of the concepts, and strongly disagree with others. What I'd like to see is that before we do ANYTHING, a very finite mission is crafted that we're working towards, that we can refer back to when things (inevitably) get off track. That way, if what we're doing/discussing ever goes against the mission, we have the ability to keep each other in check and either re-orient, or agree to recreate the mission. Remember, that mission is NOT the same as the definition of coworking. That's my .02 and a starting point I'd like to offer. Given that myself, Tara, and Tony will be sharing close quarters for the next couple of weeks (and visiting a lot of coworking spaces across the country as we embark tonight on Whuffaoke), I imagine by the end of our journey something will begin to crystalize. Thanks for igniting this conversation, Chris. I'm fascinated to see where it takes us. -Alex, IndyHall -- ----- -- ----- Alex Hillman im always developing something digital: [email protected] helpful: www.unstick.me visual: www.dangerouslyawesome.com local: www.indyhall.org On Wed, Jul 15, 2009 at 8:35 AM, Todd O'Neill <[email protected]> wrote: > > I was talking with one of our drop in visitors yesterday and he asked > if there were any coworking locations in his city (Madison Wisconsin). > I explained that he could go to the wiki and do a search (which I did > for him; Madison-- when will you be up and running?). I also mentioned > there had been work on a Google map listing of coworking locations > around the world but the development on it was dormant. > > And that's how we started discussing similar concepts to Chris' > proposal for federated coworking. I explained that to date the > coworking movement has been grass roots, enabled by online and social > media. And that, in my opinion, there needed to be some organizing in > order to move efforts like the Google Map or the Coworking Visa > forward unless some "heroes" come forward to make those and others > efforts happen. I've worked in volunteer and professional associations > for a loonngg time. Heroic action can get things done. And the > disappearance of the heroic actor(s) can cause the great activity to > end (the Google Map.) Our visitor comes from the slow food, community > agriculture movement. He totally got the challenge we face to organize > disparate local communities into one cohesive whole. > > This forum is a great place to learn from early leaders and exchange > ideas. It is a great organizing entity. I am indebted to everyone here > for what I've learned. (And likewise guilty about not sharing as much > as I have learned.) > > Each of our individual coworking locations have more in common than > are different. What makes us unique is how we take the common elements > and utilize them in and for our communities. > > As an international coworking community we may have reached the > tipping point where there needs to be some organization, adhoc or > otherwise. Federation is a nice starting term. And rather than invent > how this is organized I'm sure we can look to other grassroots > movements (food policy, transportation, etc.) about how they > "formalized" their "association" between their local community groups. > > Chris, I will vote for your session to be sure. But SXSW does not have > to be the only organizing platform. I have some ideas I'm working on > in that respect. More later. > > Cheers! > > Todd O'neill > Partner, C4 Workspace > San Antonio, Texas > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
