Congratulations, Alex. Great work! There's clearly a desire among the coworking community to put in a stake in the ground and create something that more collectively represents the maturity (or maturing?) of the community!
I think this initiative worked because it was 1) focused 2) had a deadline 3) resulted in a tangible outcome. Given that there's probably still people who would like to chip in, I wonder if you can't quickly look into hiring a contractor or company to build out the coworking.com website? Perhaps put out a limited RFP to the coworking community and then have the various proposals presented at SXSW and then voted on to quickly move things forward with the opportunity to raise a second amount of money to cover the costs of such a site? While I'm sure we/you could find volunteers to help, nothing motivates and catalyzes effort like positive income (i.e. cash) — and the Drupal community demonstrated that there can be a mix of open process, design leadership, and contracting out to arrive at a solution that hopefully many feel bought in to and works for the needs of a wide constituency. I also would caution against trying to create a massive or feature- rich site on coworking.com. I really like workatjelly.com for its straightforwardness and simplicity — and think that coworking.com should follow this model. Anyway, that's how I might proceed if I were in Alex's shoes — now that people have expressed an interest and committed to it with dollars — can we turn it into a secondary outcome that builds upon the initial success? Chris On Feb 15, 2:52 pm, Alex Hillman <[email protected]> wrote: > WOW. In under 24 hours, we've raised pledges for over $9000. Over $6000 of > that has been paid via paypal. > > *That said, I'm putting new sponsorships ON HOLD.* I think that we will be > able to come up with new, shared value propositions to allow more spaces to > find themselves sponsor links on the coworking.com homepage. If you feel > like you missed out, PLEASE DON'T. > > This is NOT the end. It's only the beginning! I promise I won't be running > off with your money :) > > If you've pledged, or attempted to fill out the form and did not pay via > paypal at the end, I'll be sending you a paypal money request. I'd like to > ask that pledges are paid by end of business day tomorrow. > > Once again, this has been incredible, and went much much much faster than I > thought it would. I'm so proud of this community, and look forward to > sharing the value of our new domain together! > > /ah > indyhall.org > coworking in philadelphia > > On Mon, Feb 15, 2010 at 5:32 PM, Alex Hillman > <[email protected]>wrote: > > > > > Awesome, Raines. Thanks for your support! > > > I said this to Mike Schinkel, offline: > > > This isn't buying a membership to an association. This is contributing to a > >> specific cause, and being a sponsor. > > > I think that we're on the path to form something more organic and > >> accurately representative of what this community needs instead of bucketing > >> it into a co-op or any other organization just because we know what that > >> looks like. > > > I think we're getting more organized, and there's no doubt about > >> that...and I'm happy to lead the charge and have the community's support :) > > > Hang tight, everybody. Talleying everything up now, in terms of pledges and > > actual payments. A few people have requested paypal invoices, they'll be > > coming shortly. > > > -Alex > > > /ah > > indyhall.org > > coworking in philadelphia > > > On Mon, Feb 15, 2010 at 3:52 PM, Raines Cohen <[email protected]> wrote: > > >> I'm in. *Coworking Coaches* is now a $1K sponsor (*does that put us over > >> the top? Don't stop the pledging*), and I'm looking forward to a > >> collaborative process of building a sustainable, resilient virtual home > >> base > >> for the coworking movement. > > >> I consider my investment here a downpayment on building the community > >> infrastructure and helping coworking stand on its own two feet as a peer > >> with cohousing, worker/business cooperatives, incubators, and similar > >> ventures -- to be celebrated, understood, and appreciated for its > >> uniqueness > >> but also for what it can share, in history, education, tools, and > >> philosophy. > > >> Perhaps we can structure what we do as we build collective capacity and > >> set up an organization so that after the domain is covered, others can step > >> up in other ways to match the initial effort, for the work that follows. > > >> Raines Cohen, Coworking Coach <http://www.CoworkingCoach.com/> > >> *Planning for Sustainable Communities* (Berkeley, CA) > >> Founding Member, Hub Bay Area <http://BayArea.the-hub.net/> coworking for > >> social entrepreneurs > >> <http://BayArea.the-hub.net/> > > >> -- > >> 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]<coworking%2bunsubscr...@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. 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