I understand the perspective, I just think it's shortsighted. But as I'm in the vocal minority here, I'll abstain from further debate.
-Mike Schinkel Ignition Alley Atlanta Coworking http://ignitionalley.com On Mar 3, 2010, at 10:56 AM, Tony Bacigalupo wrote: > I think we mostly all don't like the idea of people co-opting the word. If > someone has a reasonable solution to offer, feel free to share. One hint, the > answer is not to try to create an authority which must decide who gets to use > the word and who doesn't. > > The issue is that "coworking" is more of a concept than a brand. Spaces that > truly embody the *concept* behind the buzz are the ones that will benefit the > most from the trend in the long term, even if others try to jump on the > bandwagon and water down the word itself. > > We're all probably sick of hearing about how everyone's "going green," but > the companies that really get it and embrace environmental sustainability in > their practices are the ones which are going to win out in the long run. > > People have a growing need for real coworking. People that provide something > that fulfills that need will find success. > > "Coworking" is a wonderful word, but we can only rely on it to take us so > far. We are building organizations which we hope to be sustainable in the > long run, I hope, and should therefore be able to continue to thrive in a > future world in which there's an untold number of coworking, cobaking, > colaundry, whatever spaces everywhere. New Work City will still be around > down the road not because it's coworking, but because it's New Work City. The > concept behind coworking is of course at its core, but if the word itself > gets watered down or goes away, we'll still be here. > > There's been talk in the past about what the future of coworking is, and I > posited that one day it will just be "working." Whether the word gets used or > not, the concept behind coworking is being woven into how we think about work > and life in general, and that's awesome. We get to help build that. > > Aside from the lower-case "coworking," the concept, we've also described > capital-c "Coworking" as a movement, and movements have their own life cycle > of growth, peak, and decline. But this email's long enough so I'll leave it > at that for now :) > > We got off track from discussing specific actionable things. What can we do > to advance the discussion of a license/badge to a place where a decision can > be made and we can move on? > > Tony > --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > New Work City - Work with, not for. > Web: http://nwcny.com > Twitter: http://twitter.com/nwc > Email: [email protected] > Phone: (888) 823-3494 > > > On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 5:15 PM, Mike Schinkel <[email protected]> > wrote: > On Mar 2, 2010, at 4:57 PM, Alex Hillman wrote: >> I could see it make some sense in theory, but I think falls more into >> traditional business paranoia than any scope of reality. > > It's not business paranoia, it's a concern about branding. > > If someone going to run a space branded as "Coworking" I would think that > someone would want to make sure that brand means something and it means what > they offer. If there's no guarantee that it won't be diluted and come to > effectively mean nothing then I think they'd be better off coming up with > their own term and promoting that instead. > > -Mike Schinkel > Ignition Alley Atlanta Coworking > http://ignitionalley.com > > > > > > -- > 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. > > > -- > 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. -- 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.
