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 Google Group, the coworking community is big enough to handle these differences in perspectives. The most controversial panelist was Gary Swart of oDesk, partially because, as he said, he disagreed with how the rest of us defined coworking. He was really talking about virtual teams, and so he talked about business value rather than community values, efficiency rather than support, and business relationships rather than real relationships. And he said in the Q&A that "we don't care where our people work." That's a shocker if you think he's talking about coworking. But once you realize that he's talking about virtual teams, things snap into place: the more virtual teaming happens, the more people will search for places where they prefer to work, places where they can recover the sorts of relationships that virtual teams can't provide. Places like coworking spaces. It's no coincidence that the coworking spaces I've visited are filled with members of virtual teams, telecommuters, and entrepeneurs. And that's why I decided to include Gary. In any case, I regret that the panel came off as an atrocity and an insult to you. My intention was to connect coworking to a heritage, to demonstrate how it fit larger trends of work, and to see what it tells us about how those trends will evolve. I still think the panel accomplished that. For those who didn't see my portion of the panel, the slides are here: <http://spinuzzi.blogspot.com/2010/03/sxswi-what-coworking-tells-us- about.html>. See what you think, and don't hesitate to comment. CS On Mar 31, 6:24 pm, Tony Bacigalupo <[email protected]> wrote: > The coworking summit was very productive for me, if only because it > permitted me to meet a few bright minds whom I had never encountered before, > and managed to have one or two very high-level conversations that would have > otherwise been impossible. > > This was the result of Chris having instructed us to pair off after the > video portion-- someone sought me out, we sat down, and had a conversation > that made the whole trip worthwhile. > > I had a similar experience at the Coworking Meetup. In the case of both > events, I had to leave early due to hard obligations, and was dying to stay > in both cases because of the raw potential of the knowledge that was being > shared among like-minded coworking leaders. > > For future events, there's no reason not to continue to aim for the same > sorts of things that we do in our coworking spaces - facilitate > conversations, collaboration, and serendipity. The pre-planned panel > discussion at the Coworking Summit, for example, was what I'd consider to be > the least productive part of the event-- and it was the most structured and > planned part. I don't see that as a coincidence. > > There should be a healthy balance of structure and un-structure-- perhaps > some frameworks, general guidlines, to help shape conversation-- and then > lots of opportunity for people to have the kind of deep conversations we > just can't have when we're all in our respective cities. > > So that's my insight on those events. > > Also, the Future of Coworking Panel was an atrocity and an insult, because > the hand-picked set of people included people whose connection to and > knowledge of the concept and movement were tangential at best and convoluted > at worst. So my takeaway from that is that any future event should be > careful not to impose the viewpoints of people who have no business speaking > on the subject. > > Cheers, > 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 Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 5:58 PM, Jay <[email protected]> wrote: > > I was unable to go to this year's SXSW, and was hoping there'd be more > > of a discussion online from the people that were able to attend the > > Coworking Meetup or the Summit. Other than the summit video that was > > posted, I was unable to find too much discussion in the group or > > elsewhere. > > > Would love to know from those who were able to attend: > > - What did you think about the meetup or the summit? > > - What was good and what can be improved for future coworking get > > togethers? > > - Which topics (either planned or unplanned) did you find most > > interesting or useful? > > - More importantly, any insights/lessons gained from meeting others > > that run or work in other coworking spaces? > > - Did any new ideas or future projects sprout from meeting with > > others? > > > Looking forward to reading some of your answers. Hopefully, it can be > > useful to the other coworking events that some of you may already be > > planning. > > > Cheers, > > > Jay > >www.thenetworkhub.ca > > twitter.com/jaycatalan > > > -- > > 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. 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.
