I agree with David wholeheartedly. The power of coworking is not in the facilities, because those elements are commodities and have forever decreasing value. Scaling facility up is relatively easy...you can just throw more money at it. And despite how you might feel about funding your efforts, money is and will always be the easy part.
Culture, on the other hand - which is the glue of what holds a strong coworking community together - is difficult. Especially through fast growth, which is often desired to help achieve an end like scaling the space and the facility. Culture is composed of norms, which can be established by anyone within that culture. They can be dictated - which tends to be the way offices are run. One of the things that fascinates me about coworking spaces is that we have the ability to provide a workspace, something that most people are relatively familiar with, and actually REMOVE the rules for how it is "supposed" to work. Ask yourself, "What happens in an office where nobody tells the workers how to act? How to interact? What to do? Where to go?". At first, there's some chaos. That's good. I learned to Embrace the Chaos<http://www.flickr.com/photos/missrogue/2611607790/> from early coworking founders like Chris Messina and Tara Hunt. Our tendencies are to control chaos, and put things in order. By avoiding that, and allowing order to emerge a bit more organically, new behavioral patterns emerge. These patterns, in the context of coworking, are the things that the press likes to write about: Collaboration & work exchange. Increased charity and giving. Better support for local industries. Happier people. Increased business foundation. Camaraderie and friendship. We're building blank canvases for work patterns to emerge from, and I think that the work patterns that exist when nobody told them to are the most interesting and the most sustainable to practice. Those elements don't truly emerge until someone gets out of their way and simply lets them. Telling people to collaborate is a lousy way to have it happen, because it's always dependent on you telling them. Creating opportunities for people to discover collaboration on their own creates a rolling effect that's difficult if not impossible to stop once it starts. I like to look at coworking and ask: Are you contributing to the development of an ecosystem - one dependent on the health of its host - or a community - a self sustaining organism that while it may have a figurehead, could live on in other capacities without you? All of that said...the question was what are the challenges to growing/scaling? These same elements that provide a very strong cultural base for a coworking community also pose a challenge as you grow. Consider this essay<http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2010/06/08/pick-up.html>by Michale Lopp (of Rands in Repose). In it, he talks about a pickup hockey game played by Netscape employees every weekend for 14 years. A game with only 3 simple rules. Unwritten rules, but understood rules. Rather than referee every game and start by reminding everyone of the rules, they just played. If someone new joined the game, and disobeyed one of the rules, it was up to one of the other players to let them know the rules, and then they could play on. That is, until, a larger group with its own critical mass came in all at once. In one game, more arguments and fights, occurred than ever had in the history of the game. Its not because that group was unnecessarily feisty, but because it's much harder to grow a group that's built on cultural norms - like the rules of the pickup game or the interactions of a coworking space - when lots of new people show up at once. So what do we have at our disposal within our various coworking communities? First, we have our membership. *Existing membership is the foundation of your culture, not you.* If they want something to change, its best to embrace the chaos and let it change, for the better. Making sure that existing members are having opportunities to build strong relationships is key, because they'll be there to defend the cultural norms important to them. On the list, some people have made recent mention of "Town Hall" meetings and members lunches. These are *excellent* for building relationships because they allow coworkers to interact with each other with the context of membership but without the context of work. That means they are not worried about interrupting or otherwise inconveniencing each other. Every time Indy Hall has deviated from a focus on heling create these contexts, and at the same time experienced a growth spurt in membership, we have had issues. Some can be small, like a noticeable increase in people who come in, put on their headphones, work all day without talking to anyone, and then going home. Others can be large, like the introduction of a disruptive member. Truly toxic things, like poorly ending collaborations and even theft, are more likely to occur when people aren't on the same page with what to expect from one another. If you don't know what "normal" looks like in a given culture, how are you supposed to know if something is wrong? When the community grows quickly but nobody is there to introduce the newbs to the cultural norms, the "hum" of a coworking space - the thing that gets most people excited but they can't quite put their finger on - tends to decrease in volume. I've seen it repeatedly times, and not just at Indy Hall. I've seen it happen on this e-mail list as it has grown from less than 100 people to over 2500. Consider your coworking efforts like mini-societies, and consider the challenges of scaling ANY society. They're universal, they're interesting, and the solutions we're all coming up with are insanely cool and powerful. -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Sat, Jul 10, 2010 at 5:12 AM, Dave Ruzius <[email protected]> wrote: > This may be the case if the business case solely relies on these > facilities offered... > > In my opinion (and my favorite topic) the true value is not created by > the facility, the fax machine or the wifi connection... It's about the > people in the coworking community, the value of being part of that > community and what a Coworker together with bunch of smart people is > capable of. The collborative environment with its facilities are mere > enablers for good stuff to be able to happen. > These facilities should be offered in a sustainable way and should be > made scalable to grow (unlimited....) with the seize of the community. > > A coworking project should be able to prove that the true value comes > from "working better, together" and the new social and business > benefits Coworking brings. > Also I believe there is no threat from public meetups, seminars etc... > We've seen a huge difference between the value coming from and > experiencing 'public' meetups versus knowledge sharing sessions among > members of TheWorks community during Jellies. As members are getting > to know eachother there are no or at least way less barriers for > discussion, participation. I'd like to see these sessions organized > for and by the TheWorks community as "mini barcamps on steroids" > > So... imho... there are no barriers for growth if you can scale the > enabling facilities together with the growth of the community and are > able to prove that the value is not delivered by the facilities but by > the community and the opportunities that will arise by being part of > that community... > > my 2 czech crowns > > TheWorks > Dave Ruzius > http://www.theworks.cz > > On Sat, Jul 10, 2010 at 1:21 AM, Kent Lockart <[email protected]> > wrote: > > I think one of the key barriers to coworking's growth in fee based sites > is > > being able to show added value for the price of membership/usage. > > > > WiFi, public desktops, and Meetups are free and abundant. I can locate > > like-minded people (or help) geographically anywhere I am in real time > with > > my mobile. I don't print or fax. Clients are accepting of private > > conversations in public spaces. > > > > These things make the business case harder but not impossible. After > all, > > vending machines selling bottled water still make money even when they > are > > located next to a free water fountain or sink-tap. > > > > Cheers, > > > > Kent > > > > PS - I'm assuming the next question is going to be how to overcome the > > barriers.... I'm not sure but I believe it will need to be a blended > > solution of many creative things. > > > > > > > > On Jul 9, 2010, at 3:50 PM, marileebowlescarey wrote: > > > >> What do people think are the key barriers to growth in coworking? > >> > >> Marilee > >> > >> -- > >> 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%[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]<coworking%[email protected]> > . > > For more options, visit this group at > > http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. > > > > > > > > -- > Dave Ruzius > http://www.theworks.cz > > -- > 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%[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.
