Hey Jacob Totally agree with your observation that the critical element is a capable and sustained human element. If we were to send a postcard from the future, I think it might reveal a global coworking industry with many many thousands of healthy, enduring coworking venues, that have garnered the loyal support of millions of regular and occasional users. The industry will have deservedly garnered the attention of vendors and service providers who have crafted products and services uniquely attuned to the needs of coworkers and cowork operators. And (bear with me I'm gettin' around to your question) there will be a healthy member funded advocacy organization that has been instrumental in raising awareness of coworking, administering to the coworking library of congress, and fostering relationships and opportunities that serve the community as a whole. This advocacy organization will have full time staff who have eagerly made advocacy their career (or nominally one of their hats).
I think this is not an if but a when. So let's get clear on the future reality we wish to create... And get their sooner. Short answer: member funded organization pays for full time resource(s). This model is well established in other real estate sectors and many many other industries. Mark Gilbreath CEO/Founder 208.720.8107 [email protected] LiquidSpace(TM) - find a better space to work. We're a location-based mobile application that lets you use your phone to find a better space to meet and work, book it, check in securely, and share it with your colleagues. Visit www.liquidspaceapp.com to learn more! On Jan 25, 2011, at 11:44 AM, Jacob Sayles <[email protected]> wrote: > Thanks everyone! > > I've been thinking a lot about this and there are still a lot of ways this > could go. The trick is creating something that can process the consistent, > steady flow of data with an inconsistent, volunteer work force. That or you > shift to a non-volunteer work force, which requires money. How do folks see > this working out? The topic of fundraising has come up before. Where are > folks at these days? > > And I'll proactively respond to anyone that comes back with "If you use > <insert software tool here> you won't need anyone to manage the data". This > is fundamentally not a software problem as all tools still need humans to use > them and keep them running and it doesn't matter how "easy" it is. > > So back to my original question. How do we build an organization that is > tasked with gathering and organizing all this wonderful data? > > Jacob > > --- > Office Nomads - Individuality without Isolation > http://www.officenomads.com - (206) 323-6500 > > > On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 8:23 PM, Alex Hillman <[email protected]> > wrote: > Amen to what Tony said. > > /ah > indyhall.org > coworking in philadelphia > > > On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 11:11 PM, Tony Bacigalupo <[email protected]> > wrote: > I was walking to my subway train yesterday and a postcard laying on the > sidewalk caught my eye. > > It was a promotion for a creative space in Brooklyn that touted coworking > space as one of its offerings. > > It was not far from the neighborhood I live in. I had never heard of it. And > I'm in the business of knowing who's doing coworking in NYC. > > In other words, the cat is very much out of the bag. People are taking the > coworking concept and running with it in a lot of different directions, so > forget any notion of an official or central anything. > > Jacob, build something awesome and they will come. There are more of us every > single day! > > Cheers, > Tony > ------ > New Work City - Community Center for Independents. > Web: http://nwc.co > Twitter: http://twitter.com/nwc > Announcing NWCU: Our people-powered educational program. http://nwc.co/u > > > > On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 10:54 PM, Alex Hillman <[email protected]> > wrote: > An initiative like this needs strong leadership with clearly defined > intentions. Jacob's done a good job articulating this here and in one-on-one > conversations, though there's still work to be done defining it and he > recognizes that. He's got a well expressed vision tempered with an open mind. > > I've expressed my concerns about the potential for "over-organization" with > the coworking community, but also see great work being done by good leaders > who guide and motivate - like Angel's work this past year with the Coworking > Blog. I'd love to see that sort of progress made elsewhere, as well. > > There's a happy medium that can be achieved, and I can't think of a better > person to head this up than Jacob. > > Just don't fuck it up, man. :) > > -Alex > > /ah > indyhall.org > coworking in philadelphia > > > > On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 10:31 PM, The Orchestrator <[email protected]> wrote: > Jacob, > > This somewhat describes a "Coworking Collective" as a resource center to help > all coworking establishments. It allows individuality or allows those to > team up as well, and allows for profit or not for profit. There are so many > resources spawning around coworking, someone or some organization has to and > needs to "collect" it, organize it and set up sessions for all to meet and go > beyond this cyber communications world. From my own personal experience on > this google groups and other cyber forums, there are people on here and there > who don't have a clue, or could be some teenager just chiming in, at random. > I called someone on here to get a one on one chat to see if he was for real, > and the guy was off his rocker, with profanity, etc. basically a waste of my > time. I think I've earned my way with education, hard work, and proven and > seasoned experience to not waste my time speaking to a child like person I > met on Google Groups or some other cyber collaboration platform, where I'm > looking for answers to my questions, related to coworking and to help me > become successful. > > Coworking is growing, no doubt about it. I feel it should allow for > independence and create opportunities, it has to be organized or it's > somewhat complete chaos, dysfunctional and disorganized, and there's a lot of > "he said, she said". > > I thought I'd just share my opinion and experience and I appreciate your time. > > Thank you! > > > On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 3:35 PM, Jacob Sayles <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello, > > I've been putting a lot of time and thought into how we share data, the data > we share, and what could be done with all this data. I've chimed in here and > there but I wanted to throw out some ideas that keep coming up and where I'm > currently at. First, it's important to recognize that our community has > exploded in recent years and has grown quite large and broad both in terms of > geography and diversity. One extraordinary aspect of this community is the > desire to share openly everything from startup tips, marketing advice, and > best practices to legal documents, annual reports, and business plans. The > current systems used to facilitate this sharing are our google group and the > coworking wiki. Their primary advantages are their neutrality and openness > and their ability to grow organically as the community grows and different > players come and go. I love that these simple systems can be so effective > and instrumental in our growth and I want to recognize that even with their > faults they have facilitated this community effectively. The topic of where > they are lacking has come up and has been discussed frequently. Usually it > follows the pattern that some other tool would do a better job and it's > countered by the fact that every tool has things that it does well, and > things it does not. Also, switching systems is very disruptive and time > consuming and with an all volunteer effort such as this it's unclear who is > going to take on the work. > > What we've witnessed time and again is that setting up great collaboration > tools isn't the hard part. The problem is organizing volunteers, maintaining > momentum and growing the solutions over time. Case in point is the Google > Map. Someone set this up long ago, yet it's unmaintained and out of date, > rendering it useless. The fact that it was easy to setup is irrelevant and > misleading. It's important to take a holistic/systems view and consider all > these little intricate elements when trying to find "solutions". > > To that end, I've been having a lot of individual conversations, with a wide > array of folks, exploring different ways to take on these challenges. I > believe this can be done without the disruption of switching tools or > enforcing standards on the group. Our diversity and our independence is what > makes us so beautiful and that should be embraced, not mitigated to make > solutions easier to implement. One way to do this that continually comes up > is the formation of an organization that can take the time to focus on these > specific issues. This organization would have the simple, and specific goal > of organizing and maintaining the data coworking spaces love to share and > helping coordinate free/libre/open source projects that benefit the coworking > community. I believe a dedicated, neutral entity, can strike the right > balances and maintain the right focus to make something like this work. The > image of a library comes to mind and it makes me wonder if we need a > coworking library. > > And more and more terrific projects are emerging from within the community > every day that would benefit from more support, coordination, and > information. Great examples include Stephanie's indexing of the Google Group > conversations, Jonathan's development of the Coworking Registry, the > Coworking Blog, Hallen Projekt, PariSOMA iPhone app, Coworking Europe and the > SxSW unconference. With the diversity of talent and global reach of the > coworking movement, more collaboration will enable us to accomplish even more > amazing things. > > I want to open the discussion to the whole group and see whether people think > an organization like this is necessary and if this is going in the right > direction? Would you support this endeavor and/or participate? What other > tasks/challenges do you think should be taken on? Everything is still very > early in the development and it's really more about pinning down a core > philosophy which I've tried to communicate here as best I could. > > Thoughts, comments, concerns? > > Jacob > > --- > Office Nomads - Individuality without Isolation > http://www.officenomads.com - (206) 323-6500 > -- > 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. > > -- > 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. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. 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