Hello! Time for a year end status report for this project. Things have been moving along and taking shape. Please report back with any updates in status or new thoughts on this project. Thank you to everyone who has been contributing and there are still plenty of opportunities to pitch in if you've been holding back. We'll regroup after the new year and start the push to get something to present at the Austin conference in March.
Enjoy the rest of the year, however you celebrate, and we'll talk soon. Jacob --- Office Nomads - Individuality without Isolation http://www.officenomads.com - (206) 323-6500 On Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 7:39 AM, Alex Hillman <[email protected]>wrote: > Hello Coworking World! > > As promised, we've returned from the weekend in Santa Monica with some > tasks and topics for further discussion. Our #1 priority for holding this > weekend was to have some focused discussion on what the global coworking > community wasn't doing - what the biggest opportunities to work together to > further coworking for everyone are. > > We're consolidating everybody's notes (and lots of photos as well) because > a LOT of amazing information was shared and we want you to have access to > as much of that as possible. > > In the mean time, want to share an overview of the weekend and some of the > results in the form of a call to action! > > *Here is the "fast-forward" summary of the actionable results of the > weekend.* > > *More background on how we got there is included below. The "directors > cut" below provides more background and insight. If you have questions, > please be sure to read that as well before replying.* > > 1. Coworking's "ad-hoc" community has generated great projects in the > past, but we never had a consistent method in place to maintain them. The > following is what we've come up to address that: > > - help people build a team first, then execute tasks and topics. > - we'll have a group of 'coordinators' (initially, myself Jerome and > Jacob), and teams of managers and volunteers. coordinators are a resource > to the teams, and teams focus on their topics/projects > > 2. We came up with a few goals to achieve, and some people have stepped up > to work on them already. Some of these topic focuses are awareness, > research, group buying/leverage, best practices documentation. This is not > all-encompassing, it's just a start. > > Additionally, coworking.com leaves room for improvement as a tool to > house high-value material that's currently buried in the wiki, google > group, etc. This means we need to both determine the [CMS] platform, and > migrate that content via the above mentioned teams. > > This form will allow you to sign up for a team, either as a volunteer or a > manager: > > https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGQxdVhHVzBGQVlGQ2l4aTFOTzdNdlE6MQ > > 3. While we do *not* at all plan to incorporate an association at this > time, we have recognized the importance of some functional entity just to > be able to hold funds, as we now have leftover "community funds" from > projects being held by multiple members of the community without any clear > path to distribution for services such as hosting coworking.com, etc. A > team is heading up the work to determine what options we have and what > remaining questions exist before we come back to the group. That working > group is researching solutions, not making an autonomous decision. > > *Directors Cut Weekend Summary* > > The attendance was diverse, and a lot of the topics raised tense > conversations. What we all agreed was that there were common goals that we > could work on together even considering our differences of opinion. Apart > from dense sharing of our experiences and knowledge, this weekend generated > the need for two primary tools: > > 1) an easy & common organizational structure - not an organization, though > - for tactical teams to form and execute coworking related projects. > > Many new projects form and quickly die, and others run because of the > ongoing effort of contributors. We want to make sure that any time a new > coworking project (not a space, but a resource or tool to help the > coworking community) is forming, people can do it in a way so that an > effort has a chance to survive. > > 2) an effort to improve our living repository of knowledge at > coworking.com and related properties (like the google group, the wiki, > the blog) > > The biggest underutilized toolset we have is coworking.com, etc, and we > want to make it a rallying point for all of the things we have to > share. It's a big task, but more then big *it's continuous and will never > be "finished".* > > Again, each team needs a manager that will take on the responsibility of > being accountable for the team as a whole. Consider this very carefully > before taking on this commitment. How the individual teams are organized > is left up to that team. We'll work together to learn from and develop a > plan for how the teams come together and how everything is presented on the > website as information is gathered and shared. > > *What it's Not* > > This tactical model lets small teams form that contain leadership and > volunteers. That's it. There was a lot of discussion around a "coworking > association" or an organization. While this model provides organization, it > is not THE organization. It is simply a mechanism for people to get more > done, and that benefits everybody who contributes and participates - just > like this group always has operated, but with more action & orientation. > > We did, however, determine that it would be universally valuable to > consolidate the now "leftover" funds from things like the > coworking.comfundraiser and even this weekend's event to make that available > for topic > projects. A team is heading up the work to determine what options we have > and what remaining questions exist before we come back to the group. That > working group (myself, Jerome, Bill Jacobson, Iris Kavanagh) is researching > solutions, not making an autonomous decision. > > *The First Topics* > > Some of our initial projects are broken out by "topic" leaders. Each topic > group will contain a topic "manager" as well as a team of volunteers. In > order for a topic team to form, there needs to be one person who "owns" the > topic as well as supporting people to help contribute to working on the > topic. > > To get started we want to take on a few specific topics and improve the > coworking.com website by the Coworking Unconference in Austin during SXSW > in March. This isn't all of the teams, or all of the work, nor is it an > indication of priority - it's simply what self selected during our > discussions! The intention is to learn as much as we can from the formation > and execution of these first few teams before we take on more ambitious > projects. > > There's a lot of ambition in this community, and that's a great problem to > have. Baby steps take us closer to our goals! > > *How You Can Get Involved!* > > So who's in? We are learning from experience and building the teams > before we tackle each project. A few of them have topic managers that have > already stepped up and need volunteers. Others need topic managers. And > clearly, we haven't thought of everything. > > In addition the ongoing teams, we need a technology team to evaluate the > system(s) we'll use for publishing and commit to helping us maintain it. > > We've got a quick form that can give you an idea of some of the topics > that need working on. > > SIGN UP > HERE<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGQxdVhHVzBGQVlGQ2l4aTFOTzdNdlE6MQ> > if > you would like to act as a volunteer or a topic manager, or suggest a new > topic team that you'd like to manage or be a part of. > > Myself, Jacob, and Jerome are working together as "coordinators" to keep > teams moving, assisting in communicating cross teams, helping identify > teams that need help, and help managers/volunteers through issues as we > learn what works and what doesn't. > > More than anything, we're here to help teams achieve their self-determined > objectives. This "meta-team" is also volunteers representing ourselves, not > our respective spaces, so please understand that we're here to help, not to > control. > > Onward and upward, coworking friends. We've got a lot of work ahead of us! > > SIGN UP > HERE<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGQxdVhHVzBGQVlGQ2l4aTFOTzdNdlE6MQ> > to > be a part of a topic team, or of course, let us know if you have any > questions. > > -Alex, Jacob, and Jerome > /ah > indyhall.org > coworking in philadelphia > > -- > 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]. 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