FaceBook has profit as a primary motivator and they have plenty of community. I think profit and community can go hand-in-hand. Building a good community requires resources - there is no free lunch.
Believing that profit prevents authenticity would similarly accuse "wealthy" people of lacking authenticity. Authenticity is the end result, not dependent upon the means to get there. At the risk of speaking for Grind, I think that their efforts to "distance themselves from the word coworking" is more of an attempt to distinguish themselves from the rest of the 'competition', rather than actually not being coworking. Jerome ______________ BLANKSPACES "work FOR yourself, not BY yourself" www.blankspaces.com ph: 323.330.9505 | 5405 Wilshire Blvd (2 blocks west of La Brea) Los Angeles, CA 90036 On Apr 4, 2012, at 2:27 PM, Derek Neighbors wrote: > Making profit is not bad. However, when it is the primary motivator for a > space owner it certainly increases the friction in building community. I > would say that its a directly proportional connection. The more important > profit is to the space owner the more difficult it is for them to build real > authentic community. > > I am neither advocating that one size fits all or that all space should not > have monetary capital costs. However, when the majority of the spaces > labeling themselves as coworking are less about community and more about > profit we can't get confused or upset when community spaces actively distance > themselves from the word coworking. > > -- > Derek Neighbors > Gangplank > > On Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 1:52 PM, Jerome Chang <[email protected]> wrote: > Is making a profit for a business necessarily bad for the coworking community? > Coworking has brought about great ways to collaborate, and to create > community. Those kinds of intangible ideals will obviously manifest in many > different ways. I don't think there is one "true" coworking, nor two or > three, just as there is no one "true" art. > > > Jerome > ______________ > BLANKSPACES > "work FOR yourself, not BY yourself" > > www.blankspaces.com > ph: 323.330.9505 | 5405 Wilshire Blvd (2 blocks west of La Brea) Los Angeles, > CA 90036 > > On Apr 4, 2012, at 12:02 PM, Derek Neighbors wrote: > >> Beth, >> >> As someone who also has distanced themselves from "coworking" I can >> sympathize. Coworking as a fad has become largely about space owners trying >> to make money running their "coworking business" and/or propagating >> corporations are evil and freelancer nation will rule the world. All of >> these things make building community more difficult in the long run. >> >> I think the initial incarnation of coworking was very much about community, >> but it became a victim of its own success and now a days its hard to >> distinguish most coworking spaces from shared office groups like Regus other >> than more modern layout/furniture. >> >> I think that Alex at IndyHall, Tony at NewWorkCity and the good folks at >> Office Nomads have made a great push in the last two years to try to get >> things centered back around community and many others have stepped up and >> started to turn the ship. >> >> So while many spaces sound like "true" coworking, they are still the >> minority. What can we do to fix this? >> >> -- >> Derek Neighbors >> Gangplank >> >> On Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 9:49 AM, Beth Buczynski <[email protected]> wrote: >> I'm confused...Benjamin goes to such great lengths to say that Grind >> isn't a coworking space because it's not "an incubator or an >> accelerator" and that the "chairs, the tables, the real-estate, >> renting a seat or a desk are secondary to constructing a strong >> community." That sounds EXACTLY like true coworking to me! While >> coworking spaces can act like incubators, the spaces that exist purely >> to facilitate this aren't necessarily committed to the community >> aspects that set coworking apart from every other type of work space. >> On a related but unrelated note, Grind's pop-up coworking space during >> SxSW was really great. Anyone else check it out? >> >> Beth >> @gonecoworking >> >> On Apr 3, 8:07 pm, David Singer <[email protected]> wrote: >> > David Judson, the proprietor ofwww.mystartstory.com-- long form >> > interview of founders of starups has included two piorneering >> > coworking/collaborative workspace founders in his series: Benjamin >> > Dyett, founder of Grind [www.grindspaces.com] and Jenifer Ross, >> > Founder of W@tercooler [www.watercoolerhub.com]. I highly recommend >> > these reads -- both of these individuals have inspired me to do a deep >> > dive into exploring coworking on multiple levels. The links to the >> > interviews are here: >> > >> > Benjamin Dyett: http://mystartstory.com/benjamin-dyett/ >> > >> > Jenifer Ross: http://mystartstory.com/jenifer-ross/ >> > >> > David A. Singerwww.twitter.com/davidasinger >> >> -- >> 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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