Wow Derek, way to get right to the heart of the matter! I think the "profit" conversation that comes up quite a bit is a little too simplistic. As someone who's part of a strong, profitable coworking community I often find the "corporate vs hippy" debate confusing. Derek's point about priorities is pretty key though. Which is more important? Why do we do what we do? We have a profitable business because our community loves us and our community loves us because our hearts are in the right place. It's a win-win and I love this kind of business.
I've watched so many people try and explain this with words and it doesn't quite do it justice. We try to define coworking as if that is going to solve this problem once and for all. Now we are seeing qualifiers like "true coworking" or "traditional coworking". I don't really know how to do any better when limited to words. So personally I try to see where I can get around words. Locally I invite people into our space and show them what we are about first hand. Globally I contribute to the conversation here on the google group, and put my energy into collaborative projects that help us all succeed (shameless plug for the wiki project!<http://opencoworking.org/coworkingwiki/>). So that's what I'm doing... Jacob --- Office Nomads - Individuality without Isolation http://www.officenomads.com - (206) 323-6500 On Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 3:10 PM, Jerome Chang <[email protected]> wrote: > 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. > 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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