There can be a correlation between size and this effect, but I caution you from mistaking correlation for causation.
In particular, note this bit from the member's email: I went to a couple other coworking spaces just to see if maybe there > weren’t other options. They called themselves coworking but what they > really were was co-officing. They were lifeless. Underimagined. Not a shred > of a sense of a vibe of who they were. > > I asked a co-founder to tell how they would describe their space as if it > was a person – Would they be curious? Irreveverant? Respectful? Genuine? > Playful? Quiet? Conservative? Experimental? He just looked at me funny and > started telling me on to what kind of wifi connection they had. To me, that's not related to scale. That's simply the lack of intentionality, purpose and frankly, humanity that worries me about shifts from coworking as a "movement" to coworking as an "industry". I can speak from two perspectives about the size/scale issue: one of course is Indy Hall, which has grown from 1800 sq ft with 20 members to ~10,000 sq feet and hundreds of members without sacrificing quality. Not without challenges, of course, but we've grown stronger by actually dealing with them. The other is from the countless examples of spaces and communities that I've personally visited and experienced. I've seen success and failure in every quadrant of the size/quality matrix. Size can be a virtue or a vice, depending on how you choose to use it. -Alex -- /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Tue, Jul 30, 2013 at 2:37 PM, Matt Farley <[email protected]> wrote: > Thanks for sharing Alex. > > Do you think occurrences like this happen as bi-product of space size? As > communities continue to grow and move past self-sustaining and into > profibility, do they end up sacrificing individual relationships with > people for the sake of systematizing? Does this happen in smaller > communities too? > > I'm curious. > > On Tuesday, July 30, 2013 9:14:40 AM UTC-7, Alex Hillman wrote: >> >> As much as I appreciate the connectedness that we have in this community, >> one thing that I think is horribly missing from the global conversation >> about coworking is a deeper conversation with the communities of people who >> aren't owners, operators, and enthusiasts. >> >> I've gotten the sense that unless it's for praise, most coworking space >> members aren't comfortable speaking up as a part of this global community. >> >> I think that's a shame. Here's a glimpse of what we might hear if they >> did: >> >> https://medium.com/better-**humans/c9d8c69f4592<https://medium.com/better-humans/c9d8c69f4592> >> >> -Alex >> >> >> -- >> >> /ah >> indyhall.org >> coworking in philadelphia >> > -- > Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Coworking" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > -- Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
